This recipe is not yet gluten-free
In our house there’s a recurring plea: “Why don’t you ever make cookies?” Cookies often lose out to a spontaneous urge to bake a cake or brownies, so they slip down the priority list. But maybe that’s for the best — cookies are dangerously easy to eat. There’s something about them that convinces you one will do, then another, until you’ve had several when you’d normally stick to a single slice of cake.
Part of their appeal is the warm, straight-from-the-oven moment when chocolate is oozing and the centres are still slightly doughy. Later, a cooled cookie with a cup of tea is irresistible: you can capture the crumbs with the cup and slurp them up between sips.
My husband is a dried-fruit enthusiast, and our pantry often hides bits of trail mix and exotic candied pieces that I rarely touch. Lately, candied pineapple chunks have been calling out to be used, and I finally gave in. I’m not usually a pineapple-first baker, but their sweet, tangy bite felt perfect for these cookies, so they became the starring dried fruit in the recipe.
I also think chocolate belongs in most cookies. While I’ve enjoyed the occasional oat-and-raisin biscuit, a hit of chocolate livens things up. For these I chose white chocolate chips — a guilty pleasure I don’t use enough — and they paired beautifully with the pineapple.
Desiccated coconut made its way in simply because I can’t resist it right now. I’ve been experimenting with coconut in many forms — oil, flour, flakes, milk — and the finely shredded desiccated coconut adds aroma and texture without overpowering the other ingredients.
These cookies are large, so give them plenty of space on the tray. They bake up chewy in the centre with slightly crisp edges, giving a pleasing contrast of textures. The husband test passed with flying colours, and now we have a new argument: why not have cookies every day?
Pineapple, White Chocolate and Coconut Cookies
Ingredients
- 175 g unsalted butter
- 175 g soft light brown sugar
- 125 g caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 200 g plain flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 150 g jumbo rolled oats
- 75 g desiccated coconut
- 125 g white chocolate chips
- 125 g dried pineapple chunks
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 170°C.
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Cream the butter and both sugars together until very light and fluffy.
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Add the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla until fully combined.
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In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt, oats and desiccated coconut.
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Fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture until just combined.
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Stir in the white chocolate chips and dried pineapple chunks until evenly distributed.
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Portion the dough into 100g balls for each cookie and roll them gently into balls.
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Arrange the balls on large baking trays about 2 inches apart and flatten each slightly with the palm of your hand.
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Bake for 12–15 minutes until the edges are just turning golden brown.
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Remove from the oven and let cool on the tray for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to finish cooling. Or eat one warm while the chocolate is still melting.