Secret Ingredient Chocolate Chip Cookies

In the food world, there are few things as elusive or sought after as the perfect chocolate chip cookie. This recipe from my friend Carrie has my vote. When she first sent it to me, I thought “Geez, she sure threw the whole kitchen sink in there.” But Carrie is a great baker so I tried them…and I don’t think I’ve ever had a better chocolate chip cookie.

To be fair, there are several “camps” when it comes to the perfect chocolate chip cookie: there’s the flat and crispy, the soft and chewy, the puffy and cakey, the nuts or no nuts, the list goes on and on. What I love about these cookies is that they have that amazing combination of crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside; they’re not too flat and not too puffy, they’re chock full of all kinds of stuff…they’re just right.

The secret ingredient? Actually, there are two. The first is oatmeal, which – I know – is not so secret, but in this case it’s finely ground so that it lends the desired chewiness without drawing too much attention to itself. Brilliant!

The second, believe it or not, is shredded coconut! Weird, I know, but trust me – you can barely taste it and it makes these chocolate chip cookies out of this world.

Enjoy!

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Secret Ingredient Chocolate Chip Cookies
Printable Recipe

Makes about 25 cookies

Ingredients

¾ cup old-fashioned rolled oats, ground in a food processor or blender until very fine
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened but still cool
½ cup light brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
¾ teaspoon vanilla
½ – ¾ cup semisweet chocolate chips
½ cup sweetened dried coconut
¾ cup pecans, chopped

Directions

1. Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower- middle positions and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

2. Whisk ground oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and sugars at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape sides of bowl with a rubber spatula. Add egg and vanilla; continue beating until combined, about 40 seconds. Scrape sides of bowl. Add dry ingredients and beat at low speed until just combined, about 20 seconds. Add chocolate chips, coconut and nuts; stir to combine. Do not over mix.

4. Working with 1 ½ tablespoons of cookie dough at a time, form balls and place on parchment-lined cookie sheets, leaving at least 2 inches between them. (Keep remaining batter cool in refrigerator while first batch cooks.) Bake, reversing position of cookie sheets halfway through baking, until edges of cookies begin to crisp but centers are still soft, about 13-15 minutes. Cool cookies on baking sheets for 1 minute before transferring to cooling racks with a large spatula.