I was flipping through Nick Malgieri's Cookies Unlimited when I saw a recipe for "Crisp Coconut Cookies" that rang a bell for some reason. As I read the recipe, I saw that it uses baker's ammonia. That reminded me that commenter Louise, the person who first got me interested in using baker's ammonia, had mentioned this cookie when commenting on a post I wrote about experimenting with ammonia in speculaas.
To make the dough, you beat together butter, sugar, and vanilla, incorporate the dry ingredients (flour, ammonia, salt), and then stir in sweetened, shredded coconut. You scoop out the dough and bake. One thing you need to know about baking with ammonia is that you cannot eat the raw dough; it smells and tastes like window cleaner. I had specifically warned Tom (who is known to taste raw cookie dough now and then) not to eat the dough. I'm not sure why he ignored my caution, but while I was baking I saw Tom out of the corning of my eye sampling a piece of dough. I didn't need to say anything more; he immediately spit it out and ran to the sink for some water. I'm sure he will not make that mistake again!
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When these cookies were fresh out of the oven, their texture wasn't what I wanted at all; they were friable and sandy. The whole point of using baker's ammonia is to get something crisp. I thought that the cookies were a bit meh, and to boost the flavor a bit, I decided to coat their undersides with chocolate and toasted unsweetened coconut. I call this giving them the Pepperidge Farm treatment, and it works exceedingly well with the Vanilla Dreams from King Arthur Flour, using chocolate and pistachios.
Because a spell of hot and humid weather hit D.C. the day I baked these cookies, I put them in the refrigerator so the chocolate could set. Straight out of the fridge, this cookie had a perfect, crispy, texture. The toasted coconut really boosted the coconut flavor in the cookie, and it added a wonderful texture as well. While I still think the plain cookie isn't terribly interesting, with the added chocolate coating and toasted coconut, the cookie is fantastic. I highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of coconut.
Recipe: "Crisp Coconut Cookies" from Cookies Unlimited, by Nick Malgieri.
To make the dough, you beat together butter, sugar, and vanilla, incorporate the dry ingredients (flour, ammonia, salt), and then stir in sweetened, shredded coconut. You scoop out the dough and bake. One thing you need to know about baking with ammonia is that you cannot eat the raw dough; it smells and tastes like window cleaner. I had specifically warned Tom (who is known to taste raw cookie dough now and then) not to eat the dough. I'm not sure why he ignored my caution, but while I was baking I saw Tom out of the corning of my eye sampling a piece of dough. I didn't need to say anything more; he immediately spit it out and ran to the sink for some water. I'm sure he will not make that mistake again!
.JPG)
Because a spell of hot and humid weather hit D.C. the day I baked these cookies, I put them in the refrigerator so the chocolate could set. Straight out of the fridge, this cookie had a perfect, crispy, texture. The toasted coconut really boosted the coconut flavor in the cookie, and it added a wonderful texture as well. While I still think the plain cookie isn't terribly interesting, with the added chocolate coating and toasted coconut, the cookie is fantastic. I highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of coconut.
Recipe: "Crisp Coconut Cookies" from Cookies Unlimited, by Nick Malgieri.
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