Realistic Coconut Cookies
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These realistic coconut cookies are four times coconutty -- made of creamed coconut, coconut powder, coconut flour, and convincingly created in the likeness of the fruit itself.
They are delightfully crispy, crumbly, and sandy, thanks to the base of coconut flour, which is simply milled dried coconut. The coconut flour gives the textural mouth feel of extra finely shredded coconut. It also makes them gluten-free.
Enrobed in white and dark chocolates, these realistic mini coconuts are cookies with a wonderful, flavorful balance.
Supplies
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The special supply you will need to shape and bake these cookies is a cake pop pan.
The ingredients are:
6 oz block of creamed coconut, softened in microwave for 30 seconds
1/4 cup salted butter, softened and chopped
1/4 cup condensed milk
1 large egg yolk
1.7 oz packet of coconut powder
1 cup coconut flour
Milk and white chocolates, chopped
Recipe yields approximately 2 dozen coconut cookies
Coconut Cookie Dough
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- Whisk together creamed coconut and butter on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. This takes about 2 minutes.
- Add condensed milk and egg yolk. Continue whisking on medium-high speed for another 2 minutes until creamy and smooth.
- Whisk in coconut powder and coconut flour on low speed until clumps of dough are formed. When you touch the dough, you would be able to ball the clumps together.
Shape Little Coconuts
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- Scoop 1 packed tablespoon of dough into a cavity of the cake pop pan.
- Push the center of the dough towards the wall of the cavity by using a smaller measuring spoon or by hand. I conveniently have a 1/2 tbsp measuring spoon to create that perfectly-sized center.
- Repeat for the remaining dough. My cake pop pan has 18 cavities, so I had to do a second round after baking the first batch.
Bake Coconut Cookies
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- Bake in a preheated 300F oven for 20 minutes. The centers would have risen just slightly. As soon as you take the pan out of the oven while the cookies are hot, you can press the center down with the same measuring spoon you used to shape the dough.
- Let the cookies cool in the pan for 10 minutes so that they can set and prevent crumbling.
- Remove the cookies from the pan and let cool further on a cooling rack.
- Remove the cracked edges to make a more realistic edge to the little coconuts by shaving the surface with a small, sharp knife.
White Chocolate Center
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- Melt and temper white chocolate.
- Add about a half teaspoon of melted white chocolate into the center.
- Using the back of the measuring spoon, coat the center and edges. If there isn't enough chocolate to coat the edges entirely, dip the edges into the melted chocolate just enough for a thin coating.
Dark Chocolate Coconut Shells
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- Melt and temper dark chocolate. You may see I also had shaved dark chocolate on the side, but found the shavings weren't necessary at all.
- Pour the melted chocolate over the domed side of the little cookies as they are set on a rack that will allow the chocolate to drain on a baking sheet. Again, I didn't find it helpful to add shaved dark chocolate to the melted cookies, so you can skip the dark chocolate shavings.
- Let set. Turn over and shave off any protruding dark chocolate.
- As I found that the dark chocolate shavings didn't really provide the textural effect I wanted, I discovered the best way to have the realistic texture of a coconut shell was to use a silicone brush with the melted chocolate.
- To add a more realistic texture of a coconut shell, brush melted chocolate from the top of the dome downwards. Repeat the same brush stroke all around the dome.
Go Coco-nuts!
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Turn the little coconut cookies over, take a bite, and go nuts!