Shelly's Recipe

CARIBBEAN OATMEAL COOKIES

Category: Cookies

Wet Ingredients 1:
5 sticks (2 1/2 cups) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
21/2 cups dark brown sugar

Wet Ingredients 2:
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 tablespoons buttermilk
2 tablespoons plus 1 tsp Irish Creme or plain egg nog
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
dash of Angostura bitters

Dry Ingredients 1:
3 cups bread flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon

Dry Ingredients 2:
6 cups rolled oats (NOT instant or quick-cooking)
2 cups golden raisins, plumped by soaking in 1 tbsp rum plus hot water to cover, and then drained
31/2 cups shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened, depending on your taste)

In a mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the melted butter and brown sugar together, starting at low
speed and gradually increasing to as high a speed as possible without danger of the ingredients flying
out of the bowl. Cream until mixture increases slightly in volume and is noticeably lighter in color and
texture (generally, the longer the better, so walking away to measure out other ingredients is fine).

In a separate bowl (or large measuring cup, something with a spout), whisk together the 2nd set of wet ingredients.

In another bowl, sift together the 1st set of dry ingredients.

In yet another bowl, mix together the 2nd set of dry ingredients.

Turn mixer down to low and slowly drizzle in 2nd set of wet ingredients.

Add 1st set of dry ingredients in 3 equal batches, waiting between batches for ingredients to incorporate, and stopping to scrape down sides of bowl as necessary.

Add 2nd set of dry ingredients about a 1/2 cup at a time. The dough will become very thick and will start to move up the sides of the bowl in a single mass. Stop the mixer and scrape back down as necessary.

Use a 1-ounce scoop/disher to measure out the number of cookies you are baking now onto a greased cookie sheet, leaving around 2 inches between cookies. Slightly flatten each cookie with the bottom of a glass or other flat, smooth surface, creating a disk.

Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 11 to 15 minutes, or until they begin to brown at the edges. Remove cookie sheet from oven and after a few minutes, move cookies to a wire rack or plate to cool.

Scoop the remaining cookie dough onto a large baking sheet (or as many baking sheets as needed) in the same manner as before, except that the cookies can be close to each other as long as they don't touch and you do not need to flatten the cookies.

You may also freeze individually-shaped cookies for 24 hours, then transfer to large zip-top bags or other airtight freezer containers, and return to the freezer. Take out as many as you would like to bake at any time in the future. Frozen cookies are ready to go in the pre-heated oven when they are soft enough to flatten slightly, which is generally about the time it takes to pre-heat the oven.