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You are here: Home / cookies / Coconut and Dried Cherry Oatmeal Cookies

Coconut and Dried Cherry Oatmeal Cookies

December 20, 2010 By Laura 12 Comments

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Oatmeal raisin cookies have never done much for me. They are my mom’s favorite cookie, so I ate them plenty growing up, but I never lowed the raisins and the overall cookie I found blah.


Enter Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies by Alice Medrich, my new favorite cookbook. I have not made one dud yet out of Alice Medrich’s new cookie book–check out the “Hawaiian” Wedding Cookies and Mint Chocolate Sandwiches for other examples. So I went browsing while looking for a slightly less unhealthy cookie for my daughter’s kindergarten class (which ironically they never got to try because Sammy came down with the stomach flu). I was contemplating the oatmeal raisin cookies when I noticed Medrich’s suggested “upgrade” of coconut in place of the nuts. Now that intrigued me–and made it nut allergy friendly. I swapped in dried cherries for the raisins, and a new favorite cookie in this household was born. Sammy got sick, I did not want to send any cookies in for fear they were germy, and I figured they’d go to waste among the myriad of other Holiday cookies around.


Nope. John and I especially devoured them. The slightly tart edge of the cherries compliments the coconut and cinnamon perfectly. These cookies are, in a word, addictive. We actually ate all of them before any of the other cookies.


Coconut & Dried Cherry Oatmeal Cookies
 
Print
Adapted from Alice Medrich
Author: TheSpicedLife
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: Cookies
Ingredients
  • 2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
  • ¼ cup water
  • 1 cup AP flour
  • ¼ cup white whole wheat flour
  • ½ t baking soda
  • 1 t cinnamon
  • ¼ t freshly ground nutmeg
  • ½ lb (2 sticks) unsalted butter
  • ¾ cup (5¼ oz) packed light brown sugar
  • ½ cup (3½ oz) granulated sugar
  • 1 t vanilla
  • ½ t salt
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 cup coconut chips (shaved or flakes)
  • 1 cup chopped dried tart cherries
Instructions
  1. Place the oats in a small bowl and sprinkle them with the water. Set aside.
  2. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg and set aside.
  3. Cut the butter into chunks and met it in a large saucepan over low heat. When it is melted, remove it form the heat and stir in the sugars, vanilla and salt. Add the egg and stir it briskly. Stir in the flour mixture until it is mostly moistened. Then stir in the oats, coconut and cherries. Cover the dough with wax paper (press down) and chill for 2 hours, or, even better, overnight.
  4. Preheat the oven to 350 F. If you are baking 2 sheets at a time, position the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven.
  5. Do not line your cookie sheets with anything nonstick--if you prefer not to use the sheets bare line them with foil, dull side up.
  6. You can bake these cookies up large (about 2 tablespoons of dough) or small (1 tablespoon). I would count on 12 small cookies per sheet or 6 large. I did small because they were for small kids. Bake for 12-15 minutes for large cookies and 10-12 minutes for small cookies, until the cookies are golden brown on top. If baking 2 sheets at a time, rotate from top to bottom and front to back halfway through. Cool the cookies for at least 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack (longer if they don't hold together).
3.2.2708

 

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Filed Under: cherries, Coconut (flaked), cookies, Dried Cherries, dried fruit, oats Tagged With: cherries, coconut, coconut flakes, cookies, dried cherries, dried fruit, nut-free, nutfree, oatmeal, oats

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Comments

  1. Joanne says

    December 21, 2010 at 6:27 am

    Who would have thought that such a simple change-up could make such a world of difference! These sound delicious.

    Reply
  2. Tracy says

    December 21, 2010 at 9:50 pm

    I have a recipe for an oatmeal cookie that has coconut. It was amazing what the coconut did to the flavor and texture — and I'm not a huge coconut fan.

    Reply
  3. Diethood.com says

    December 22, 2010 at 10:02 pm

    I also was never a fan of oatmeal cookies…the addition of coconut might change my mind!

    Reply
  4. Island Vittles says

    December 23, 2010 at 5:01 am

    These sound really tasty! Cherries + Coconut = YUM! Merry Christmas. Theresa

    Reply
  5. Cindy Waffles says

    December 25, 2010 at 11:12 am

    Thanks for the recipe. I'm a big fan of oatmeal cookies!

    Happy Holidays to you!

    Reply
  6. briarrose says

    December 27, 2010 at 2:16 pm

    I've never been super fond of the raisin addition to oatmeal cookies…I love the cherry idea though. Nom!

    Reply
  7. Raven says

    April 17, 2012 at 12:23 am

    I just made these! They’re delicious!

    Reply
    • Laura says

      April 17, 2012 at 12:49 am

      Yay! Thanks for letting me know!

      Reply
  8. Karen says

    December 14, 2013 at 7:56 am

    Where do you get coconut chips? Can I use unsweetened flake coconut instead, do you think? And why the no non-stick?

    Reply
    • Laura says

      December 14, 2013 at 1:14 pm

      Coconut chips, to me anyway, are the coconut flakes. I fixed it to make it more clear, and yes you can definitely use cococnut flakes. And to keep the cookies from spreading too much, re non stick.

      Reply
  9. ANTONINA says

    December 25, 2014 at 3:30 pm

    I ate at least 8 of these myself, and I made them biiiiiigg. Everyone who I shared them with loved them. I followed the recipe exactly as stated. I feel good about lowering my cholesterol by eating more oatmeal! And raisins are fruit, right?

    Reply
    • Laura says

      December 26, 2014 at 3:41 am

      Yay! Thanks for letting me know–and yes, definitely health food! 😀

      Reply

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Hi! I’m Laura and I am a recovering history major who has re-channeled all of my passion for learning about the history of different countries to learning about their food culture. That doesn’t mean every dish on here is strictly authentic, but it does mean that even my adaptations are not undertaken lightly. My goal is to show you–by doing–that these dishes are possible in your kitchen. Including desserts because I have quite the sweet tooth! Read More…

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