Oatmeal Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies - Try #2

So as promised, I finally found time to try Smitten Kitchen's oatmeal cookie recipe to see if they are as thick and chewy as promised.  I am a big fan of this blog (see broccoli slaw!), and had high hopes that this could be my perfect cookie.  Obviously I made some adjustments, as the original recipe is for oatmeal raisin, and I'm dreaming of the perfect oatmeal coconut chocolate chip cookie.  First of all, I eliminated the cinnamon.  I also subbed chocolate chips for the raisins, and replaced 1/2 cup of oats with coconut (as opposed to just adding coconut) so that the cookie wouldn't dry out too much.  And finally, I make my cookies pretty small (so that I can eat more!), so I dropped the cooking time. 

And the verdict?  Much improved over the first attempt - they were indeed thick and chewy, even after cooling.  But they are still not quite as dense and rich as the cookies in my head.  If anyone out there has any ideas, please let me know!  I'm trying to figure out how to make those cookies that almost taste like raw dough even after they are cooked.

One real benefit to this recipe was chilling the dough - it meant I could make the dough during the munchkin's oh so brief nap, and have it waiting to scoop and bake for fresh cookies after dinner when I was exhausted!  In fact, I kept it in a container in the fridge and had hot cookies on 3 separate occasions this week.  It was just as convenient as store-bought packaged dough, but without all of the scary ingredients!  I love the idea of scooping and freezing to be able to keep these around even longer, too.  According to Deb, frozen dough only takes an extra couple of minutes to bake.

So overall I'd definitely recommend these, but I haven't quite finished my search for my dream recipe!

Oatmeal Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Smitten Kitchen

1/2 cup (1 stick or 4 ounces) butter, softened
2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 teaspoon salt (original recipe calls for 1/4; Deb uses up to 1/2 tsp, so I decided to split the difference)
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup shredded coconut (unsweetened)
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda and salt together. Stir this into the butter/sugar mixture. Stir in the oats, coconut, and chocolate chips.

Chill the dough for at least 1 hour.  I loaded the whole batch into a storage container and put it in the fridge, but Deb also suggests scooping the dough onto a sheet and chilling the whole thing.  I definitely do not have room in my fridge for that, but if you do it might be worth it - the dough is a bit hard to scoop when chilled.  If you are going to freeze the dough, you will definitely want to scoop first!  If you skip the chilling step, your cookies will not be as thick.

The cookies should be 1-2 inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet (the chilled cookies do not spread very much at all).  I used a 1 tbsp cookie scoop (approx 1 inch cookies), and my cookies needed to bake for 8-10 minutes.  Take them out when the edges and top are JUST starting to brown.  They may seem undercooked on top but will set up more out of the oven.  Let them sit for a few minutes before taking them off the baking sheet.  Theoretically they are supposed to finish cooling on a rack, but in my house this is the perfect time to start eating :)

Makes approximately 2.5-3 dozen small cookies