Pantry Cookies

I have mentioned before, in the past, that Thursdays can tend to be full days. Of course, they are full of good things, but still require a bit of skilled juggling at times. Well, this Thursday, on top of the regular Mom’s group at church, and my daughter’s volunteering, I also took a bit of a drive and drove my son back to college. I then returned to cook dinner and host our home group from church with my family. Upon returning home I decided to make these cookies in honor of one of our friend’s birthdays that happened to fall on the evening of Bible study. I kept them a bit lower in sugar than traditional cookies and also added extra “good for you” items like oats, coconut and almonds. The cookies were a hit, even with our little one.

Another feature of these cookies is that many substitutions could be made. If you don’t prefer sliced almonds, try walnuts, peanuts or pecans. If you prefer white chocolate in place of semi-sweet, add that in instead. Even if your family isn’t a fan of coconut, I recommend that is left in because it is really not recognizable, and it helps with the chewy nature of the cookies. My niece tried them and said how good they were…then I told her what was in them. Her response…”I really don’t like most of those things, but, when you put them all together they are REALLY good!”. I was glad to hear that! 🙂

Ingredients:

1 cup All Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt
2 cups Old Fashioned Oats
1/2 cup Dried Cranberries
1 cup Chocolate Chips
1 cup Coconut
1/2 cup Slivered Almonds
1 cup Butter
1 cup Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
2 teaspoons Vanilla

Instructions:

Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add in the eggs and the vanilla. Next add in the remaining ingredients, mixing after each item added.

Place about a tablespoon of dough per cookie on your cookie sheet leaving room for them to spread while baking.

Bake at 325 degrees for 13 minutes, or until light brown. Once the cookies are removed from the oven, allow them to cool on the cookies sheet for a minute or so until moving them to the cooling racks or counter.

When stored in an airtight container on the counter or in the pantry, these cookies will remain chewy, even a day later. Enjoy!