I know, I know. I need to start coming up with creative names for these cookies instead of just listing out every ingredient. Chercocoat Cookies? CherryCoOat? ChocOatCocherry? Chicky chicky boom boom? So many reasons why I am a project manager and not a copywriter. I’ll work on that for next time. It was another fun-filled-beautiful-weather-packed weekend down the Cape. My Uncle Jimmy always comes down once a year and cooks a mind-blowing dinner that leaves you full for days. This year he was doing lamb with polenta and lots of delicious apps. I was in charge of dessert, and while I talked a big game about making creme brulee earlier in the week, I made a last minute decision to make a gluten-free cherry peach cobbler. The cherries were so delicious that they inspired this fresh fruit cookie.

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups quick-Oats
• 1 1/2 cups toasted coconut
• 2 dark chocolate bars, chopped (I used Cadbury)
• 2 cups fresh cherries, pitted and chopped

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter and sugars. Add in eggs and vanilla and mix well.

Step 2: Sift the flour, baking soda and salt, and add to the wet mixture. Add in oats and mix well.

Step 3: Toast 1 1/2 cups of coconut and add into the batter. I just spread it on a baking sheet at 350 degrees and toss it every few minutes so that it toasts evenly. Make sure it is cool before you add it in.

Step 4: Add the chopped chocolate in and mix well.

Step 5: Add in the fresh cherries. Just mix until they are evenly distributed on a low speed, but don’t go crazy and spray cherry juice all over. I recommend chilling the dough for at least half an hour so that it’s not so wet. I stuck mine in the freezer for 10 minutes because I’m impatient. A big shoutout to my baking assistant today, Colleen had the not so fun job of pitting the cherries.

Step 6: Scoop even-size balls of dough and line them on a sil-pat or parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes or until lightly browned.

These are so fresh and delicious and the flavor combinations are insane. They even get better over time as the flavors meld together. The one thing to keep in mind about fresh fruit cookies is they won’t last as long, so I will refrigerate these overnight and bring them to work in the morning. I am sure they will gone by the breakfast rush hour at my desk.

Knowing that we were going to be having this amazing dinner Saturday night, we decided to sign up last minute for a 5k on Saturday morning in Harwichport. Weather was gorgeous, and burned enough calories to cover maybe half the wine that was going to be consumed later on. We definitely stood out in our neon outfits which made it easy for my personal paparazzi (hi mom) to find us during the race.

Uncle Jimmy made lamb, with a fresh arugula salad and polenta. Here’s the chef at work plating our dishes

In the words of Emeril, BAM.

Now when someone making a 5-star meal like these puts you in charge of dessert, that’s a lot of pressure. But I had already practiced my cobbler skills the week before so I knew I had this one in the bag. Plus it’s easy when you have dessert because most people have enough to drink by then they wouldn’t know if it was bad anyway.

After such a hard day of running and eating, we had to take it easy Sunday morning with a nice boat ride around the lake. Counting down the days until I get the whole week of fouth of July to do exactly this.