Coconut White Chocolate Cookies

Coconut White Chocolate Cookies - made May 4, 2013 from Gonna Want Seconds

Last weekend was really hot in my part of the country.  As in too hot to turn my oven on.  But I would never let that deter me when I want to bake.  Technically, I didn't bake but I got ready to do some serious baking, meaning I stockpiled cookie doughs.  I mixed up several different batches (which will appear on my blog in the coming days), portioned them into dough balls and stored them in my freezer, waiting for an appropriate time to bake them. It was too hot to bake in the afternoon so I waited until early the next day when it was a little cooler to bake off a test batch to take to my parents' house after church.

This was slightly different than a typical coconut white chocolate chip cookie in that it was more like a cakey butter cookie than a caramelized brown sugar cookie.  I chopped up Lindt white chocolate into chunks as the "chips" and had a liberal hand with the coconut.  I liked this cookie overall although I would probably shave a minute off of the baking time to make it slightly less cakey and a bit more "fudgy".  The second cookie sheet I baked off at a later date was better since I underbaked it - the texture was more moist, less cakey and more dense.

10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
2/3 cup white chocolate chips or chunks

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF
2. Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer until light and creamy. Add the egg and beat well. Add the flour, baking powder, salt and coconut and mix well. Add the white chocolate.
3. With  a large cookie/ice cream scoop parcel out dough and flatten slightly with the bottom of a glass. Place on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper or silpat silicone liner. Leave 1" space between each cookie to allow for cookies to spread, leaving room to spread. Repeat with remaining mixture. Bake for 10 to 14 minutes or until light golden. Allow to cool on trays.