Chocolate Chip Health-Food Cookies

1-1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. double-acting baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1-1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. ginger
2 Tbs. salad oil
1 cup regular or quick-cooking oats (not instant)
1/4 lb. sweet butter (1 stick)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup honey
1 egg (large)
1/4 cup wheat germ, raw or toasted
1/4 cup milk
8 ounces (1 cup) pitted dates, coarsely cut
6 ounces (1-1/2 cups) walnuts or pecans, cut or broken into large pieces
3-1/2 ounces (1 firmly packed cup) shredded coconut

Optional: 2-1/2 ounces sunflower seeds

12 ounces (2 cups) semisweet chocolate morsels (I use a combination of mini chips and dried cranberries)

Adjust two racks to divide the oven into thirds, and preheat oven to 350. Line cookie sheets with aluminum foil.

Sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice and ginger and set aside. (I don't bother to sift, just blend lightly with a fork.)

In a shallow cake pan, stir the salad oil into the rolled oats to mix. Bake for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then set aside to cool.

In a large bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter. Add the vanilla, sugar and honey and beat to mix. Add the egg and beat well (the mixture will look curdled). On low speed, add the dry ingredients and then the wheat germ, scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula and beating only until incorporated. Add the milk and beat to mix. Remove from the mixer.

With a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, stir in the rolled oats, dates, nuts, coconut and optional sunflower seeds, and then the chocolate morsels (& dried cranberries).

These should be large cookies: use a heaping teaspoonful or a well-rounded tablespoonful of the dough for each cookies. Place them about 1-1/2 inches apart on the foil-lined sheets (that I spray with Pam).

Bake two sheets at a time for about 18-20 minutes, reversing the sheets top to bottom and front to back as necessary during baking to insure even browning. Bake until the cookies are nicely colored all over and until they spring back when lightly pressed with a fingertip. (If you bake one sheet at a time, use the upper rack.) Be very careful not to overbake these or the bottoms will burn.

With a wide metal spatula transfer the cookies to racks to cool. Then store airtight. Recipe supposedly makes 36-40 large cookies, but I've never gotten that many.

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