Oatmeal Cookies with White Chocolate and Apricots

Frequently after a cookie post here on Liv Life I will get an email, Facebook comment or even an actual phone call saying, "I sure wish I had one of those this afternoon!".  Dad enjoys his sweets.  But unlike anyone else I know, he has amazing willpower.  He is happy with just one cookie.  Sometimes even just a half.

While I'm lucky have have him and Mom live only some 20 minutes away, that twenty minutes is sometimes just far enough to make cookie sharing difficult as I make my daily driving rounds some 20 minutes the other direction.  Yesterday, however, we planned ahead, and celebrating with an early Father's Day dinner I had a fresh batch of Martha Stewart's sweet yet slightly tart Apricot/White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies ready and waiting.

Already filled with heart healthy oatmeal, we swapped a little of the all-purpose flour with a dose of fiber-rich spelt flour, and even added a tablespoon or two of flax meal.  And as if that is not enough, I had just a couple of tablespoons of flaked coconut left if my jar, so we tossed that into the mix to bring a slight tropical flavor to the package.

Admitted cookie dough lover's, Liv and I deem it necessary to try every dough we make (take caution as cookie dough does contain raw eggs), and I have to say that Martha hit this cookie dough out of the park.  Sweet, oaty and utterly irresistible, I think I liked the dough ever so slightly more than the cookie, however the cookie was crowned positively enchanting as Liv and I taste tested warm and cold versions... for review purposes, of course.

Dad, these beauties are for you!!  Thanks for being the best dad ever, and now that school is out and I'm not driving so much, let's make that 20 minutes not so far.

Happy Father's Day!

 XOXO

Oatmeal Cookies with White Chocolate and Apricots

adapted from Martha Stewart

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1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup spelt flour (optional - may substitute 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour)

1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oatmeal

2 Tbs ground flax meal

2-3 Tbs flaked coconut

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 cup packed light-brown sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs

8 ounces white chocolate, chopped

7 ounces dried apricots, preferably California, chopped (1 1/2 cups)

In a medium bowl combine the flours, oatmeal, flax, flaked coconut and baking soda.  Give it a quick whisk to combine and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer add the softened butter and cream with the sugars.  Add the salt, vanilla and eggs and continue mixing just until combined.  Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and pour in the chopped chocolate and chopped apricots.  With a wooden spoon gently stir the chocolate and apricots until incorporated.  Place cookie dough in the fridge and chill for about thirty minutes.

As you chill the dough, preheat the oven to 350º F and prepare your baking sheets.  (We use baking sheets lined with silicone mats).

After thirty minutes, remove dough from the refrigerator and spacing two inches apart, drop by tablespoons onto the prepared baking sheets.  Bake in the preheated oven until cookies are golden brown on the edges yet still soft in the centers.  Martha recommends 14-16 minutes, however my oven produced very brown edges by the 11 minute mark.  Now perhaps it is the ancient appliance I'm using that heats extraordinarily unevenly, but I recommend checking your cookies at the 10 minute point and adjusting your cooking time as needed.

Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool and feel free to test warm!  Liv preferred the warm cookie and even though she had turned her nose up at the addition of the apricots, she proclaimed the cookies one of the best ever.  High praise from my cookie critic.

Love you Dad!!!  (circa 1966)