cookies

I love cookies. They are one of my favorite treats. You can have one if you want something sweet but are not in the mood for a lot of sugar or half a dozen if you want a sugar rush. You can serve them with milk or hot chocolate or they are just as good with with water or kool-aid when you're on a picnic. They are hand held and already portioned as a single serving food for little ones. And they come in more varieties than any other food I know.

All that being said, I have a new favorite cookie. Now chocolate chip is the standard. I make those at least once a week or so. I love them and will always love them and nothing will replace them, but when I want to make something different, well....I make things up. I actually just find recipes I think sound good then I tweak them a little to what I like. My chocolate covered cherry cookies used to be my favorite (a basic koolaid cookie recipe using cherry flavor then dipping them in melted chocolate after baking and cooling). However I found a recipe that I modified so I will share with you my version along with a few variations I've tried.

Coconut Almond Cookies

1 cup butter softened
3/4 cup superfine ( I use regular granulated) sugar
1 egg yolk slightly beaten
1 tsp Almond extract
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
pinch of salt
1 cup coconut
chopped, slivered or sliced almonds are optional, I usually don't have them so I do with out, they do make a nice touch when you've got them though.

Put butter and sugar in a bowl and mix well. Beat in egg yolk and almond extract. Add flour and salt, add coconut and mix until thoroughly combined.

Scoop up tablespoons of the mixture and roll into balls, flatten somewhat and bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes.

These are not a super sweet cookie and my favorite thing about these is what you can do with them.

Make a hollow with your thumb and put a small dollop of your favorite jam in before baking or I added lemon curd (basically lemon pie filling) then after baking when they had cooled I drizzled some with melted white chocolate and dusted others with powdered sugar. ( Those I called "Sunrise in Paradise".

Or take half the dough and add 1 tablespoon of unsweetened baking cocoa and mix well take a small scoop of each of the regular and chocolate doughs, make balls then put them together and flatten Jonas calls them "Yin Yang" cookies because that's just about what they look like. I just call them "chocolate almond coconut cookies" although Jonas' name is shorter.

You can also just brush a powder sugar glaze (3/4 cup powdered sugar, 2 tbs melted butter, 1 tbs milk) over the top of the plain cookie. This makes them a little sweeter and adds a nice shine.

Anyway there you go. Remember there is a cookie for any occasion, call me, I'll help you find it or make it up.