Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Chocolate Coconut Cookies

We sort of had a theme this year with our Christmas cookies. Most of them had a common ingredient. No, not sugar or flour or something like that. Most of the cookies we made this year involved cream cheese in some way. All except for the ginger cookies of course. That would have been weird.

I saw this recipe for chocolate coconut cookies the night before making the cookies and knew it was something I would make. Although coconut isn’t one of my favorite foods, I still like it in cookies and candies. What could go wrong with coconut and chocolate? As I was making this It totally smelled like a mounds bar. At first I didn’t think following the directions about the middle rack and rotating the cookie sheet halfway were necessary, but it should be done as written. Otherwise, you might have burnt coconut and unevenly spread cookies.

I really enjoy the “Ultimate” series cookbooks, but find their writing to be a little difficult to understand. It doesn’t help that their books don’t have images as well. Therefore, I have rewritten the recipe to be more reader friendly.

chocolate coconut cookies

Chocolate Coconut Cookies
adapted from: The Ultimate Chocolate Cookie Book
printable recipe

ingredients:
6 oz cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cup (about 5 oz) unsweetened coconut flakes

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder, sifted
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into pieces, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg, at room temperature

directions:
Position oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat oven to 375°F.

To make coconut filling:
Beat cream cheese and sugar at medium speed until smooth and light, about 1 minute. Beat in egg yolk, then vanilla, until smooth. Beat in coconut at low speed until evenly distributed. Set aside.

coconut filling

To make cookies:
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

Beat butter to soften. Add sugar and continue to beat until light and airy but still a little grainy. Beat in egg until smooth.

Add flour mixture, beat at low speed until just combined. Dough should be stiff but still pliable.

Using a small cookie scoop (about 1 TBSP), scoop dough into hand or a dry work surface. Flatten into a circle about 2 1/2 to 3 inches in diameter. Mound a heaping teaspoon of coconut filling onto the center of the dough. Fold the sides of the dough up, but do not seal the top.

chocolate coconut cookies 1

Place cookies on a greased cookie sheet 2 inches apart.

Bake for 9 minutes, rotate the sheet 180°, then bake for another 9 minutes or until the cookies are just starting to brown along the edges.

Cool on cookie sheets for 2 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Store at room temperature up to 3 days.

Makes about  2 1/2 dozen (although I think I may have gotten more than that)

chocolate coconut cookies 3

13 comments :

  1. I made these cookies two days ago. I just want to tell you they were beautiful. Thank you for posting this recipe along with the photos.

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  2. This is my 4th attempt at these cookies.  No matter what I do, they flatten out.  Any suggestions?

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  3. I'm sorry that happened! I know when my apt. is too warm, my cookies spread a lot. Maybe you might have handled the dough too much while flattening. Try placing them in the fridge for 10 minutes or so, so it can firm up a little.

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  4. I made these cookies tonight and was having a terrible time shaping them into mini gallettes, so instead I rolled the dough into small balls with my hands and pressed thumbprints into the balls. I then topped them with the coconut mixture. It was a great success- the coconut mixture was quite solid and did not run at all, and the final effect was something similar to little stuffed mushrooms. 

    ^-^

    Thanks for the great recipe.

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  5. Waaaay to much butter in the cookie part.  I had to add half a cup more flour just to make it doughy enough and even still I had to chill it  for 1/2 an hour after just to make it workable.   then they flattened and the cream cheese mixture ran out onto the cookie sheet.  Would have been better to maek squares with a cream cheese topping

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  6. These came out perfect!!!! I accidently read the butter wrong and used 3 sticks!!! So i doubled the rest of the ingredients and it came out perfect!!!!! I was so happy i was able to fix my mistake!! They are delish!!

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  7. Maybe if it spreads too much, try putting them in a muffin tin instead. Just a thought.

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  8. Haha that's what I did. Its way too hot in my house and I knew that they would melt otherwise

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  9. I just wanted to let you know that it's July in Seattle right now, which means it's warm and the house doesn't have AC (places aren't built with them due to it being pretty mild in the summers). It's about 78 in my house and probably warmer in the kitchen. I made the cookie with the filling, put them in the fridge for 10-20 minutes, then baked them, and they turned out fairly formed. Not quite as up and around the filling as yours, but I'm calling them good. They're not flat. Thanks for the refrigerator suggestion. I think I would have had a mess if I hadn't done that step. Mine also look very similar to a stuffed mushroom cap!

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  10. glad this worked out for you!

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  11. I think this recipe is missing some ingredients ! More flour & maybe 1tsp of baking powder. They shouldn't turn out flat just because your house/apt is hot...

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  12. I think much to problems everyone have experience can be remedied by flattening the cookie dough and placing it in a mini muffin pan. Once the filling is in the center and baked it should hold firm. Use foil cup liners or decorative seasonal paper liners. The recipe sound like it would make a beautiful and tasty cookie!

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  13. I think much of the problems everyone have experienced can be remedied by flattening the cookie dough and placing it in a mini muffin pan. Once the filling is in the center and baked it should hold firm. Use foil cup liners or decorative seasonal paper liners. The recipe sounds like it would make a beautiful and tasty cookie!

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