oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with chocolate almond butter buttercream

I am so excited to share this recipe with y'all. 

It's ridiculous. 

It's delicious.

I was told it could get me married.

A medical doctor said that so it must be true.


hahahahahahahahahaha [Picture me cackling because the idea of cookies finding a husband is RIDICULOUS. Does that happen for people? That's not a real thing, right?]

A while back, I had posted on Instagram that I was attempting to create/find/mash-up The Best Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe ever. I had two comments from my favorite McF siblings:
Ask Renée.

I'd had Renée's cookies. They are The Best. I got my grubby paws on that recipe and then I took the Holy Grail of Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie recipes and messed around with it a little [because it's me]. Then I threw a little chocolate almond butter buttercream in the middle and hauled those little babies to work.

They came out pretty baller if I do say so myself.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
-1 cup butter
-1/4 cup almond butter
-1/2 cup sugar
-1/2 cup brown sugar
-2 eggs
-1 tsp vanilla
-1 1/2 cups flour
-1 tsp baking soda
-1 tsp salt
-2 cups oats [I like 1 cup instant + 1 cup old fashioned]
-2 cups chocolate chips [Do you have bags of all the chips sitting around? Half milk and half semi-sweet please. If you're going to do just one, I'd go with semi-sweet.]

Preheat oven to 375. Beat butter, almond butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients. Add the dry to the wet ingredients until just mixed. Gently stir in the chocolate chips. Using a cookie scoop, I prefer the 1.5 Tbsp size for small cookies since you're putting two together, place on a pan lined with parchment or silpats. Bake for 8-10 minutes [I find that 9 minutes is perfection] or until the bottom of the cookies are just browned.

My current favorite almond butter, it's from Costco and totally affordable at $10 for 27 oz.

Chocolate Almond Butter Buttercream
-1/2 cup butter
-1/2 cup almond butter
-1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
-1/2 tsp almond extract
-1/2 tsp salt
-3 cups powdered sugar
-1/2 cup cocoa powder
-3-5 Tbsp milk/cream/almond milk

Beat together the butter, almond butter, vanilla, almond extract, and salt. Sift the powdered sugar and cocoa powder and slowly mix in to the butter mixture. Add 3-5 Tbsp milk/cream/almond milk until the consistency is thick, but spreadable.

I find that almond butter is more oily than commercial peanut butter, so you'll want to adjust the liquid you add to the frosting accordingly. Once the frosting is at your desired thickness, I like to put it in a gallon-size ziplock to quickly pipe it on to the cookies. Just place the bag in a tall glass and fold over the top. When it's filled, you can unroll the top and move the frosting to the corner. Cut the corner of the bag [start small, you can cut more if you need to!] and pipe a large dallop between two cookies. 

I think these cookies keep best in the refrigerator, but are at their tastiest at room temperature.

ENJOY!

xoxo