Oatmeal Cocoa Nib Cookies

For my birthday a sweet friend gave me a jar of cocoa nibs and a jar of cocoa beans.  She painted the tops of the jars with chalk board paint so she could label them and then attached peacock feathers to each.  Super adorable gift!  A few days later a can labeled "Theo's" showed up in my mailbox.  My sister sent me a can of roasted cocoa nibs from her favorite chocolate factory.  (She's going to take me there when I venture north to visit her!!!  I should probably be prepared to send a flat rate box home to myself.)

Before my birthday I'd heard of cocoa nibs but I'd never seen one, never tasted one, never touch or smelled one.  Now I was desperate to figure out how to use them so I did A LOT of reading.  First thing, they MUST be roasted.  If not they will taste bitter.  Roasting them is easy, just put them on a baking sheet in a 350F oven for a few minutes, until they are darker and smell amazing.  My oldest little sister (who sent me the Theo's) puts them on her oatmeal.  My middle little sister and I made berry crepes (store bought crepes), topped with homemade whipped cream and sprinkled with cocoa nibs.  It was incredible.

 And then came the cookies!  I've made these twice, once as minis and once as regular cookies.   Minis were for Christmas trays I brought to hubby's office.  I had plenty of leftovers so they went to New Orleans for Christmas.  The regular size cookies were for an event with friends which ended up getting snowed out.  Here in North Texas we don't deal so well with frozen conditions on roads, I mean, come one, it's Texas.  So, those went to hubby's office as well.

These cookies are delicious!  The little bit of crunch from the roasted nibs is a special treat, it gives the chocolate flavor without the predictable texture of chips.  I based the recipe on Shirley's cinnamon oatmeal cookies but I took out the raisins and put in the same amount of nibs.  It's too similar to hers for me to post the recipe, if I switch it up more in the future I'll post it.  Her recipes are just so .... perfect that it's hard for me to want to change a thing.

If you ate any of these I'd love to know what you think.

Enjoy.