Coconut Dream Cookies

Thank God for holiday reruns- I was able to catch  the Cooking Channel's Cookies and Cocktails Special just before Christmas.  The show is a gathering of celebrity friends showcasing their prized or special cookie recipes.  There were a couple of items I wanted to try but what stood out is Coconut Dream Cookies which also came out number one as each of the celebrities voted on which one is the best. Hmm it just won my curiosity and since I have the ingredients, I decided to include it in my list of holiday goody bag stuffers.

The recipe looked simple although I was shocked that it calls for a tablespoon of salt.  Typo or not, I had to skip that part.  I can only do a pinch on anything I bake; half a teaspoon at the most.  
So I followed the recipe but used only a pinch of salt and skipped the dried cherries just because I don't have it and didn't notice it is included in the list of ingredients.  Here's how I made my version:

COCONUT DREAM COOKIES

Ingredients

2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 extra large eggs
pinch of salt

3 tbsp milk

1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 tsp baking soda dissolved in 2 tsp hot water

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon

3 cups flaked coconut

2 1/2 cups dark chocolate chunks or (chocolate chips)

Procedure:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. 

Cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add the milk, vanilla and baking soda mixture. Combine the flour, salt and cinnamon and slowly add to the butter mixture. Fold in the coconut and chocolate chunks
Chill the dough in a plastic covered bowl.  Use a big ice cream scoop and place each mound an inch or so apart from each other on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Bake until the edges are lightly browned, 10 to 14 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes. 

My cookies turned out chunky, plump and round; resulting from almost-frozen dough; moist inside with crispy exterior.  The dark chocolate chunks I used sort of tamed the sweetened coconut flakes so it was the perfect balance of sweet, nutty and chocolaty goodness. 

I realized that the only missing ingredient here is almond nut and this is like Almond Joy chocolate bar in cookie form except that the chocolate part came out in chunks and dark which I love. Seriously, I never liked Almond Joy.  I would just take out the almonds and that's it.  But it's a nice concept to turn it into cookies and I see myself at it in the future. 

The other recipes worth trying are my fave John Legend's Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies and Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookie (hmm reminds me of chocolate covered bacon in the past.  These will be on my future posts.