These. Cookies. Are. The. Bomb. Diggity.

My cousin Michael’s wife, Chanelle, shared this recipe with me a really long time ago and until this past week, I had never made them. She said that they made amazing ice cream sandwiches when used with vanilla bean ice cream. She also told me that they were really great for breakfast with coffee. AND, since they contain oatmeal, they are a perfectly healthy choice for breakfast. That was her story and we are both sticking to it.

Chanelle is a truly remarkable person. Although we live far away from each other and I don’t get as much time with her as I wish I did, I just adore her. She is a dress designer and has worked for some pretty amazing clothing companies in her day. I drooled over her portfolio when they came to visit us this past spring. I pretended that all of those dresses were designed for me. Some of them were nearly perfect for my secret life as a 1950’s housewife.

She is also an amazing baker. We are lucky enough to get the most fabulously designed and delicious Christmas cookies from her during the holidays. She recently showed me some pictures of these macarons she baked to raise money for Diabetes. Holy. Moly. They were beautiful! She is coming to visit us in a few months and I am hoping to get her to do some baking with me and let me blog about it. I am pretty sure that if the day ever comes that her and Michael have babies, they are going to come out wearing the latest in couture and holding trays of cookies. *giggle*

It isn’t surprising though, that she is talented in the kitchen. Her parents own the Mackinac Fudge Shop way up, almost the middle of nowhere, in the upper peninsula of Michigan. If you are looking for gifts that no one in their right mind would re-gift this holiday season, you need to click that link and go to their website and buy lots of yummy things from them. We have been lucky enough to receive fudge from them the last couple of years for the holidays. It is usually gone in record time and there is lots of fighting over it. You will not be sorry you spent your hard earned money there AND you will be supporting an American small business owner this year! How can you go wrong with that?

Now that I am drooling over that fudge…back to the cookies. I have this thing about craving something sweet at night, usually around 9 p.m. or a little after. I never crave sweets in the daytime or in the afternoon, it’s only at night for some weird reason. Probably because I am pushing 40 and there is some force determined to make me thick around the middle by making me want to eat late at night and then go to sleep while the calories pile up.

This past Tuesday at about 9:15 the craving hit, again. I looked in my recipe book and didn’t find anything that really spoke to me, until I found this recipe for her cookies. I had everything on hand to make them, so my son and I whipped out the Kitchen Aid and got to baking. These cookies are really easy to make and take exactly 12 minutes to cook. I got a total of 2 1/2 dozen cookies out of this recipe using my medium cookie scoop, if you follow the directions and use a rounded teaspoon full you should get about 3 1/2 dozen.

** For the gluten free version, use GF baking flour, oatmeal and make sure that your coconut has been certified GF, as sometimes they are processed in the same plant as non gluten free products and can be cross contaminated. Most brown sugars processed in the US are made with a corn based caramel coloring, just verify that with whatever brand you are using to make sure. Dixie Crystals and Domino brands are GF. This is a link to a PDF file of GF products. I found this very informative, it is 55 pages of items.

Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

Recipe from More from Magnolia by Alyssa Torey

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats (not quick cooking)
• 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a small bowl, combine the flower, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream the butter with the sugars until smooth, about 2 minutes with a stand or hand mixer. Add the egg and vanilla, and beat well. Add the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.  Hand stir in the oats and the coconut. Drop by rounded teaspoon fulls (or you can use a medium scoop like I did for larger cookies) onto ungreased cookie sheets, leaving several inches between for expansion.

Bake for 12-14 min, or until lightly golden. I baked them for exactly 12 minutes and they were perfectly soft in the middle. I took them out immediately and let them cool on a wire rack. Once they are completely cooled, store them in a sealed container or if your like me, use a Ziploc bag. I use them for everything. In fact, I think I have a Ziploc addiction and I may need help.

If you want to get a little crazy, make them into ice cream sandwiches like we did.

Oh, so good!