Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman, recently posted a recipe for Brown Sugar Oatmeal cookies on her website. I love oatmeal cookies so I decided to tweak her recipe to fit my tastes.

Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Ingredients

1/2 cup butter or margarine (one stick), softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening (I find that by mixing butter or margarine with shortening, it keeps the cookies softer)
2 cups packed Light Brown Sugar
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
2 whole Eggs
1-1/2 cup all-purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
3 cups Old Fashioned Oats
1/2 cup Coconut flakes
1/2 cup chopped Pecans

In the bowl of an electric mixer beat together the butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Add eggs and continue mixing. Almost all recipes instruct you to mix the dry ingredients separately and then add them to the wet ingredients. I hate dirtying another bowl, so I have always just added the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mixed them together. I’ve never had a problem doing it that way. So, add the flour, salt, and baking soda to the creamed mixture, mixing it until just combined. Mix in the oats and pecans until just combined.

Drop by teaspoonful onto a cookie sheet, twelve cookies to a sheet. I did not grease my sheet, but you might want to depending on the composition of your baking sheet . Bake for 10-11 minutes until cookie edges begin to turn brown. Remove from oven, let stand about a minute and then move them from the cookie sheet onto parchment paper to cool.
Makes about 5 dozen 2 1/2″ diameter cookies.