Kitchen Sink Cookies

Out of the blue, Alex announced on Thanksgiving morning that he wanted to help prepare the Thanksgiving meal. Oops! I didn’t even think of that possibility and basically prepped everything the night before, leaving only the actual cooking to be done for a couple of dishes. Doing some quick thinking on the spot, I suggested to Alex that maybe he could come up with something for dessert since I had never gotten around to actually planning one! Right off the top of his head, he suggested Kitchen Sink Cookies (which he saw in one of Martha’s DVDs a while back). That was not exactly what I had in mind for dessert (I was thinking more along the line of a cake or pie) but I did say he could make the decision. So, we spent Thanksgiving morning making cookies…and ended up actually having quite a lot of fun!!! :-D These delicious cookies turned out to be the perfect dessert to have following a big meal. Now, how did Alex happen to know that? :-)

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened (I use Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks)
½ cup sugar
½ cup firmly packed light-brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips*
1 cup sweetened flake coconut*
1 cup raisins
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

*We reduced the semisweet chocolate chips to 1½ cups (to make this recipe dairy-free, you can use Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips) and opted to use unsweetened grated coconut instead of sweetened and the cookies turned out plenty sweet even with these adjustments.

The full preparation method can be found on the Martha Stewart website.