School's back in full swing again! I flew back to California on the 14th to spend some time in NorCal with N. You remember her, right? I stayed with her in February for a week before we drove back down to Los Angeles.
We're living together this year, so moving back in was super easy. Our other roommates, J and D, were already there when we arrived. It was a simple move in, but class and sorority rush really were draining!
Thankfully, everything has settled into a nice routine. And with that, I have time to blog!
I made these cookies last April for a family Easter party. I took pictures of about half of the process... then promptly forgot about photographing in all the excitement. Without any further ado, coconut chocolate chip cookies! Here's my inspiration.
You will need:
-3/4 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature
-1 cup of light brown sugar
-1 egg, room temperature
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-pinch of salt
-1 tsp baking powder
-1 cup all-purpose flour
-1 and 1/2 cups coconut flakes
-1 and 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
Oven temperature: 350˚. Rack in the middle, please and thanks!
Get those cookies started by creaming together butter and sugar. Use a mixer if you have one, or get your arm workout by using a fork. Guess which one I did? (Side note, does anyone want to buy me a mixer for my birthday? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?)
When creaming together butter and sugar, make sure that they are fully incorporated. The butter should be fluffy and there should be no clumps of either sugar or butter.
Then, add the egg and the vanilla extract. Mix very, very well. You do not want any bits of un-mixed egg or vanilla. That will be extremely nasty both taste-wise and texturally. Trust me. The incorporated mix will look sort of gross at this point but it'll look better in a minute. Promise!
Now, add the baking powder and the salt. Combine well. Then, add the flour bit by bit and mix until all is incorporated. It should be nice and smooth. This is when it'll really look like cookie dough! Sample a tiny bit just to make sure it tastes delicious, as it should!
Add all that delicious coconut. Like delicious, sweet, textural snow... can you tell I'm a bit obsessed? It makes these cookies so gloriously chewy! Combine it so that the coconut flakes are evenly distributed through the dough.
Then, stir in the chocolate chips. The dough is going to be super chocolatey. Just chips on chips on chips! It may look like all the chips won't fit in the dough, but stir them in. You're gonna have a lot of chocolate, I guarantee it. I forgot to take a picture in my excitement but no worries! Plenty of pictures of steps to come.
Dollop your cookie dough onto a lightly (lightly!) greased baking sheet. I like me some big cookies, so they're probably about a tablespoon and a half/two tablespoons worth of dough. Pat them down lightly. It's sticky dough so it may be hard to shape, but feel free to chill it before baking if you'd like to be able to shape them.
Sprinkle with some sea salt and pop those suckers in the oven! I baked mine for nine minutes, since I like soft cookies, and then left them on the sheet to cool. If you want firm, crunchy cookies, leave them in the oven for closer to twelve minutes. Just check frequently so nothing burns!
Once they're cool(ish), dig in! They're chewy and delicious. My roommates (and the girls across the hall) came flocking with glasses of milk. Not to toot my own horn, but one of my friends took a bite, looked straight at me, and exclaimed, "Dude... On. Point." (toot toot)
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| Side note: these are not my fingers. Thanks I! |
Now I have friends to bake and cook for, I will hopefully be back to blogging more often! Stay tuned for more simple college recipes from my shiny new apartment. Next week, look forward to a Mexican-inspired dinner for one!
