C.T.C.T.C. Cookies… haha! I don’t know why that amuses me so much!

Anyway, I’ve been thinking a lot about those Girl Scout Cookies… you know the shortbread ones covered in caramel and coconut and drizzled in chocolate?? I thought a lot about that caramel, and the texture of the cookie. I like the dryness of the cookie, contrasting with the chewiness of the caramel. I had some heavy cream in the fridge that I had originally earmarked for caramel, but then I made pastry cream (for no apparent reason, since it’s still whipped up and sitting in the fridge). I decided that I would make a simple toffee for my cookies instead… I thought about drizzling the hot toffee through cookie dough and baking the cookies with oozy ribbons of toffee running through them and dipping them in chocolate. Then, I thought about making toffee flavored shortbread and rolling them through coconut flakes like Mexican Wedding Cookies but with coconut instead of powdered sugar. But I finally decided I wanted something thick, chewy, and flecked with toffee, coconut, and chocolate.

Despite the toffee, these cookies are not overly sweet, instead they are mildly flavored with molasses and vanilla. The coconut toffee and chocolate just add a bit of sweetness and complexity to the cookies. I think next time, I’ll scale up the coconut and perhaps use chunkier flakes.

Chewy Toasted Coconut Toffee Chocolate Cookies (adapted by some large stretch of imagination from All Recipes)

• 12 tablespoons of unsalted butter, softened just a bit (maybe 30 seconds in the microwave)
• 1 cup of granulated sugar
• 3-4 tablespoons of molasses (I used 4 but feel free to use less if you are sensitive to the bitterness of molasses)
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 cups of flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of flakey salt (again, feel free to use less if you dislike saltier cookies)
• 1 cup of crushed Coconut Toffee (recipe to follow) (Make this about 2 hours before the cookies so it has time to cool)
• 1 cup of flaked chocolate

1. Preheat the oven to 350F
2. In a large bowl cream the butter, sugar, and molasses until smooth.
3. Beat in vanilla and the egg and egg yolk until creamy and smooth.
4. Sprinkle in the flour and baking soda and salt. (I know, I know, I don’t use two bowls, but I promise this works just fine so long as you sprinkle and distribute the leavening ingredients as you mix it in)
5. Stir in coconut toffee and chocolate
6. Spoon in 1 tablespoon scoops onto parchment lined cookie sheets (Important! Because the toffee will get everywhere as you bake).
7. Bake at 350F for about 12 minutes or until just puffed and the edges are just crisp. The cookies will deflate a little once they come out of the oven. If you prefer crispy cookies, bake for a couple more minutes until the edges are crisp and the centers of the cookies have fallen.
8. Should make 24-30 cookies. I made mine a bit larger than a tablespoon and got 26 cookies (so far only 24 are left).

Coconut Toffee (ummm… I made it up?)

• 1 cup of sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 1/2 cup of toasted coconut, unsweetened

1. Melt sugar in a pan until smooth and deeply golden
2. Remove from the heat, and add butter in slices
3. Stir until smooth on low heat
4. On a pan, spread 1/2 of the coconut making a slightly thicker lip to contain the toffee in a bounded area (nerd alert)
5. Pour the toffee onto the pan
6. Sprinkle the top of the toffee with the remaining coconut
7. Cool
8. Smash with your fist, a hammer, your head, or any heavy instrument. Add to cookie dough, yogurt, or anyplace that needs awesomeness.

Ta Da!!!

xoxo -H