I regularly bake cakes and loaves of bread but very rarely cookies. Maybe it’s because you can get such a wide range in the supermarket; or perhaps it’s because they can be fiddly to make. Anyway, I really fancied something different so I made a batch of these oatmeal coconut cookies.
THEY WERE ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS! Pah to supermarket-bought from now on!
I found the recipe in old favourite cookbook, Baking – Simple Cookery Series.
Oatmeal Coconut Cokies
Ingredients
- 225 g/8oz butter or margarine
- 125 g/4oz soft light brown sugar
- 125 g/4oz caster sugar
- 1 large egg lightly beaten
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 225 g/8oz plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 125 g/4oz rolled oats
- 75 g/3oz desiccated coconut
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4, 10 minutes before baking. Lightly grease a baking sheet
- Cream together the butter and sugars until light & fluffy
- Gradually stir in the egg and vanilla essence and beat until well blended
- In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda
- Add to the butter & sugar mixture and beat together until smooth. Fold in the rolled oats and coconut with a metal spoon or rubber spatula (I found the mix too stiff for a rubber spatula)
- Roll heaped teaspoonfuls of the mixture into balls and place on the prepared baking sheet about 5cm/2ins apart and flatten each ball slightly with the heel of the hand
- Transfer to the preheated oven and bake for 12-15 minutes, until just golden
- Remove from the oven and transfer the biscuits to a wire rack to completely cool
Despite being a greedy pair, we can't polish off 40 cookies in the 3 or 4 days that they remain fresh. I cooked half the batch and put the other post-flattened, pre-baked cookies in the freezer. I put them on a wire rack to freeze (they'd stick like glue to a baking sheet if used) then transferred them to a zip-lock freezer bag. To make the next batch just allow the cookies to defrost for about half an hour before baking as normal.