Chocolate-Coconut Oatmeal Chunkers

Oatmeal cookies, again! Did I ever mention that I liked oatmeal? To me, oatmeal makes a great basis for a wonderful cookie. Any additions to the oatmeal cookie dough can only be a culinary blessing. This is a chunky, tasty cookie.

Chocolate-Coconut Oatmeal Chunkers

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon orange zest
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 1/4 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
1 ½ cups shredded coconut
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup unskinned, toasted almonds, very coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs and blend. Beat in the vanilla, zests, and baking soda. Add flour and mix until just blended. Stir in oats, coconut, chocolate, and almonds.

Drop 1/4 cup balls of cookie dough onto greased baking sheets, keeping dough about 3 inches apart to allow for spreading. Gently pat down each cookie until about ½ inch thick. Bake for approximately 15 minutes or until golden.

Allow cookies to cool a minute before removing from baking sheets. Makes about 20 large cookies or 3 dozen smaller ones.

Ideas . . .
Reduce the amount of chocolate chips and add raisins or dried cranberries.

Instead of chocolate chips, try butterscotch ones.

For a festive cookie, use those colorful candy coated chocolate candies.

Dried apricots somewhere in the recipe is great.