Recipe: Chewy Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Image found here

I had leftover shredded coconut and a lot of chocolate chips, so I had to give this recipe from the Chew Out Loud blog a go. And I prefer chewy cookies, so it sounded even better!

Ingredients

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp table salt
• 1/4 cup salted butter, softened to room temp (not melty)
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups finely shredded coconut, sweetened or unsweetened
• 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

1. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, blend together the butter and both sugars until fluffy and light, 3-4 minutes. (Alternatively, you can use an electric hand whisk.) Add egg and vanilla extract, mixing until incorporated and smooth.
3. On low speed, gently mix in the dry flour mixture just until incorporated, scraping down the sides as needed; do not over-mix. Add coconut and chocolate chips and slowly mix just until combined; again, do not over-mix. Wrap dough airtight in cling wrap and chill for at least 1 hours, or up to several days in fridge.
4. When ready to bake, heat oven to 350°F, with rack on lower middle position. Line baking sheets with parchment or silicone mat. Let chilled dough sit at room temp 5-10 min. Form 1 TB rounded dough balls, 2 inches apart on lined baking sheets. Slightly depress dough balls, as they will only spread moderately during baking. Bake about 8 minutes or just until golden; cookies will seem slightly under-baked, but will set upon cooling.

I wanted to make the cookies right then and there, so I did not refrigerate the dough. And my brown sugar had turned into a solid rock, so I used more white granulated sugar instead. But otherwise I think I followed the recipe closely. And they do taste good and are chewy!

But overall I was disappointed with this recipe. The dough was SO hard to work with. Perhaps it was because the coconut I used was sort of dry, but it didn't incorporate well, and neither did the chocolate chips. After I had made the cookies into balls, I had more than a handful of chocolate chips left at the bottom of the bowl. What a waste! I did save them so I can add them to some granola, but when I make a recipe, I expect to use all of the ingredients. And because the incorporating wasn't good, it was difficult to shape the cookies as well. Maybe I over-mixed the dough, but it didn't feel like it!

There are lots of coconut chocolate chip recipes out there. I would recommend trying something else. (Like the sprinkle chocolate chip cookies I made the next day.)