Crispy Chewy Cookies

…possibly a working title.  I’ve made these three times and still haven’t come up with a name for them, yet find myself just calling them ‘crispy chewies’ to the people I give them to.  Happy to take suggestions if anyone has anything better in mind.

These are so easy to make and so damn delicious.  It’s what you want in a large cookie – chewy.  And also what else you want in a large cookie – crispy.

Get it?

They’re vanilla, brown sugary sweet with a beautiful salty balance… they’re studded with oats and coconut and… wait for it… crispy rice cereal.

yup.

It adds such great and surprising texture to the cookies and I’m so happy I did it!

(Warning – these cookies use shortening, and not butter.  And I generally don’t cook with a lot of shortening or margarine (have subbed margarine for shortening with great success), but I’ve tested them with softened butter instead with less than awesome results.  They’re just better with the shortening/margarine, so that’s how I make them.  But you are free to go softened butter if you can’t stand the shortening/margarine route!)

These have been my Cookie Jar cookie for a few weeks now and I don’t see myself stopping any time soon 😉

Hope you enjoy them as much as my crowd has!

CRISPY CHEWY COOKIES

or maybe…

CRISPY CHEWIES

• 1 cup shortening 
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 splash vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cup AP flour (you can totally sub white whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour)
• 1 (heavily rounded) tsp salt
• 2 cups oats (I’ve used both rolled and quick – all fine)
• 1 cup crispy rice ceral
• 1 cup shredded, sweetened coconut 

preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the shortening with an electric beater (or use a stand mixer).

Add eggs, sugars and vanilla.  Mix well.

Add the flour and salt.  Mix well.

Mix in oats, rice cereal and coconut with a rubber spatula.

Use a medium (2 oz) greased ice cream scoop and drop down large mounds of dough onto 2 UN-greased cookie sheets.

Flatten slightly with a wet fork.

Place one cookie sheet on the top rack, and one on the bottom.

Bake 10 minutes.

Switch the racks and rotate them.  Bake another 10-12 minutes, or… until the edges have begun to turn golden brown, but the centers are still soft.  (They will harden as they cool, you just don’t want a wet, goopy center.)

Allow to cool on the sheets until firm enough to transfer to a rack to cool completely before storing in an airtight container for a few days at room temperature.

Or place in the fridge, airtight, for a week +

OR eat them still warm and soft from the oven 😉