Special Edition: RICO Cookies

These Rum-Iced Coconut Oatmeal cookies are truly a guilty pleasure

Hello and welcome to a special edition of The Secret Life of Cookies newsletter.

I figured if I had a recipe for indictment cookies, I should come up with a RICO cookie after last night’s Fulton County indictment against Trump and 18 co-conspirators.

My brother Paul is responsible for giving delicious life to the RICO acronym.

R = Rum

I = Iced

C = Coconut

O = Oatmeal

I iced these cookies as I recorded this week’s Secret Life of Cookies podcast today with Palm Beach District Attorney Dave Aronberg, who, even though he’d been awake late into the night reading the indictment, was my guest.

Some thoughts on the cookies:

• Don’t have oat flour? Substitute 1 cup of all-purpose flour. If you use oat flour they will be gluten-free!

• You can make these vegan and substitute coconut oil for the butter and an egg substitute of your choice (Such as a flax egg: combine one tablespoon of flaxseed meal and three tablespoons of water and allow to sit for about 5 minutes. This makes one “egg.” You will need two for the recipe.)

• I added in crushed Heath bars and chocolate chips because I thought these deserved to be decadent. Feel free to leave those out. Add nuts, raisins, raisinettes (a brilliant suggestion from one of my readers!), dried cranberries or whatever strikes your fancy.

• I used rum extract to flavor the frosting. You can use real rum if you wish, but you may have to adjust the ratio of liquids and powdered sugar to get the strength of taste and spreadability you wish. Feel free to just use vanilla extract, or try orange extract—which happens to be very super delicious in this frosting.

RICO Cookies, aka Rum-Iced Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

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gluten-free!

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RICO Cookies

Rum-Iced Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

(gluten free)

Makes about 4 dozen cookies

What You’ll Need:

2 sticks (8 ounces) butter, softened

1 cup (170 grams) packed brown sugar

1/3 cup (66 grams) white granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 1/3 cup (122 grams) oat flour

2 cups (185 grams) old-fashioned oats

1 1/2 cups (150 grams) dessicated, unsweetened coconut

1 cup (160 grams) semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup (200 grams or so) crushed Heath bars (or to taste)

For the icing:

1 cup (128 grams) confectioners’ sugar

2 - 3 tablespoons heavy cream (you may substitute coconut milk or regular cow milk)

1/2 teaspoon (or to taste) rum extract

What You’ll Do:

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Using a stand or hand mixer, beat the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl frequently.

3. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until the dough stops looking sloshy and is uniform. It may look slightly curdled. Worry not. Add the vanilla and blend.

4. Add the oat flour, baking soda and salt and mix until just blended.

5. Add the oats, coconut, Heath bars and chocolate chips and mix until just blended. You’ll need to do lots of scraping down of the sides to make sure all the good parts are evenly distributed.

6. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll the dough into 2-inch balls and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Leave 3-inches between each dough ball to leave room for them to spread. Give each dough ball a little pat to smoosh them down slightly

7. Bake 9 to 10 minutes, depending on your oven, until just light golden and set in the center. Watch carefully towards the end of baking as they can go from almost done to oops! very quickly.

8. While the cookies cool, make the icing: In a small bowl, whisk together the confectioners’ sugar, heavy cream and rum extract until smooth and spreadable. Adjust taste and thickness to suit. Set aside until the cookies are completely cooled, then have at it and ice them.

   Note: This icing will not harden, which makes packing them away annoying, I realize. Why not arrange the iced cookies on baking sheet (one with edges) and invert another baking sheet over the top to keep the cat from licking the frosting off all of the cookies. (This is experience talking. And I’m talking about you, Calvin.)

   Enjoy!

Thoughts on last night’s indictment? On oatmeal cookies? On raisins in cookies? On pets eating human food when you weren’t looking?

Calvin the Innocent

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