Coconut Rum Raisinet Cookies

This is the third recipe in my improvisational baking series. As I've said before, it takes only a few tweaks to turn a classic recipe into something entirely new.

I started with my Better Than Grandma's Oatmeal Raisin Cookies as a source recipe and made a few changes--adding chocolate chips, soaking the raisins in rum, and adding straight rum to the wet ingredients--and came up with a completely new recipe for Rum Raisinet Cookies.

For this next round of improvisation, I started thinking of flavors that would compliment the rum and chocolate. I considered adding another variety of dried fruit, white chocolate chips, and even a dusting of turbinado sugar to give the cookies a crunchy, sugary shell when they bake. But then I opened my cabinet, and the answer I was looking for was staring right back at me: coconut, the perfect partner for both rum and chocolate. I have to thank Mumma for this one. (Thanks, Mumma!) She thinks everything should have coconut in it.

I replaced a cup of the oatmeal with a cup of toasted coconut, and I replaced 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla and 1/2 teaspoon of milk with 1 teaspoon of coconut extract. These two small changes give the cookies a brand new flavor and texture, really jazzing up the source recipe and the second-round recipe as well.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies. (To see this recipe in process, check out Picturing Coconut Rum Raisinet Cookies.)

Creamables	1 stick butter 1 cup + 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
Wet Ingredients	3/4 cup raisins soaked in 3/4 cup rum, drained 1 egg 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 teaspoon rum 1 teaspoon coconut extract
Dry Ingredients	1 cup oatmeal 1 cup toasted coconut 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips 1/2 cup flour 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Soak the raisins in 3/4 cup rum to plump for 30-45 minutes.
2. Toast the coconut.
3. Preheat oven to 350º.
4. In your Kitchen Aid or a large mixing bowl, cream together the creamables.
5. In a small bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Whisk together until smooth.
6. Add the combined wet ingredients to the creamables. Mix together until well incorporated.
7. Strain the raisins, discarding the remaining rum. Add the plumped raisins to the combined wet ingredients and creamables. Mix together until well incorporated.
   
8. In a large mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients. Using a spatula, fold together until evenly distributed.
9. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the combined creamables and wet ingredients. Mix until evenly combined.
10. Shape dough into balls--about 2 tablespoons each.
11. Place the  dough balls about 2 inches apart on Silpat- or parchment paper-lined cookie sheets.
12. Bake at 350º for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let stand for 2 minutes. Then place cookies on wire racks to cool. 

Comments

[Mumma]

These sound super yummy! With coconut as an ingredient, I know I will LOVE them!! I'm going to make these but substitute macadamia nuts for the raisins. More snow is on the way, so I can't think of a better way to pass the time than baking some great cookies!

[Oatmeal Cookie Guy]

Hi, Mumma. Holy smokes...you're gonna bake!? If you keep this up, I'll have to get you your very own Silpats. :-)

[Laurel]

Greg, I LOVED these!...And everyone that I shared them with couldn't get enough of them. Can't wait to try some more.

[Oatmeal Cookie Guy]

Hi, Laurel. Awesome! I'm so happy everyone liked them. They are *really* good! :-)

[Tony]

Hi, these were great! I couldn't find coconut extract here (UK) so I just stuck in another bit of vanilla extract. I sampled the raw mix before cooking (well you have to, don't you) and it was all I could do not to just munch the whole lot down. The taste of rum was much stronger in the raw mix than in the baked cookie too.

I was wondering how come you get 3 dozen out of this though, I only got about 16 and I tried hard to use two tablespoons - don't think they have different size tablespoons over here do they?

[Oatmeal Cookie Guy]

Hi, Tony. This dough *is* really good to nibble. For a boozier/rummier flavor in the baked cookies, try replacing the vanilla with rum...or upping the amount of rum in the wet ingredients. :-)

I use a cookie scoop when I portion out my dough balls. Check out:

http://oatmealcookie.typepad.com/the_oatmeal_cookie_blog/2008/02/the-scoop-on-co.html

The manufacturer of the scoop I use says that the scoop holds a "generous tablespoon," which is about 2 tablespoons. Do you use two tablespoons from a set of measuring spoons or two spoons you'd use to set your table? (I know. It's kind of confusing.) Hmmm...this is a good point for me to investigate: Whether measuring spoons hold the same volume as utensil spoons.

[Tony]

Hi, I've got a set of these spoons (the ones in the background on this picture - http://stylishfurnitureuk.com/cotswold-company-measuring-set/ Using the tablespoon size and doing a slightly heaped measure I got 31 this time around. It's difficult to get consistent sizes with it though so I shall look out for a scoop. It would be interesting to see how things vary with measures - I've already come across a few places where the US to Imperial measuring seems to differ on the conversion factors.

[Oatmeal Cookie Guy]

Hi, Tony. Thanks for the link. I'm still looking into whether the there is any variation between measuring implements in the U.S. and U.K. (I guess this is why *professional bakers* weigh everything.) Another wrinkle is that what you call "Imperial" we call "English." Argh! Maybe we should all just go metric. :-)