Crispy-Chewy Coconut Cookies

 

I wanted cookies.  No idea why, but I really wanted to make some as an easy snack.  And I was not all that convinced they needed to have dark chocolate in them, which is pretty unusual for me.

When I opened the mix-ins box to decide what I wanted, there was more coconut in there than I was expecting.  Coconut is mostly saturated fat, which will go rancid if you don't use it.  So, there was my theme.

I found a recipe on The Café Sucre Farine that looked like what I wanted.  Generally soft and chewy, but with a bit of crispiness around the edges.  They aren't hard enough to require dunking, but if you want to dip them in coffee or hot chocolate, they would probably soak up just a touch of flavor.

I'm modifying the recipe slightly and using the unsweetened shavings in the body of the dough and rolling them in sweetened flakes.  There's a lot of sugar in the cookies, so they don't need all sweetened coconut.  Since I have coconut extract, I used that instead of vanilla.  And instead of toffee as a topping, which I do like but don't have on hand, I'm using some white chocolate micro-chips that live in my fridge.  You can use any flavor of chips, preferably minis, that you like.  If you don't have any chips, a coarse sugar, crushed nuts, or even a sprinkling of brown sugar will top these nicely.

1/2 C (1 stick) butter, softened
1/2 C packed light brown sugar
1/2 C granulated sugar
1 egg, room temperature
*1/2 tsp coconut extract (or 1 tsp vanilla)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1-1/4 C flour
1/4 tsp salt
*1-1/2 C unsweetened coconut flakes
*1/2 C sweetened grated coconut
chips, nuts, toffee, etc for garnish

1.  Preheat oven to 350º and line two baking sheets with parchment or baking mats.

2.  Cream together butter and both sugars.  The original recipe says you can do this by hand with room temperature butter, but it was about 60º in my kitchen the day I made these, so in the mixer it went.  Once smooth, beat in egg, extract, and baking soda.

3.  Stir in flour and salt just until mixed, then add unsweetened coconut shavings and beat until combined.

4.  I used a 2 Tablespoon (one ounce) cookie scoop to portion these, which is larger than I usually make my cookies but works better here because you're rolling and topping them.  Form dough into 2 tablespoon balls, about 1-1/2 inch, and roll in the sweetened coconut before placing on prepared cookie sheets about 2" apart.

5.  Bake 12-14 minutes, until browned around the edges but not 100% baked in the middle.  Pull from oven, sprinkle with topping, and put back in for another 2 minutes to melt in the topping and finish baking the cookie.  Cool on the baking sheet for about 3 minutes, until they firm up enough to be moved, then cool on a rack.  Stores room temperature about 3 days or in the freezer for a month.

Makes 20

Difficulty rating  :)