Thursday, July 14, 2011

Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk and Coconut Cookies

I think I might have started a new thing for family birthdays. It's happened twice now, so it's at least on its way to becoming a thing. Since I bake a lot, and I really can't or shouldn't eat as much as I bake, I decided to send cookies to family members on their birthdays. I'm sure that now this is in writing, I'll not have time to send cookies for the next birthday. It might just be a when-I-have-time thing, and that way the cookies will always be a surprise, right? This cookie recipe is from The Greyston Bakery Cookbook, and coconut is added to the dough. I bought a bag of natural, unsweetened, shredded coconut and then worried that the cookies wouldn't be sweet enough since I didn't use the regular, sweetened stuff. I tasted the dough before I baked the cookies to see if I thought I should add more sugar, and it seemed good to me. Kurt was happy to taste test a cookie fresh out of the oven, and his reaction made me confident they were just fine. The cookies almost disappeared before I could box them up for shipping.

There was nothing unusual about making the cookie dough here. You could use chocolate chips, but the recipe called for chunks, so I chopped a bar of bittersweet chocolate into bits. At two different cooking classes I attended, I learned the same lesson from both Nick Malgieri and Alice Medrich. When you chop chocolate into chunks for cookies, you want to leave the chocolate dust behind. Nick Malgieri places the chopped chocolate in a sieve and shakes it to remove the pulverized stuff and keep the chunks. Alice Medrich used her hands to pull the chunks away from the dust on the cutting board. The fine, powdery chocolate muddies the look of the dough and using only the chunks results in a neater cookie. So, cream butter and brown sugar, add an egg and vanilla, sift flour, baking soda, and salt and add oatmeal then add that to butter mixture, then fold in shredded coconut and natural, unsweetened is fine and neat, dust-free, chocolate chunks. Drop into mounds on baking sheets and bake.

These were easy, straightforward cookies, but the addition of coconut to an oatmeal chocolate chunk cookie was new for me. It's an excellent addition, adding a little chewiness, and one I'll continue to include from now on. Actually, now that Kurt knows about this cookie flavor and will no doubt be requesting it frequently, I'll be baking a lot of these cookies.



26 comments:

  1. I'm a sucker for oatmeal cookies and those look absolutely scrumptious! A mouthwatering combo.

    Cheers,

    Rosa

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lisa - My birthday is in late-April. ;)

    Seriously, these look great and given my new found love of coconut, maybe I'll bake some of these with my parents this weekend when I visit them.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Those cookies look like they have the perfect texture - chewy, crispy, chunky. Sending out cookies for family birthdays sounds like a win-win situation to me!

    ReplyDelete
  4. So far i have baked only one kind of cookie and that's oatmeal cookies :) Love the crunchy texture it gives! Send some here too ;)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love everything about this cookies, oatmeal, coconut, chocolate, and of course homemade making it very special.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I haven't been overly fond of coconut in baked goods, mainly because I found them overly sweet. But this sounds so promising! Oatmeal Chocolate Chip is my husband's fave cookie and coconut will just take it up to another level. I am fortunate to have access to freshly grated coconut. Do you think I would need to adjust any other ingredients in cookie recipe to make up for the moisture in fresh coconut?

    BTW, the photo of the thick dough on the mixer paddle makes me pine for my KitchenAid, tucked away in a storage unit. 8-(

    ReplyDelete
  7. Nothing like a cookie right out of the oven indeed... I like the oatmeal and the coconut is a nice change-up. I particularly like coconut in its natural form - so happy to hear you went with the unsweetened!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Tracey: Lucky you to have access to fresh coconut! I think you could dry the freshly grated coconut by spreading it on a baking sheet and leaving in a low oven for a while. That might work better than trying to adjust other ingredients. Let me know if you try it!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I have made these cookies before and they were wonderful; thanks for reminding me of them, I will make them now, since I still have the coconut somewhere!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Those cookies look so homey and satisfying. I love cookies so much, but eating them in moderation is almost impossible for me, so I havent made any in a while. I just adore coconut :D
    *kisses* HH

    ReplyDelete
  11. I love coconut in cookies. I wouldn't mind receiving a dozen or more of these as a birthday gift.
    Thanks for the tip about the chocolate dust!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Yum! I'll take a dozen please : ) Delicious looking recipe for sure. I make cookies every week so I am going to have to try this recipe soon.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I love this tradition! My birthday is next month :) I've never thought to add coconut to a cookie like this before. Amazing!

    ReplyDelete
  14. These cookies look amazing! Lisa,xx gloria

    ReplyDelete
  15. This is my most favorite combination in the world. I thought it was just oatmeal chocolate chip...then...I saw these. I'm changed. These will be made!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Fantastic combination, Lisa, I'm going to have to try these soon. They look beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Who could ever resist those cookies!

    ReplyDelete
  18. I love oat cookies :) And yours look and sound really good :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Cookies are the perfect thing to send since they're so easily transportable! Coconut and chocolate...awesome combo!

    ReplyDelete
  20. I don't often pair coconut with chocolate but that is going to change right now! I love a chewy cookie...my birthday is coming up soon...tee-hee.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Oh, Lisa...these look wonderful! So good to know about the chocolate dust...never knew that! What a nice tradition to start sending cookies for family birthdays. Are we second or third cousins?

    ReplyDelete
  22. I missed this post in all the hub bub of my parents' visit. These cookies look and sound terrific. The Greyston book is such a treasure trove, isn't it?

    ReplyDelete
  23. Delightful! I love a good cookie, and these look suburb. Wonderful tradition you've started, I'll give a good months warning for my birthday then shall I? Lol

    ReplyDelete
  24. This is one of my very favorite cookie recipes from a very favorite book. My birthday is next week! Just saying...

    ReplyDelete
  25. without realizing it, i've taken to adding coconut to every batch of oatmeal-containing cookies i make. they just seem to complement each other.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Epicurious has a similar recipe. My family...I...We've all fallen deeply in love with these cookies. Coconut truly does something magical when paired with oats. I've been meaning to make another batch. Thank you for the reminder.

    ReplyDelete

Blogging tips