Coconut & Dried Cherry Oatmeal Cookies

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, 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. (P.S. Don't forget that December 22 is the last day to enter my Muir Glen giveaway!)




Coconut & Dried Cherry Oatmeal Cookies
Adapted from Alice Medrich's Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy

2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1/4 cup water
1 cup AP flour
1/4 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
1/4 t freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 lb (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup (5 1/4 oz) packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup (3 1/2 oz) granulated sugar
1 t vanilla
1/2 t salt
1 large egg
1 cup coconut chips (shaved)
1 cup chopped dried tart cherries

Place the oats in a small bowl and sprinkle them with the water. Set aside.
Whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg and set aside.

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.


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.

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.

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).