I love making cookie dough. I love setting out my butter the evening before to get soft. I love the mise en place of the dry ingredients. I love creaming the butter and sugar together until fluffy, and then the smell of the vanilla when it is added to the mix. I love making cookie dough. What I don’t love is making the cookie balls once the cookie dough has formed. You could say, the actual cookie part of the dough making process is not my jam. (Kind of like the folding part of the laundry process, also not my jam!) You have to create the dough balls to be the same shape and size so they bake evenly. Then your hands get messy, so then everything in your kitchen gets messy after you touch it—cough—OCD—cough. Most of time (well every other time before this) I soldier through the dough rolling with my trusty cookie scooper in hand and music playing in my ears. However, when I was making cookie dough last week, I thought to myself, “What would happen if I just scraped all of this dough onto the baking sheet, made the width uniform, and baked it?” I was already leaving out the flour (read: gluten) in an attempt to make gluten-free chocolate chip cookies, and gluten-free baked items already have a tendency to go for more of a crunchy texture. As I was rolling the cookie dough into the pan, I felt like I was making Peppermint Bark again, so I decided that if it turned out that’s what I would name it. Well, I am happy to say not only did it turn out, but it was delicious! And like Peppermint Bark you get to choose your serving size—whether it be a handful or a pan-full! There’s no bite in this bark—it is very nice to your taste buds!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of butter, 1 stick (softened)

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• 1/2 cup of sugar

• 1 egg

• 1 tsp. vanilla

• 1 1/2 cups of oats

• 1 cup oat flour—which you can make simply by milling oats in your blender until powdery

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 tsp espresso powder

• 1 cup of chocolate pieces (dealer’s choice of wafers, chips, or chopped chunks!)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. In a stand mixer, cream together sugars and butter, add in egg and beat until well combined and fluffy, and then add vanilla.

3. In a bowl combine oats, oat flour, salt, baking soda, and espresso powder, stir to combine.

4. Turn the stand mixer back on a gentle stir and slowly add in the dry ingredients. Once dough has combined, add in the chocolate of your choice and mix in!

5. In a greased and lined sheet pan, press dough into a flat rectangle—you can use your hands or put parchment paper on top of the dough and roll out with a rolling pin! Flaten until dough is about 1/4 inch thick (or just under the sides of the sheet pan!). I used a half sheet pan, if you need a size reference.

6. Bake for 15-20 minutes—until golden brown and the center is set!

7. Let cool and then break into your desired size pieces for serving! And yes, if you see the full sheet as your preferred serving size, I affirm that choice.