Mouthful Cookies

Dawn of Vanilla Sugar recently made Coconut Cream Cheese Cookies and it got me thinking about a cookie recipe in Martha Stewart's Cookie Book that I flagged a while back. She asked me for the recipe and when I went to get the book out to email her the recipe, I started drooling all over again. Martha's recipe is titled White Chocolate Chunk Cookies, but they're so much more than that. I'll have to think of a new title for them...

I just happened to have 2 sticks of butter sitting out on the counter and I scoured the pantry to make sure I had everything else and I did! Well everything except for golden raisins, but I decided to use dried cranberries instead. And since my husband prefers pecans over walnuts, I used those too.

Have you ever had Cowboy Cookies, or Ranger Cookies? Well, these are very much like that. In fact they're right along the same lines. Both cookies contain oats, coconut, chocolate, dried fruit and nuts. They're very chunky and chewy and soft and filling. Everything a cookie should be.

White Chocolate CocoNut Oat Chunkers adapted from Martha Stewart

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups al-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp.baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 2 cups quality white chocolate chips or chunks
• 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans (about 4 oz)

Preheat to 350 F. Cream butter and sugars in a large bowl. Mix until smooth and creamy. Mix in eggs, one at a time until combined. Stir in vanilla.

Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl. Gradually stir in butter mixture until well combined. Stir in oats, chocolate, coconut, dried cranberries, and pecans.

Drop batter by heaping tablespoons onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Flatten slightly. Bake cookies until golden, 16-18 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheets for 2 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack. Cool completely.

Makes about 4 dozen

NOTE: I did not sift the dry ingredients. And I added the flour mixture to the butter and sugar, not the other way around. I made these with pecans and dried cranberries instead of walnuts and golden raisins that the original recipe called for.

I used a medium ice cream scoop to portion these out and they baked for exactly 16 minutes. They don't rise or spread much, so be sure to flatten them a bit before baking.

Also, today is my sister's 23rd birthday. Happy Birthday Sammy! I love you!