Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookie Bars

Christmas week. The farmhouse is ready — tree lit, wreath hung, candles in every window, the smell of balsam and woodsmoke in every room. Helen has been baking for three days. Oatmeal cookies, sugar cookies, maple candy, and the fruitcake that nobody admits to liking but everyone eats, which is the essential paradox of fruitcake and has been since the dawn of baking.

Helen's oatmeal cookies are legendary. I don't use that word loosely. They are famous in this family, in this town, in the school where I taught for thirty-eight years. The recipe card says: oats, flour, butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, baking soda, cinnamon, raisins. But the card also says, in Helen's handwriting: "Don't overbake — Walt always overbakes." She wrote that years ago, and she's right, and I've been trying to not overbake them ever since, and I still pull them out thirty seconds late because I don't trust the timer and the timer is smarter than me.

David and Karen arrived Christmas Eve with the kids. Sarah and Tom drove in from Portland. Twelve people in the farmhouse. The noise level went from "retired couple with a dog" to "small elementary school" in about four seconds. Teddy and Ben found each other immediately and began a project involving Legos and shouting. Anna showed Lucy — wait, Lucy isn't born yet. Anna showed James her stuffed rabbit, which James grabbed and put in his mouth, because he's six months old and everything goes in the mouth. It's his process.

Christmas Eve dinner: Helen's roast beef. Prime rib, actually, which she makes once a year, at Christmas, and which is the finest thing to come out of this kitchen, and I include everything I've ever made in that assessment. Crusted with salt, pepper, garlic, and herbs, roasted at 500 degrees for twenty minutes and then at 325 until medium-rare. Served with Yorkshire pudding — the pans have to be smoking hot, the batter sizzles when it hits — and roasted potatoes and Helen's horseradish sauce. The horseradish is fresh, grated with tears streaming down her face, mixed with cream and vinegar. It clears your sinuses and elevates the beef from excellent to transcendent.

After dinner, after the dishes, after the children were asleep in sleeping bags on the living room floor, I sat by the woodstove with Helen. The tree lights were the only illumination. Frost was asleep. The house was full of the people I love most and the sounds of them sleeping. Helen put her head on my shoulder. I didn't say anything. Merry Christmas. Happy everything. This is the house. These are the people. This is enough.

That night, sitting by the woodstove with the tree lights low and the house full of sleeping people I love, I wasn’t thinking about making anything elaborate — I was thinking about something easy and warm and good, something the kids could wake up to in the morning. These oatmeal chocolate chip coconut cookie bars are exactly that kind of thing: unfussy, satisfying, the kind of recipe that asks nothing of you and gives a lot back. Here’s how I make them.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 25 minutes | Total Time: 40 minutes | Servings: 24 bars

Ingredients

2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat and prepare. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x13-inch baking pan and line it with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on two sides for easy lifting.
Combine dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the oats, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.
Cream butter and sugars. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter with the granulated sugar and brown sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add eggs and vanilla. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla extract, mixing until fully incorporated.
Fold in dry ingredients. Add the flour-oat mixture to the butter mixture and stir with a wooden spoon or spatula until just combined — do not overmix.
Stir in coconut and chocolate chips. Fold in the shredded coconut and chocolate chips until evenly distributed throughout the dough.
Spread and bake. Press the dough evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for 22–25 minutes, until the edges are golden and the center is just set. The bars will look slightly underdone — that is exactly right. Pull them when the timer says so.
Cool completely. Let the bars cool in the pan on a wire rack for at least 20 minutes before lifting out and cutting into squares. Patience here makes all the difference.

Nutrition (per serving)

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookie Bars — Helen’s Christmas Kitchen Secret