Crispy Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

A couple of weeks ago, I baked some coconut oatmeal cookies that ended up having a great flavor but were way too thin so I didn't blog about them.  Since the flavor combination was really good, I decided to look for a similiar recipe so that I could give these cookies another shot.  I adapted a recipe that I found on allrecipes, and they turned out much better! 

Even though Kevin isn't a big coconut fan, he ended up liking these a lot.  I love coconut flavored anything so of course I loved them :)  The only bad thing about baking cookies is that I can't resist them so they all get eaten way too fast!  This recipe will make about 28 cookies.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup crushed cornflakes cereal
1 cup rolled oats
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/3 cups flaked coconut
 
Directions:
 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar until smooth. Stir in the egg and vanilla. Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder; stir into the creamed mixture. Add the oatmeal, crushed cereal and coconut and mix until combined.

Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto a cookie sheet. Cookies should be about 2 inches apart (this is important because these will spread....also make sure you don't make your cookies too big because you don't want them to spread into one giant cookie in your pan!). Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Cookies should be light brown at the edges and on the bottom. Remove from baking sheets to cool on wire racks.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Here in Chicago, there's snow everywhere right now.  Our dog, Windy, is having an absolute blast playing fetch out in the snow!  In fact, when I opened the door to our deck so that I could take this picture outside in the sunlight, Windy immediately ran out and rolled all around in the 5 inches of snow that has accumulated out there.

Even though Windy is loving this, I didn't want to go out and run a bunch of errands until the roads get cleaned up a little more so I decided I would bake cookies this afternoon.  I decided to make these chocolate crinkle cookies, and they turned out really fudgy, sugary, and delicious.  I used this recipe from http://www.allrecipes.com/.

Ingredients:

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I actually used 1/4 cup oil and 1/4 cup melted butter)
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, mix together cocoa, white sugar, and vegetable oil. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into the cocoa mixture. Cover dough, and chill for at least 4 hours (or you can also stick in the freezer for about 45 minutes).

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Roll dough into one inch balls. Coat each ball in confectioners' sugar before placing onto prepared cookie sheets (this dough is pretty sticky so I found that the easiest way to do this was to scoop the amount of dough you want with a spoon and drop it into the powdered sugar without touching it.  Then, it's much easier to roll into a ball since it's coated with the powdered sugar).

3. Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Let stand on the cookie sheet for a minute before transferring to wire racks to cool.