The Best Cookie Ever? Juli Thinks So

Shortly after I started getting into cooking again, I decided to try my hand at some cookies.  In the past, my success with baking had been limited, but cookies had usually turned out pretty well, so they seemed like a safe thing to start with.  The question was, what cookies to start with?

Juli does a pretty good job with a variety of cookies, not to mention things like banana and pumpkin bread, so I didn't want to start out with something that overlapped with what she bakes.  Also, she'd made some classic Nestle Toll House Cookies fairly recently, so I didn't want to start with that.

I'd just subscribed to Cook's Illustrated's magazine and website, and the latter had a lot of different cookie recipes.  One particularly struck my fancy:  Thin and Crispy Coconut-Oatmeal Cookies.  This recipe was featured in the January 1 2008 Cook's Illustrated, as one variant of a more basic Thin and Crispy Oatmeal Cookie recipe (that recipe is available in the America's Test Kitchen Best-Ever Recipes Special CollectionI have previously reviewed [http://jeffreyandjulicook.blogspot.com/2010/09/best-ever-recipes-lives-up-to-its-title.html] and frequently mentioned).  That sounded good to me.  I've always liked oatmeal cookies, and I'd recently purchased (and quickly finished off) a batch of oatmeal cookies at one of the farmer's markets we frequent.  Beyond that, Juli and I both love coconut.

That recipe ended up being a good choice.  A great one, really, as Juli and I both loved it.  In fact, after trying her first one, Juli said it was "the best cookie ever."  I'm not willing to go quite that far, but it's definitely a contender for that title, at very least, and it's possibly my personal favorite cookie.  I've made it several times now, including a batch I made on Saturday.

These cookies are crispy but not crumbly, with the oatmeal and coconut giving them a pleasant, chewy texture.  The flavor of the coconut comes through strong, but not enough so to overwhelm the other flavors, including a pleasant undercurrent of vanilla.