Eat: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, with love

Valentine's Day is coming, so I wanted to share an appropriate recipe, some edible version of sparkly hearts and long stemmed red roses.  Something romantic. Something sexy.  And I came up with...absolutely nothing.

Then I thought about these cookies.  I have made them countless times over the years, and they are neither romantic nor sexy.  They are better than that.

These are the cookies that I make when one of the girls needs some extra mothering or when my husband has been shouldering more than his fair share of my ire.  I've also been known to come home after a rough day and weepingly make a batch of these for myself.  When a good friend was dealing with a difficult pregnancy in a far away new town, I mailed her a box.  When my aunt died of a cancer that was never supposed to take her, I woke up early the next morning and baked a double-batch for my uncle and cousins.

Soft and comforting, layered with sweetness, these cookies are better than hearts and roses.  They are a hug in a box, love on a baking sheet.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/2 cups of  unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of unsalted butter (at room temperature)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs (at room temperature)
2 1/2 cups of old fashioned oats
1 cup of sweetened shredded coconut
12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chunks
3/4 cup of Heath Bar bits

• Preheat the oven to 350 and cover cookie sheets with parchment or foil.

• Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium size bowl and set aside.

• Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  A stand mixer is your best bet, as the better gets pretty thick, but a hand mixer will work if you use a large bowl.

• Mix in the vanilla and eggs.

• Add the flour mixture and beat until just combined.

• Add the oats and coconut and mix until just combined.  (If you are using a hand mixer, you may want to do this part gradually.)

• Add the chocolate chunks and and Heath Bar bits and mix until just combined.

• Use a standard ice cream scoop or measuring cup to drop batter by the quarter cup onto the prepared cookie sheets.

• Bake until just golden brown, about 16 minutes.

• Allow the cookies to sit for five minutes on the cookie sheet before removing them to a cooling rack.