Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

This amazing, chewy, addicting cookie is going to be my new "go to" cookie.  We were going on a vacation last week and so I went on the search for a new, delicious cookie to take on the road with us.  Oh my.  These are insanely good. Melanie at My Kitchen Cafe claimed that they were her favorite cookie EVER.  What an endorsement!  And I must say that I agree with her.  My husband kept talking all weekend about how amazing they were. The coconut and abundance of brown sugar make for one moist, perfectly chewy combination.  I froze a ziploc bag of them to take with us and they were even better frozen, in my opinion.  I hate how cookies are sometimes only good for a day before they start to taste old.  Well, this recipe was not that way at all!  We had a tupperware of them sitting out for a good three days and they almost tasted better as the days wore on.  This is quite a feat, in my opinion.  I was so grateful we doubled the batch because we all gobbled them up and were so sad when they were gone.  I will definitely be making these again and again!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies with Coconut from My Kitchen Cafe

1 cup oatmeal (not quick)
2 1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoons vanilla
1 cup coconut
12 oz. semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put the top 4 ingredients into a food processor or blender and blend about 30 seconds until coarse. Set aside. In a large bowl, beat the butter for 30 seconds until light in color. Add the sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Next, add the dry ingredients then add the coconut and chocolate chips. Shape cookie dough into balls and place on cookie sheet. Bake for 12-13 minutes. Let the cookies cool slightly before removing them from the pan to a wire rack. Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Tips:  I didn't have any dark brown sugar--so we just used light brown in it's place.  I'll let you know if the texture or taste is different once I make it again with the dark brown.  But they were pretty amazing when we made it!  Also, we doubled it and didn't want to use 4 cubes of butter--so replaced 1 cube with 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce and it was still great!