Crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside, with the delicious flavour of coconut and cranberries. These oatmeal cookies will soon be a family favourite!
I’m not sure what happened but I massively over-ordered on desiccated coconut this past Pesach. I don’t think I even had anything in mind for it, but I had 3 big bags leftover – oops!
And of course the best before dates are about a month before Pesach next year so I can’t even put them away… Rosh Hashanah has been and gone so there’s nothing else for it – I’d better get baking.
Chametz flavours
I didn’t want to make anything too Pesachy, so I decided to incorporate the coconut into some oatmeal cookies, that are most definitely chametzdig!
I almost made regular raisin and oatmeal cookies but with added coconut. But then I found a tub of dried cranberries and remembered how good coconut and cranberries are together. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Coconut cranberry oatmeal cookie recipe – ingredients
Assuming that you also have a bag of desiccated coconut in your pantry, then you probably have the rest of things you will need to make these tasty cookies. The ingredients are largely pantry staples. To make a batch of cranberry coconut oatmeal cookies, you will need:
- Margarine or butter – depending on whether you want your cookies to be dairy or parve
- Light brown sugar – for sweetness and a lovely texture
- Egg
- Plain flour – also called all-purpose flour
- Porridge oats – these are the smaller, ‘quick cook’ oats, rather than chunky ‘rolled’ oats of the sort you’d use in flapjacks
- Bicarbonate of soda – to help the cookies spread
- Desiccated coconut – the whole point of this exercise, and a fabulous addition to a ‘standard’ oatmeal cookie
- Dried cranberries – these are really good with the coconut, but you can use raisins, chopped apricots, chopped dates, or whatever dried fruit you prefer
Oatmeal cookies – Subtle and sweet
I was really pleased with how these coconut cranberry oatmeal cookies came out. The coconut is subtle, but definitely there, and the tangy-sweet cranberry flavour is a perfect compliment. The texture is deliciously chewy and soft inside, with a slightly crisp exterior. Perfect with a cup of tea!
I was also pleased to realise that unlike my muesli cookies or nutella shortbread, these delightful morsels contain no nuts and so will be a lunchbox friendly treat for Kipper to take to school in a few weeks. Excellent.
Extra productivity
The morning when I made these cookies was doubly productive, because as well as a batch of lovely coconut cranberry oatmeal cookies I also took loads of photos which enabled me to make this video, which will show you just how simple these fabulous cookies are to make.
I should thank my past self for over-buying the coconut really. These oatmeal cookies are fabulous!
Recipe makes about 20 cookies. Yum!
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📖 Recipe
Coconut cranberry oatmeal cookies
Ingredients
- 100 g margarine or butter
- 85 g light brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 75 g plain flour
- 75 g porridge oats
- ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 50 g desiccated coconut
- 50 g dried cranberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 185°C (365°F). Line two baking sheets with greaseproof paper.
- 100 g (3/7 cup) margarine or butter, 85 g (½ cup) light brown sugar, 1 eggCream the margarine or butter with the brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat well to combine.
- 75 g (⅗ cup) plain flour, 75 g (1 cup) porridge oats, ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda, 50 g (⅗ cup) desiccated coconut, 50 g (⅖ cup) dried cranberriesAdd the flour, oats, bicarb and coconut, and mix well to give a soft dough. Stir in the dried cranberries until evenly distributed.
- Place tablespoons of the mixture, spaced well apart, on the prepared baking sheets. You should get around 20 cookies.
- Bake at 185°C (365°F) for around 5-6 minutes, then squash each cookie gently with a fork to encourage it to spread. Return to the oven and bake for another 5-6 minutes until golden brown.
- Remove from the oven, wait a few moments for the cookies to firm up slightly, and then transfer to wire racks to cool.
Nutrition
More delicious cookie recipes
If you love this oatmeal cookie recipe why not also try these ginger spice cookies, these flourless chocolate-chip cookies, these yummy spiced date cookies, or these easy double-chocolate muesli cookies.
More yummy recipes using oats
Of if it’s oat recipes you’re after, how about fruit flapjack fingers, chocolate chip banana oat bars, squidgy date flapjacks, or delicious sugar-free breakfast muffins.
Sandra Hunt
These biscuits are so quick to make and even when warm they are very yummy. I am a 75 year old and love cooking. I have far too many recipes, but this will be one of my favourites.
Helen – I have a question for you. I have a friend who would enjoy these, but because of her diet cannot eat flour. Do you have a suggested substitute for the flour? If you could email me, I would really appreciate it.
Thanks,
Sandra
Helen
Hi Sandra, so glad to hear that you enjoyed this cookies! Is your friend celiac or is there some other dietary issue? If she can tolerate oats – and there are oats in the recipe – you can whizz extra oats into flour and use this in place of wheat flour in the recipe. If she has celiac, you should double check that oats are OK, as not all sufferers can tolerate them due to the presence of a similar protein. In this case, you could try using a gluten-free flour blend and quinoa flakes, but at that point they’re likely to come out quite differently from the originals! I hope this helps. All the best, Helen.
Laura
I added some apricots, went really nicely with the coconut and cranberries. Delicious… very tasty. 10/10
Helen
Thanks Laura! That sounds delish, and I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much 🙂
Rhi
I have made these so many times now they’ve become my signature. I add some grated orange peel, super delish.
Helen
That’s so lovely to hear Rhi! The orange peel sounds yummy 🙂
Trish Garvin
A bit too dry. Had to add 2 tbsp apple sauce in order for the batter to stick together.
Baked cookies are still crumbly, but tasty, not too sweet.
Needs a little more moisture in batter/dough to keep their shape and hold together.
Helen
hi Trish, I’m glad you were able to adjust this recipe to get a good result. Did you use metric or US customary measures? I would always encourage using metric (weight) measurements rather than volume, to ensure that the ratios of different ingredients are correct. The size of your egg may also make a difference to the amount of moisture. Either way, I’m glad you enjoyed the finished product! All the best, Helen x.
Jacqui Bellefontaine
These are so my kind of cookie and i am certainly with you on the “cranberries for all year”.
Helen
Thanks Jacqui! Cranberries FTW!
Julie
These cookies look yummy, I love this flavour combination. Commenting as BritMums Baking Round-up Editor. 🙂
Helen
Thanks Julie! I’ll accept the compliment regardless of what capacity you’re commenting in!
Kate | Veggie Desserts
Oooh these cookies look delicious. I love coconut and they sound amazing with cranberries!
Helen
Thanks Kate! Coconut and cranberry is one of my favourite combinations.
Kate | The Veg Space
Those look delicious Helen! Chewy, coconutty cookies with dried cranberries are right up my street – yum.
Helen
Thanks Kate. They are yummy indeed 🙂
Ann
My kiddos love oats and cranberries so we were pleasantly surprised with this recipe! Love these cookies and will be making them again!
Helen
Thanks Ann, that’s great to hear! So glad you all enjoyed them.
Dannii
Anything with cranberry reminds me of Christmas, but I think these cookies would be good any time of year. They look really good.
Helen
I love cranberries! Someone should start a ‘cranberries all year!‘ campaign!!