Oatmeal Cookies with Dark Chocolate, Cranberries, & Coconut

So every time I make cookies and children (my own or others…it’s like they just know…) find out about it, they ask me two questions: 1) “Can I have one?!” and 2) “Do they have chocolate chips in them?!” Both are excellent questions; I pretty much always want a cookie and I’m leery of most cookies that don’t contain chocolate chips. Once one of my kids once bit into what he thought was a chocolate chip cookie and was, in fact, filled with raisins. And he burst into tears. He could have been the inspiration for this:

I love a good oatmeal raisin cookie, but when push comes to shove, when all the cookies in all the world are on the table, I’m going for the chocolate chips first.

But sometimes I need a grown-up cookie. Sometime my kids can take or leave (or just leave, that’s cool, too.) Something I can nibble on whilst sipping a Diet Coke, all alone (even if that takes place in the bathroom with the door locked).

This is one of those cookies–my kids will pass on the dark chocolate and the coconut and the weird red things that came from a plant,

so that’s cool. I modified this recipe from my very most favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe ever (which is also where the oatmeal raisin cookies came from. It’s like the little black dress of cookies, the irony being that these won’t help you fit into the little black dress in your closet.)

To get started, you’ll need butter, dark brown sugar, white sugar, an egg, and egg yolk, and vanilla extract.

I’m also throwing in 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract because it goes so well with the cranberries,

but if you don’t like/can’t have almond extract, you can just use 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. The other option is if you want a more pronounced coconut flavor, you could add 1/2 teaspoon of coconut flavor.

Preheat oven to 325. If desired, line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.

Place the the softened butter, sugar, and brown sugar in a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer and mix with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the egg, egg yolk, vanilla, and almond extracts and mix until combined.

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients (except the cranberries, coconut, and chocolate chips).

Add to the butter/sugar/egg mixture and mix until combined. Add the chocolate chips, coconut, and cranberries

Using a 1/4 cup ice cream scoop, drop the dough by the scoopful onto the prepared baking sheets.

You should be able to get about 6 cookies per sheet. Bake in the preheated oven for 12-15 minutes or until they begin to turn light brown around the edges. Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire cooling rack and cool completely. Makes about 16 giant cookies (or you can make more cookies that are smaller; you may need to adjust the bake time slightly).