Chocolate Chip-Oatmeal-Coconut Cookies from Scratch

Continuing with my latest obsession with coconut, I had a hankering for chocolate chip cookies with coconut. And then I thought, "Why not add oatmeal?"

These cookies are absolutely delicious. And even better yet, they're as healthy as a cookie can get, since they're organic and made with whole wheat flour. And now that we know that butter is actually healthy--which I have known all along--even that is safe!

If it were up to me, I might have gone on to add nuts, some dried cherries, and even some chili powder. But alas, making a batch of cookies is never up to just one person when there are kids in the house--mostly because a batch of cookie dough makes a lot of cookies, and someone has to eat them. If you don't have a bunch of hungry kids around, you might want to cut this recipe in half!

Chocolate Chip-Oatmeal-Coconut Cookies

• 2 (yes, 2!) sticks butter, browned (that's butter melted till it's a bit brown)
• ¾ cups brown sugar
• ½ cup other sugar (I used coconut sugar)
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup oatmeal (I used steel-cut, but next time I'll use rolled oats)
• 1¼ cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 9-oz. package organic chocolate chips
• 1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut (organic!)
• Dash of salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350°.
2. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl (this will take a few minutes, since there is a lot of stuff to mix up).
3. Put a tablespoon of cookie batter for each cookie on a cookie sheet (I like to put parchment paper down because it makes it much easier to get the cookies off the tray).
4. Bake for roughly 10 minutes. The dough will flatten out nicely and make a gooey and crispy flat cookie, which is what I prefer.

For more from Maria Rodale, visit www.mariasfarmcountrykitchen.com