Dark Chocolate, Coconut, Oatmeal Cookies
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This recipe is in the current issue of Lucky Peach and for years had been Peter Meehan’s secret house cookie, which he got from a friend who lived in Alaska, hence the name. In the article, Peter confesses to eating AK cookies all day long, describing them as, “the ideal companion to the first coffee of the day, a buffer between the quiet of dawn and the demands of the day to come.”
That was enough for me. Make ’em.
Dark Chocolate, Coconut, Oatmeal Cookies
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 15 cookies
Description
Source: Lucky Peach (RIP)
A note from LP: “These cookies are best when they have fully cooled, though you will undoubtedly eat some warm because it will take you years to develop the patience to ignore the siren’s call until they are ready. You are only human.”
Ingredients
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups (256 g) flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
- 12-oz chocolate chips (I like Sharffen Berger semi-sweet bars, which I coarsely chop)
- 2 cups quick-cooking oats
- 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF.
- Using a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugars on medium-high speed until homogenous, and smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and mix for another five minutes. Add the dry ingredients in order, mixing them in on low speed, just until each is incorporated into the dough.
- Use two soup spoons or an ice cream scoop, form the dough into lumps about the size of a squash ball. (I weigh mine into 36 g or 1.25 oz portions)
- Scoop out all of the dough and chill it on a quarter sheet pan in the fridge for at least 30 minutes but ideally 24 hours before baking. (If you’re not baking the whole batch, freeze the balls on the sheet tray before transferring them into a freezer bag.) When you are ready to bake, space them well on a Silpat- or parchment-lined sheet pan and bake for 11-12 minutes. The cookies will look pale and not cooked when you remove them from the oven. Have patience — they will continue cooking on the sheetpan and will firm up perfectly. Let them cool a bit (or completely) on the sheets, then transfer them to wire racks to fully cool before serving.
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Category: Cookie
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
63 Comments on “Dark Chocolate, Coconut, Oatmeal Cookies”
Hi Ali! Made these today and they are so good! Quick question, did yours spread or you had to flatten them out before baking? Mine ended up being like balls, not spreader much. Thank you.
Hi Lana! Mine do spread. Next time around, however, you can flatten them to encourage more spreading.
Oh yeah, stumbled on these when I was researching skillet cake. Excellent. The coconut really adds something.
I have a slightly lesser sweeter tooth than most choc chip cookie recipes, so reduced sugars by a quarter. I will reduce a tiny bit more next time. And lower the oat amount a tiny bit too, to have a crispier result. Makes a great skillet cake as I’m darn too lazy, but probably excellent cookies too.
Strongly recommended.
Great to hear, Marie! Thanks for writing and sharing your notes 🙂 🙂 🙂
I made these cookies for a friend after he described his favorite cookies from childhood that contained dark chocolate chips, coconut, and walnuts. This recipe seemed to fit the bill. I don’t even like dark chocolate or coconut, but oh my goodness, these cookies were incredible. I had to give him all but four cookies because I didn’t trust myself not to eat them all in one sitting. I am almost 60 years old and have been baking since I was a child with my grandmother, and these are, quite honestly, the best cookies I have ever tasted. The only recommendation I have for others is to use a stand mixer if you have one. I made a double batch and, because the dough is so dense, I almost blew out of the motor on my hand mixer. Next time, and there definitely will be a next time, I will pull out my stand mixer.
Thank you, Alexandra, for this fantastic recipe!
P. S. Do you have the nutrition information for these cookies?
Great to read all of this, Dee! Thanks so much for writing and sharing your notes re mixers. Unfortunately, I do not have the nutritional info.
These cookies are now my go to recipe… we love them when they’re still warm and the chocolate is gooey. I try to freeze half so we don’t eat them all at once.
Great to hear, Margie! Thanks for writing 🙂