Malted Barley Chocolate Chip Cookies

So, I have begun brewing my own beer, which you can read about on my brewing blog at http://hobsonbrew.blogspot.com/

One of the side effects of brewing is the large quantities of spent malted barley that are left over. There are really two things for me to do with all of the grain: compost it, or cook it. Seeing as how I've already thrown a good amount in the compost bin, I thought the cooking strategy made some sense.

Side note - If you had chickens, you can supplement some portion of their feed with the grain, although I have heard that you want it to be a small portion. Check with a more knowledgeable source before feeding it to your livestock though.

With the grain left over from my recent ESB brew , I decided to find a good chocolate chip cookie recipe to use some of the grain. I found this post on HomeBrewTalk.com, and made some slight adaptations to it based upon the ingredients I had on hand.

1/3 cup peanut butter
2 T. butter
1 cup organic sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix above ingredients smooth then stir in next ingredients:

1 cup white rye flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cup malted barley grains
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup walnuts

Cook at 375 for 13-15 minutes

The cookies have a texture similar to oatmeal cookies, although you get some of the malted barley sweetness coming through. The taste is dependent upon the grain used, and the beer brewed, as the spent grain from a smoked porter will have a different flavor profile than a pale ale.