Aunt Joan's Prize-Winning Oatmeal Chip Cookies

Crunchy Oatmeal Chip Cookies with a hint of coconut and lots of chocolate chips.

I love cookies. I've been eating them all my life and have been known to sit down with a can of cookies and a glass of milk and do quite a bit of damage to both the contents of the can and my waist line.  I'm talking about homemade cookies, not those poor, pathetic store-bought, symmetrical rounds of baked cardboard that pass as cookies at the supermarket. (Though I have forced myself to eat those in emergencies.)  I guess I was spoiled from childhood by a parade of great cookie makers.  My dad was renowned for his cookies as were many of my aunts and church members.  Even today in Newfoundland, any home baker worth her/his salt can produce an array of baked cookies and squares to rival any gourmet bakery. 

Aunt Joan is my Uncle Alex's wife but she has never been an in-law to my sister and me.  We loved her from the moment she married our uncle and we knew she loved us.  We were little girls

Aunt Joan~1932-2020

when they married and I can remember the day they returned from their wedding, in the United States, to my grandmother's house.  She was showing all the aunts and uncles her wedding ring and everyone was talking at the same time.  It was very exciting to have our beloved uncle back home and to have the pretty Joan as our Aunt.  I don't think my sister can remember much before the "Aunt" Joan days but I can vaguely remember her at church as a nice young woman with her mother.  I was thrilled that she was now my aunt.  That feeling has never left me.  I am still thrilled and blessed to have this lovely woman who enriched my life as my aunt.  I could probably write a book about all the wonderful memories I have of eating meals at their house, picnics at the park, hikes in the woods, drives in the country and so much more but for today this cookie recipe will have to suffice.

Aunt Joan gave me this recipe for Oatmeal Chip Cookies many years ago and I have used it over and over as you can see by the condition of the typed recipe.  My friend Lorena liked it so much she entered the recipe in a county fair in New Brunswick and won 1st place in the Oatmeal Cookie category. (She left out the chocolate chips.)  There are no eggs in this recipe so don't think I left them out.  I hope you enjoy this cookie as much as I do. 

Printable recipe at end of post.

Oatmeal Chip Cookies

• 1 cup shortening (Today I used ½ cup shortening and ½ cup butter.)
• 1 cup lightly packed brown sugar

• 

  Lightly pack the brown sugar.

  1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ cup boiling water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 ¾ cups flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 cups rolled oats
• ½ cup coconut
• 1 package chocolate chips

Cream shortening and sugar.

How to make it:
Cream shortening and gradually blend in brown sugar.  Cream well. Dissolve baking soda in boiling water and gradually stir it into the creamed mixture. Mix in vanilla.

Sift flour and salt together and mix with rolled oats and coconut.

Add dry ingredients, part at a time, to the creamed mixture, mixing well after each addition.  Dough will be stiff and may need to be molded by hand. Mix in chocolate chips.

Add chocolate chips to batter.

Shape dough into balls, the size of walnuts.  Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and flatten each ball with a fork dipped in cold water.

Bake in a moderate oven, 350 degrees F  for 12-15 minutes.

This recipe makes about 7 dozen cookies, 2 inches in diameter.  Of course, if you make them bigger you'll have less cookies but more bites per cookies.

Note: Don’t let the cookies get too brown when baking.  Keep them in the oven the minimum time. If using part butter lower the baking time to 10-12 minutes. 

Ready to bake.

Baked to a golden brown.

ONLY TWO!!  GIVE ME THE COOKIE CAN!

To print click on arrow upper right side.⇩