One Recipe, Two Totally Different Cookies

Joanne Fluke's Gingerbread Cookie Murder  
 

  

(and/or Chewy Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies)  

These chewy cookies were a big hit with my family and coworkers. I did make one change from the original recipe as it is written below. Please read all the way through the recipe and the notes at the end before baking.  Hopefully this will answer any questions you may have.

YOU WILL NEED:

1 1/2 cups melted, salted butter (3 sticks)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar (white)
1 1/2 cups brown sugar (pack it down in the cup when measuring)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large eggs, beaten
3 cups quick cooking oatmeal
3 cups all-purpose flour (pack it down in the cup when measuring)
3 cups sweetened dried cranberries
3 cups flaked coconut (pack it down in the cup when measuring)

**The author suggests chopping the coconut - after measuring - in a food processor or with a knife to make the coconut pieces shorter. So they don’t get stuck in your teeth.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  
Rack in the middle position. 


DIRECTIONS: 

Melt the butter in a microwave safe bowl for 2 minutes on HIGH. Let it sit for one minute, stir, and if it’s not melted, microwave it for and additional 30 seconds.  Take the melted butter out of the microwave and set it on the counter to cool. 

In a large bowl combine the white sugar and the brown sugar.

Add the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and vanilla extract. Stir it in well.

Add the beaten eggs and stir until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Cup your hands around the bowl with the butter. If it’s cool enough so it won’t cook the eggs, add it slowly to your bowl, beating all the while. Mix until it’s thoroughly incorporated.

Add the quick cooking oatmeal in one-cup increments, mixing it in completely before adding the next increment.

Add the flour in one-cup increments, mixing it in completely before adding the next increment.

Mix in the sweetened, dried cranberries, adding them slowly to your bowl.  Mix until they’re evenly distributed.

Mix in the coconut. Stir until it’s thoroughly incorporated.

Spray your cookie sheets with nonstick spray, or line them with parchment paper.

Drop the cookie dough by mounded teaspoonfuls onto the baking sheets.  Bake no more than 12 cookies per standard-size sheet.

Press the cookies down a bit with the blade of a spatula or the palm of your  impeccably clean hand. They do spread out a bit in the oven, but not too much.

Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or until nicely browned on top

Cool on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes and then remove the cookies to a wire rack to cook completely.

Yield: Approximately 10 dozen cookies.

  
**Author's notes:

You can make two totally different types of cookies from one batch. Here’s how: Divide your dough into 2 equal parts before you add the cranberries or coconut.

Add 1 1/2 cups sweetened dried cranberries and 1 1/2 cups coconut to the first part of your dough. Stir them in. Bake according to the above directions. This will yield 5 dozen Chewy Coconut Cranberry Cookies.

Add 1 1/2 cups miniature chocolate chips and 1 1/2 cups coconut to the other half of the dough. Stir them in. Bake according to the above directions. This will yield 5 dozen Chewy Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies.

You can also add a cup of chopped nuts to either half or both if you wish for and even chewier texture.

Kathryn’s Notes:

The recipe calls for packing the flour down when measuring. I know, I know, this is what you are told to never do. What I did was to just scoop the measuring cup right in the flour container and then level it off. It seemed to work okay.

As for the coconut. The recipe didn’t specify sweetened or unsweetened coconut so I used what I had, sweetened. I also tried chopping it in the food processor like the recipe states. I don’t think it really made much difference, but then I don’t think my coconut strands were all that long to begin with.

I decided to split the dough and make the two types of cookies. You can eyeball it or measure it out. This works out to about 3 cups of dough per batch.

I used the parchment paper instead of spray on the pans and love it.  Anything to make clean up easier. I was able to just lift the parchment paper, with the cookies still on it, right over to the cooling rack.

I use cookie scoops to portion out my cookie dough. I have two sizes.  The smaller one holds 4 teaspoons of liquid and the larger one holds 6 teaspoons liquid. I like a larger cookie that you eat in bites (rather than a one bite cookie), so I used the larger scoop. So the cookies would
bake properly I baked them for 12 minutes. I have an electric oven and use insulated baking sheets. I also noted that any little sticky-outy bits of coconut tended to get over brown. To prevent this I just tucked them back into the cookie when flattening the dough with my hand.
 

My Rating:

For ease of preparation - 
5 out of 5 cookbooks (But only a 3 or 4 out of 5 if you chop the coconut and divide the dough. It gets messy.)
 

For time start to finish - 
3 out of 5 cookbooks (Baking sheet after sheet of cookies can get time consuming.)
 

For taste - 
5 out of 5 cookbooks

 

Is this something I would make again?  Yes.