Coconut Sugar Cookies

Coconut Sugar Cookies - made dough June 26, 2022 from Pizzazzerie

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar plus 1/3 cup sugar for rolling

1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons coconut extract

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In the bowl of stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar on medium-high speed for 3 minutes, until texture is light and fluffy.
3. Beat in egg, egg yolk, vanilla and coconut extract, mixing on medium speed until combined.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Slowly add dry ingredients to creamed mixture, mixing after each addition until just combined. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl to keep mixture even textured. Beat in coconut flakes.
5. Portion into golf-ball-size dough balls and flatten slightly into thick discs. Roll in additional granulated sugar. Evenly space on prepared baking sheets. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until edges are golden brown and middles have set. Cool for several minutes on baking sheets then remove to wire rack to cool completely.

2nd batch baked in a non-convection setting

I was on a business trip last week that had me in a different time zone. Thanks to a(nother) delayed connection, I went more than 24 hours without sleep before I finally made it home. This meant some recent difficulties with jet lag and adjusting to my local time zone again. Which turned out to work in my (baking) favor because when you wake up at 2 am and give up trying to get back to sleep after an hour, you've got time to bake some cookies at o'dark thirty before the day gets too hot.

1st batch baked on the convection setting

I wanted to try something a little different for my next military care package for Soldiers Angels and I liked how these looked on Pizzazerie's blog. Mine didn't turn out quite as good looking as hers. I'm going to blame still trying to adjust to my new oven. It heats up faster and bakes more to the posted temp than the ovens at my old house (those ovens ran cool) when it's in a non-convection setting. I like to bake cookies on a convection setting and for the first batch, I had it on 350 degrees convection. 

It's hard to tell from the pictures but the cookies baked on the convection setting baked more slowly and spread more. For the second batch, I switched to the regular setting and those seemed to bake faster and spread less. It's possible I should've waited a few minutes after the oven reached the convection setting temperature before putting the first cookie sheet in as perhaps the oven wasn't hot enough. 

Despite these oven adventures, I loved how these cookies turned out. The sugar coating before baking makes them a little sweeter after baking so if you want to cut back on the sweetness, you can omit the coating step as the cookies themselves are sweet enough without it.

I liked both the texture and flavor of these. I didn't use coconut extract like the original recipe called for because I don't like the artificial flavor of coconut extract. Instead I substituted vanilla extract and I liked the flavor just fine. If you do want to amp up the coconut flavor, you can use coconut extract and/or roll these in coconut flakes before baking. These cookies also hold up well in hot summer weather since they don't need a frosting and they're sturdy enough to mail or bring to a summer get together.