Chocolate Chunk Coconut Cherry Oatmeal Cookies

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far away . . .  okay, not really.  It just feels that way.  In pre-internet times, I was still young.  And I tried the recipes printed on product packaging.  Sometimes with good results; sometimes, not so much.  It just so happens that I had very good results with a cookie recipe inside the lid of the Quaker Oatmeal canister.  Never thought about it much.  Took it for granted that it would always be there.  Threw in mix-ins to my heart’s desire.  But, one day, without paying much attention, I made the cookies for the billionth time.  And they were crispy instead of chewy.  I freaked out.  This was so not the cookie I knew and loved.  This was most definitely not the recipe.

So I called the phone number on the carton (yes, Virginia, real people still answered phones back in those days), and I asked if they had changed anything in their recipe.  Sure enough, they had, and the woman on the other end of the phone line graciously offered to mail me the old recipe.  A week later, I received the photocopied recipe and I’ve been happy ever since.  About my homemade oatmeal cookies, anyway.

It all seems so quaint now, the phone call, the envelope in the mail.  So much about the world has changed.  But not the occasional need for a really chewy oatmeal cookie.  Nope, that much, thankfully, is still exactly the same.

Chocolate Chunk Coconut Cherry Oatmeal Cookies
(adapted from Quaker Oats, circa 1980)

Ingredients
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
6 tablespoons vegetable shortening (these days I use non-hydrogenated)
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup sweetened shredded coconut
½ cup dried tart cherries (Trader Joes sells them, if you have one nearby)
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Beat together butter, shortening, sugars, egg, water, and vanilla until very creamy.  Combine oats, flour, salt, and baking soda, and add to wet mixture.  Mix well.  Stir in the coconut, cherries, and chocolate.  Drop by super-rounded tablespoonfuls (or form into ice cream scoop-sized spheres) onto greased cookie sheet (or silpat or parchment).  Bake for 18 to 20 minutes.  Cookies will be lightly browned.  Cool slightly on the cookie sheet before removing them to a cooling rack.  Do not over-bake, or cookies will not be chewy!

Tagged as: coconut, cookies, oatmeal cookies, quaker oats