I'm An Options Girl. Fruity Soft Cookies, 2 ways.

I have been going thru a thing. I'm not going to elaborate because this is supposed to be about food, not my personal psychoses. I just bring it up because I almost never make cookies. But this thing...last week it wanted cookies. So I baked a whole lot of cookies.

I had some leftover pineapple and coconut, so I got this idea to make some soft cookies filled with with pineapple, coconut, and cherries- I added the cherries cuz I thought they'd be really cute topped with little maraschino cherries.

The only problem I had was it took a bit of searching to find one that didn't rely on shortening or margarine to make soft cookies. I feel strongly about baking with 100% butter whenever possible, because IT HAS FLAVOR. Shortening does not have flavor, so it just seems like a waste of calories to me. (And no, I will never stop commenting on my dislike of shortening whenever it comes up).

According to my research, butter tends to make a crispier cookie. But you can still get soft cookies with butter if you balance it with some egg. But even following this reasearch, I just didn't feel confident enough in my cookie abilities to wing it (I mean, I haven't made cookies in about 2 years. And those were the cake mix kind).

Luckily I found this pineapple cookie recipe that was 100% butter, so I went with that recipe and just jazzed up the mix-in's a bit.

It made a ton of cookies.

And when I was done, I decided I thought they would be really good with a chocolate cookie base. So I found this recipe and adapted it to suit my fruity mix-ins.

Ingredients:
Chocolate Cookie	White Cookie
1 1/4 cup butter, softened	1 cup butter, softened
2 eggs	2 eggs
2 cups sugar	1 cup sugar
	1 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla	1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda	1½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt	½ tsp baking powder
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 cups flour	4 cups flour
For Both:
½ cup canned pineapple, drained
1/3 cup maraschino cherries, chopped
(plus approx. 36 whole ones for topping cookies)
1 cup sweetened coconut flakes

Method:

Preheat oven to 400°

Combine softened butter, sugar, and eggs and beat until smooth.

Add salt, baking soda, & vanilla and baking powder or cocoa powder. Mix thoroughly.

Add flour 1 cup at a time and combine. The dough will become VERY thick and dry. If it is too thick to work with reserve last cup until after mixing in the fruit.

People with stand mixers are very lucky at this point. I am not one of those people.

Chop the pineapple chunks to desired consistency. I chopped them pretty fine for one batch of cookies, and then left them in bigger chunks for the second batch because I thought it was too subtle. Both ways worked fine. I like it chunkier, but go with your personal preference.

Combine into cookie dough with chopped cherries and coconut flakes.

Dough will be much more moist after mixing in the fruit. If it is too sticky to work with put it in the fridge for about 10min before spooning it out and it will be much easier.

Use a medium scoop or spoon to make approx 2 Tbsp sized balls You should get about 36 cookies.

Place on cookie sheet (I rubbed a little butter on mine to prevent sticking.)

Make indent in the top of the ball with your finger and place whole cherry.

Bake at 400° for 8-10 minutes or until done. The white cookies will be golden over the top when they are finished.

The Verdict: The cookies came out very well and co-workers gobbled them up, a good thing since I had so many. They were just as I envisioned them, perfectly soft (almost cake-like) with bits of fruit. I am more of a crunchy cookie girl, but I enjoyed them thoroughly and declare them a must-bake for soft cookie lovers. I will hold onto this recipe.