So I have a soft spot in my heart for cookies.
I mean, who doesn’t, though? They’re soft and comforting and perfectly sweet and I would like one in my mouth right now, please. Drool. Especially if they’re filled with all sorts of tasty goodies like chocolate chips, walnuts, oats, and coconut. The ratio of dough to filling is basically 50:50 and that’s exactly how I like it. Raise your hand if you’re on the thick and chunky team!
If you couldn’t tell from my short intro, these Chunky Dark Chocolate Coconut Oat Cookies are just that. The chunk factor is out of control and I have to admit, they might just beat out the classic chocolate chip as my new favorite cookie.
The dough itself is so good that during my first batch, I made myself so sick from constantly picking out bites from the mixer that by the time the final product came out of the oven, I was basically in a sugar coma and passed out on the couch. Getting up to pull the baking sheet out of the oven was a major struggle.
Lucky for me, I have a pretty fast bounce-back rate and rallied to the great cause of cookie consumption. Someone should give me a medal, or something.
When I was younger, I was definitely a back-of-the-chocolate-chip-bag kinda cookie girl. My sister and I would rip open a bag and throw all the ingredients into the mixer. At that time, my baking prowess hadn’t developed and separating the wet and dry mixtures beforehand wasn’t much of a concern. Ain’t nobody got time for that, thought 8 year old Christine. I wanted cookies, and I wanted them as fast as possible!
Since then, I’ve realized that there is some wisdom behind certain baking techniques and those instruction aren’t there maliciously to slow you down; they have merit. Mixing together the dry ingredients helps get everything combined evenly in terms of the baking soda and salt and mixing till the dough is juuusst combined helps keep the gluten from over developing. The results from spending a few extra minutes of loving care is a chunky cookie that your friends and family will absolutely rave over.
Let’s take a moment to ponder some advice words from the king of cookies himself, the Cookie Monster:
“Today I will live in the moment, unless it’s unpleasant, in which case I will eat a cookie.”
I don’t think I’ve ever heard wiser words in my life.
Oh, and have you heard the latest gossip around town? Apparently, the Cookie Monster is now the Veggie Monster. WHAT. WHAT GIVES. Since this was definitely a rumor worth investigating, I spent 30 minutes on Google trying to get to the bottom of things. Here’s a riveting interview between the Cookie Monster and NBC Today host, Matt Lauer:
Cookie Monster: Me like fruit.
Matt Lauer: And there you have it. Cookie Monster likes fruit, and not cookies.
Monster: No! You members of the media blow story way out of proportion! Me still like cookies!
Lauer: Then why fruit?
Monster: Why not fruit? It delicious! And healthy. Me still eat cookies, like me world-famous for doing, but now me eat other things, too.
Fascinating.
But hey, I have good news. Coconut is a fruit. Fruit is healthy. My intense math calculations show that these cookies must be healthy as well. Right? Right.
Don’t question it. Make Cookie Monster proud and bake up a batch of these right now.