This is not a traditional Palestinian cookie, in case you were wondering. But this is my mother's kind of cookie. My mother loves cookies with "things" in them. Nuts, chocolate chips, oatmeal - they all make her cookies happy. The first time my mother ate these she told me that when she is old and dying, and she is ready to eat her last cookie, I must make her these. A little morbid, but I'll take it.
When I was was eight months pregnant, my dear friend invited me over to have a marathon cooking day in her kitchen, so that I could stock my freezer and she could give some meals away. I think we made eight lasagnas, four batches of enchilada mixes and four batches of these cookies in a mere three hours. It was a year before I wanted lasagna again. But these cookies, well, that was another story. We started out with a basic oatmeal cookie and couldn't stop adding ingredients to them. This is what we made and they were a howling success.
Dare I admit that I even won our local community dessert contest with these cookies? They are that yummy.
Salted Oatmeal Chocolate Coconut Cookies
1 cup salted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp almond extract
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans
*Sprinkle of sea salt
1. Heat oven to 375 F.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together melted butter, brown and white sugar, eggs and vanilla and almond extract until well blended.
3. Add flour, baking powder and salt, mix thoroughly until well blended.
4. Stir in remaining ingredients.
5. Using two large spoons, or a 1/4 cup measure, scoop out dough onto baking sheet. Flatten gently into three inch rounds. Sprinkle cookies very lightly with a little bit of good quality sea salt.
6. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until light golden brown around the edges but still pale in center and slightly soft. Remove from oven; immediately slide onto wire racks to cool.
Yield: about 2 dozen very large cookies.
But even if Rhoda loves these cookies just the way that they are, I am going to remake them. This, also is in the spirit of Rhoda, who served me "healthy" cookies all throughout my childhood. The only difference is that I am going to make a nourishing version of these. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for the make-over!
*Update: I did make over this recipe and you can find the recipe here. Dare I say that they are just as good and even more satisfying?
I'm very interested in seeing your make-over. Ramiel Nagel talks at great lengths about the ills of oats--and how difficult it is to remove the phytic acid from them once they have been prepared for commercial use. I really miss eating them and would love to know how to add them back into my diet in a healthful way.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking about soaking them and then dehydrating them. Usually we only eat our oatmeal soaked for breakfast. I only had a little bit of time to make a quick treat to bring to a friend's house, so that was why I made these.
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