Monday, February 25, 2008

Vi French’s Chocolate Peanut-butter Oatmeal Cookies


It has been brought to my attention that we haven’t had any good recipes lately. If you have a sweet, chocolate, peanut butter, oatmeal cookie tooth, you’ll like these. They are kinda‘ like a cross between a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup and an Oatmeal cookie.

This recipe is an old South Fork of the Eel recipe, and was given to me by a dear friend, Viola French. She and her husband, Percy, were the founders of French’s Resort and Campground in Piercy. You know it as the current battleground for the “Reggae on the whatever it’s Currently Called”.

I kept Vi’s refrigeration working for many years. After they sold out, I kept the heat-pump working at her house. She was a dear lady that limited herself to few pets. One that I remember was a little house finch that had broken its wing and she nursed it back to health, but it was “unable to take care of itself” so she kept it as a pet. Any of us would have traded places with any of her pets.

I guess I was her pet Refrigeration Man, because she gave me her favorite cookie recipe. She liked it because you could whip it all up on the stove top, and spoon it out onto a piece of wax paper, and be done. It seems like there was always a fresh batch of those cookies on the counter whenever I came to service her heat pump.

Vi French’s Chocolate Peanut-butter Oatmeal Cookies

First ingredients:
½ cup milk
1 cube butter (¼ pound)
2 tablespoons cocoa
1½ cups sugar

Second ingredients:
2½ cups quick oats
½ cup crunchy peanut-butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

Boil the first ingredients for exactly one-and-one-half minutes, then stir in the rest of the ingredients, stir well, then spoon out onto a sheet of wax paper. (What could be simpler?)

It takes an hour or two for them to set up. But, we usually have them eaten before that happens.

Ekovox should chop up some drained maraschino cherries, and stir them in with the last ingredients, for that Cherry-a-let flavor. Here is some music to play while you are making your cookies. Click here: Cherry Chocolate Rain.

If you don’t try these cookies you are missing a real treat!!!

11 comments:

Greg said...

Would Viola enjoy that video, Ernie?

Ernie Branscomb said...

Nope!

Would you belive that is a Dr.Pepper Comercial?

Anonymous said...

guess who this anonymous is, I have eaten some of thse cookies.

Ernie Branscomb said...

Okay, I'll bite!

Did you eat them at Vi's house or mine?

Better yet, are they worth making? I need an outside review.

Anonymous said...

I ate them at your house. Keep guessing.

Ernie Branscomb said...

How long ago?

Carol said...

What an interesting recipe! I bet one could improvise and substitute almond butter for peanut butter. I may have to give it a try!

Anonymous said...

I can remember making those cookies when I was in Junior High School right before coming down with the stomach flu. Haven't been able to make them again and, casting no aspersions on the end product, the sight of the recipe kind of makes me sick.

Plus, they are NOT chocolate, they are cocoa and those are two quite different ingredients, indeed. Now if you put some chocolate chips in them. . . .nah, I still couldn't do it.

McKris

Ernie Branscomb said...

They sure taste chocolate, I got my wife some pure organic cocoa. Right on the container it says; "Dagoba Organic Chocolate" then below that it says "Organic Cocoa Powder". It's from the Dominican Republic.

Carol said...

cocoa is chocolate

Anonymous said...

Okay, I stand corrected about the cocoa/chocolate and I did not mean to say that the cookies were/are not good--just that the timing was bad when I made them.

Not exactly a fond memory of childhood, but one I can remember and that's worth a lot some days!

McKris