Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Coconut Cookies

I have just been swooning for coconut cookies lately, I can't explain it. For so long I have ignored this wonderful food but no more, now I truly appreciate the taste and texture of this amazing food. I keep trying new recipes, especially cookies, to test this fruit and I've yet to find a cookie or bread that had coconut that I didn't like. This new cookie, found on Epicurious.com, was no exception.

I followed the recipe almost exactly only changing a few things. The main differences were simple changes, how the nuts were prepared, the kind of chocolate used, the baking temperature and the baking time. I brought these cookies to my book group the night I baked them and one of the girls who said she usually doesn't like coconut had two. I count that as success in my book.

Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Coconut Cookies

Ingredients

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 1/4 cups old-fashioned oats

1 1/2 cups packaged finely shredded unsweetened coconut

12 oz semisweet chips (or chunks to stick with the name)

3/4 cup almonds with skins (I used ground almonds)

Directions

1.) Preheat oven to 350°F.

2.) Beat together butter and sugars in a bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until fluffy. Add eggs and beat until just blended, then beat in vanilla, baking soda, and salt. Add flour and mix at low speed until just blended. Stir in oats, coconut, chocolate, and almonds.

3.) Arrange 1/4-cup mounds of cookie dough about 3 inches apart on 2 lightly buttered large baking sheets (about 8 cookies per sheet), then gently pat down each mound to about 1/2 inch thick. Bake 9-11 minutes.

4.) Cool cookies on sheets 1 minute, then transfer to racks to cool completely.

Yields approx. 2 dozen