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Thick, rich, chewy bar cookies bursting with delicious add-ins — oatmeal, dried cherries, chocolate chips, coconut, and plain M&Ms.
Recently, we went out to dinner with our wonderful backdoor neighbors. While we were waiting for our meals to arrive, they asked about my blog, what I was baking, and told me how much they enjoy the treats I occasionally drop off.
Then Dennis told me that his all-time favorite cookie was one I brought over three years ago at Christmas time. He went on to describe the cookie in detail, so I knew exactly which cookie was his favorite.
The original bar cookies were cut in a star shape, and decorated for Christmas. So I thought it would be fun to share the recipe again with some pretty multi-colored M&Ms, which would be perfect this time of year.
When I’m making a cookie that has lots of mix-ins added to the dough, I like to mix the add-ins together in a big bowl before adding them to dough. That way your mix-ins are more evenly distributed throughout your cookie dough.
It had been a three years since I’d made these cookies, and I shouldn’t have waited so long. They really are a fantastic, over-the-top delicious, memorable bar cookie.
Thanks Dennis for the reminder. I hope you enjoyed them as much this time around.
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Chocolate Chip Coconut Oatmeal Bar Cookies with Dried Cherries and M&Ms
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup 2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 cups light brown sugar packed
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups old-fashioned rolled oats not quick-cooking
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
- 1 cup dried cherries cut in half
- ½ cup M&Ms
Instructions
- Spray a 9x13-inch baking pan with nonstick spray. Preheat oven to 350° if using a metal pan or 325° using a glass pan.
- In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- In a large mixing bowl mix the butter and brown sugar on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the eggs one at a time mix until well blended. Mix in the vanilla.
- Add the dry ingredients and mix just until blended. Stir in the oats, chocolate chips, coconut and cherries.
- Spread the batter in the prepared pan and sprinkle M&Ms on top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. (Don’t overcook.)
- Cool on a rack to room temperature before cutting.
Bethany
I’ve been making these tasty bars for over a decade. I always sub chocolate chips for the M&Ms, simply for the convenience of what’s on hand, and have occasionally used coconut oil instead of butter. Today I ditched chocolate chips in favor of cinnamon chips. That was a delicious choice!
Haley
Made these two days ago. I followed the recipe precisely, except I omitted the cranberries and used white chips in placement of the M&Ms.
Fantastic! They were chewy and soft, the perfect density. I love oats and coconut together for the great texture.
Thank you!
Sheryl
These squares are amazing. I only had white chocolate so I used that in the recipe. I think only for contrast I will use dark chocolate next time. I omitted the M*M’s on the squares. The texture is perfect. They are so chewy and yummy. Will make again.
Barbara Schieving
Thanks ladies! Sound like delicious changes.