Coconut Chocolate Cookies from the Oakwood Inn B & B

Cookie Course

By Bridgette A. Lacy, Staff Writer New & Observer, Appearred in section E, Wed, Dec., 12, 2007.

Shhh. It's Christmastime. If you listen close you can hear it.
No, it's not the clatter of reindeer hooves on the roof. It's the whir of thousands of mixers churning up dough fvor the millions of Christmas cookies that will soon fill tins and stretch bellies across the land.
Knowing that many of you are firing up your ovens right about now, we offer a few well-tested Christmas cookie recipes from fellow bakers. Use them for inspiration or simply take solace in knowing that others just like you are toiling away, turning out their own batches of Christmas cheer
Gary Jurkiewicz's cookies are so good they can keep people up at night. A guest at the Oakwood Inn Bed & Breakfast in Raleigh, which Jurkiewicz co-owns, once had to turn down his morning meal after helping himself to a full dozen of the innkeeper's cookies during the night. After tasting Jurkiewicz's Coconut Chocolate Chip cookies, which he shares here, we understand.
As a boy, Jurkiewicz loved helping his stay-at-home mother with the cleanup after she made cookies and cakes. With the smell of sweet pastries baking in the oven filling the kitchen, Jurkiewicz did his part: "I got to lick the spoon." It was the start of a love affair with baking that continues. Now a pharmacist and innkeeper, Jurkiewicz delights his daughters and his guests with his baked goods.

(This is an excerpt of an article written on cookie recipes. If you'd like to read the entire article go to: http://www.newsobserver.com/105/story/824910.html

Here is Gary's own original recipe for Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies:

Gary's Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:
2 cups sweetened coconut, toasted (6 ounces)
1-1/4 cups vegetable shortening (8 ounces)
3/4 cup sugar (5.5 ounces)
1-1/4 cups brown sugar, packed (9.5 ounces)
3 cups cake flour (13 ounces)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons coconut extract
2 tablespoons French vanilla yogurt
2-2/3 cups semisweet chocolate chips (16 ounces)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.Put coconut flakes on a baking sheet and place in the oven. Keep an eye on them, and bake until 2/3 of the coconut turns a light to medium tan, from 5 to 10 minutes, depending on your oven. Do not get the coconut too brown or it will become dry. Let cool.Mix shortening in the bowl of a mixer until it turns smooth. Add sugar and brown sugar, and mix until light and fluffy.Sift together the cake flour, salt and baking powder and set aside.Add the eggs, one at a time, to the creamed shortening and sugar mixture. Mix on medium speed. Add vanilla, coconut extract and yogurt. Mix thoroughly.Set mixer speed to low and slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture allowing all ingredients to combine well. The mixture should be wet but not runny.Using a spatula, hand fold in the chocolate chips until mixed thoroughly. Then hand fold in the coconut until all of the ingredients are mixed well. The batter will be a little drier because the coconut absorbs some of the moisture.Put dough into the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.Preheat oven to 325 degrees.Drop 2-tablespoonful-scoops of dough onto ungreased baking sheets, allowing about 21/2 inches between scoops. Bake for 11 to 13 minutes or until edges and tops of cookies lightly brown. Check the cookies after about 6 or 7 minutes and, if needed, rotate the baking sheets for even browning. Do not overbake as it will dry the cookie out.Remove cookies from oven and let set for 2 minutes. Remove cookies from baking sheets onto baker's rack and let cool for about 2 hours. Store in an airtight container.
Makes 45 21/2-inch cookies; analysis is per cookie.
Per serving: calories, 180; fats, 10 grams (46% of calories); cholesterol, 9 milligrams; carbohydrate, 24 grams; fiber, 1 gram; protein, 2 grams; sodium, 63 milligrams; sugar, 16 grams.
Source: Gary L. Jurkiewicz

Gas Prices Don't Have To Spoil Time Away

Yep, gas prices keep going up and up. Today I paid $3.93 per gallon at the local BP station on Person Street. We Americans have always adapted fairly well to rising gas prices over the years, sometimes cutting down on short trips to the stores or sometimes not traveling so far for a vacation. As prices seem to keep going up, you do have to wonder, where are they going to level off... maybe they never will, but hopefully they may come down a wee bit.

Whatever happens, we well just adjust our schedules and routines to make it work... what else can you do..... it's beyond our control. What can be done is maybe less longer vacations, and more frequent short relaxation stays. We have been getting a lot of people coming to us for just a 2 or 3 night stay, traveling anywhere from just 15 minutes from us on up to about 2-3 hours drive. We have always had a strong guest list that has used us for a short stay just to get a few days away from work or the stresses from around the home. But lately, we have seen a small increase in people living nearby and just wanting to get away for a few days. Some come in for a play or concert and dinner, some just for dinner and sit around the Inn, and some with a list of things to see and do that are on the relaxation side.

Our website www.oakwoodinnbb.com has a list of a few things like a dinner/theatre package, a date night using the Raleigh Rickshaw service, we have the Oakwood Spa close by that you can take a short walk to and enjoy a relaxing massage, or just come into Raleigh for a weekend event like the Beer Festival or Artsplousure. We always have a lot going on downtown with First Friday where there are numerous art galleries open late. Maybe you'd like to just walk around our Historic neighborhood and look at all of the houses or maybe just try a new restaurant.

Or how about just relaxing on our front porch with a glass of wine and a fine cigar, read a book, or just people watch all the neighbors walking by with their dogs.

You really don't have to go far to enjoy some relaxation which is what we all need nowadays. You can come to downtown Raleigh, stay at The Oakwood Inn B & B, park your car in our lot and just walk everywhere downtown or take the Raleigh Rickshaw. No gas used in either case.
Yeah we don't have the ocean, the sandy beaches, or the peaceful sound of the waves coming into shore. But we do have a quiet and peaceful residential neighborhood, we have good eats around us, quiet time for mediation or relaxation, and peaceful sound of birds chirping in the morning.

Doris and I purchased the Oakwood Inn Bed & Breakfast on September 1, 2001, ten days before 9/11 and our occupancy went down, down, down. We quickly re-grouped and came up with a plan to bring locate potential guests and came up with our tag line of: Don't Go Away, Get Away at The Oakwood Inn B & B. That line still stays with us even more so now than before. Cause you don't have to travel far away to have a nice Get Away.... we're just around the corner. A vacation or Get Away does not have to be to some far away exotic place to travel to in order to relax.... it can be right under your nose. A two or three day weekend or even some week days off can do more for reducing stress than a long 10-14 traveling vacation moving from hotel to hotel and seeing sights after sights.

Look us up at our website and either call us or just do an online reservation. Gas prices can double, but it doesn't mean that we have to cancel plans for a little time for relaxation.... there are alternatives..... and we Americans will adapt!

City Search Link

A few months ago, we had City Search do a one minute video on the Oakwood Inn B &B. Yours truly is the commentator. It was fun and the video is informative. Check it out by clicking on the link below. A picture of me with a big triangluar button on my nose should come up. Click on the triangle button and watch. It talks about the Inn and also about a new service in downtown, The Raliegh Rickshaw Company. They are men and women that peddle you around town in a three seater tricycle... one seat for the driver and a bench seat for two for the customers. They are a lot of fun. We have them in these video. I'll talk more about them in my next blog.

For now..... check us out on City Search... click below. And for those of you who have recently stayed with us, post a review about your experience at The Oakwood Inn Bed & Breakfast.

City Search Link: http://triangle.citysearch.com/profile/6181356/raleigh_nc/oakwood_inn_bed_breakfast.html

Thank you for reading.
Gary