Brown Sugar Oatmeal Coconut Chewies

So, now that we’ve got you all set up with your oven thermometer and your silpat liners, let’s bake something!

As I’ve mentioned a million times, I really love to bake. Cookies are my favorite things to bake, and I have quite a number of recipes that are in my regular rotation. If you are looking for a true measure of my baking-related insanity, I will tell you that I personally baked all of the favors that were distributed at my wedding. For just over 200 people. No one ever said I was sane.

I’m sure you’ll be shocked to hear this… but I really like taking cookie recipes and tweaking them to suit my personal preferences. For the record, I like my cookies chewy (crispy cookies are an abomination), I like them small-to-medium sized, I don’t enjoy large chunks of chocolate (I prefer to use the mini chocolate chips, when I use chocolate), and white chocolate is a foodstuff whose existence I staunchly refuse to acknowledge. My dedication to the perfect cookie is such that I will willingly make several batches of a recipe, tweaking ingredients here and there, until I am satisfied. Thankfully, I work in an office full of dudes, and a plate containing 4 dozen cookies will last approximately 6-7 minutes in our office kitchen… so I have no problem getting rid of experimental batches.

These cookies are a recipe that I came across (on Pinterest, duh) sometime last fall. It was almost a perfect marriage of two of my favorite cookie recipes (an oatmeal cookie, which I usually add heath bits to, and a chewy coconut cookie), so I decided to change a couple small things up – and I LOVED the result. These cookies made it on to my yearly list of Treats I Shall Bake For Christmas, which is kind of a big deal. Just WRITING about them is making me hate myself for not bringing some to work as a snack today!

Anywho, since the Southern belle herself will be flying in to visit me this evening (kindly refrain from reminding her that it’s SNOWING here, as this news has already sent her into a fit of rage), I did some baking to welcome her. Crist has been known to threaten my personal safety when she feels that it’s been too long since she received a shipment of baked goods, so I knew better than to invite her into my house without freshly-baked cookies to serve. Please also note that these cookies have a long, crazy name – as any good Southern woman does.

Brown Sugar Oatmeal Coconut Chewies
1 cup butter, slightly softened
1 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup quick cooking oats
1 1/2 cup shredded, sweetened coconut

1.) Preheat oven to 350°. Cream together butter and sugars, until they are well-combined.

2.) Add one egg and mix until it’s fully incorporated. Then add the second egg, and the vanilla, and mix until everything is evenly incorporated.

3.) Add baking soda, baking powder, and salt to the wet mixture. Mix until well-distributed.

4.) Add about 1/2 your flour, and mix until the flour is JUST incorporated. Scrape down the sides of your bowl, and then add the second half of your flour, mixing until just incorporated. You don’t want to overmix here, or you’ll end up with tough cookies.

5.) Add oats and coconut, mixing until they’re (say it with me) JUST incorporated.

6.) Roll dough into balls, or use a cookie scoop to evenly portion out the dough (I have no idea what size the cookie scoop is that I use, in terms of ounces or tablespoons or anything – but it’s about 1.25″ across, and makes a cookie that’s about 2.5″ across). If you are rolling the dough by hand, you’ll want a ball that is a little over an inch in diameter, and this should give you about 6 dozen cookies.

7.) Place the dough balls on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silpat liner, leaving about 2″ between each cookie. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the edges are veeeery lightly brown, but the center is still light in color and puffy. This will result in a very moist, very chewy cookie.

8.) Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes, then move them to a cooling rack. Once they’re fully cooled, they can be stored in a ziploc bag or airtight container for up to a week.

These honestly might be my favorite cookie ever. Super chewy, lots of great coconut flavor, not too overwhelmingly sweet or heavy. I have been known to plow through half a dozen of these bad boys in half an hour, and I am not ashamed to admit it.

For my company’s Christmas potluck, I made these into cookie sandwiches. I made a cream cheese frosting (two 8oz bars of cream cheese, softened, 1 stick of butter, softened, 1 cup of powdered sugar – blend well, and add more powdered sugar if you don’t think it’s sweet enough!), and just piped a big blob of the frosting onto the underside of one cookie, and sandwiched it with a second! They were SO. GOOD. Everyone in my office loved them, and I would definitely make them again.

I can hear you adding these to your To Do list already,
Tina