Coconut Butter Cookies

 When I saw the posting from Jess (Ya another Jess :p) that she will be hosting for Aspiring Bakers #3 for January 2011, although the lazy bud still cling tightly on me, I told myself I must bake some cookies to give her support. I did not have hard time thinking of what cookies to bake for this event, my priority definitely goes to the coconut butter cookies that I always wanted to bake since the 1st time saw it at Dodol & Mochi.

Pei Lin misread the recipe and used coconut cream powder instead of dessicated coconut called by the original recipe. For me, I intended to use both dessicated coconut and coconut cream powder but during the preparation of ingredients I then realised I had used up the packet of coconut ceam powder so left me only with 25g of dessicated coconut from my other bakes for this round of baking.

My cookies are not as flat as Pei Lin's cookies, the color of the cookies also not as golden and attractive as hers. I guess my oven's temperature is higher that the base of the cookies are much more darker, nearly look charred :P.

I am submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #3 : My Favorite CNY Cookie (Jan 2011) hosted by Jess of i3ss kitch3n.

Recipe adapted from Dodol & Mochi which orginated from《孟老師的100道手工餅乾》。孟兆慶 著

Ingredients : makes about 13 x 15g and 6 x 10g cookies
(A)
100 g cake flour – sifted once
10 g cornstarch – sifted once
20 g coconut cream powder – sifted once (I used 25g dessicated coconut)

* The original recipe calls for desiccated coconut. You need not sift this. *

(B)
75 g unsalted butter – softened at room temperature
50 g powdered sugar – sifted once
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Method :
1. Whisk (A) together thoroughly, then set aside for use later.
2. Place (B) into a medium-sized mixing bowl, then blend the ingredients together slightly with help from a rubber spatula. Now, with an electric hand mixer, cream them up on high speed till pale and fluffy (i.e. buttercream-like consistency).
3. With a rubber spatula or sturdy (wooden) spoon, gradually fold to mix the flour mixture into the creamed mixture, in two or three batches, till a dough has just formed – DON’T overwork the dough as you may risk getting tough cookies in the end.
4. Wrap the dough up in plastic film, then let it chill and rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes. (I left the dough in a bowl and cover with cling wrap and kept in the fridge for about 2 hrs)
5. Remove the dough from the fridge. Then, scoop out 15 or 10 grams of dough for each cookie and roll it into a ball. Place the shaped cookie dough on parchment-lined baking sheet(s), leaving about 4 centimeters apart in between the cookies. The dough will spread during baking. Repeat till the dough is used up.
6. First, bake at 160°C for about 25 minutes. After that, turn off the oven and leave the cookies inside, with the oven door shut, for about 10 minutes.
7. Remove the cookies from the oven, and transfer them to cooling rack(s) to let cool.

Verdict?
The cookies are crunchy and crispy, I might have overwork the dough that the cookies are a bit hard, nevertheless they are still delicious and addictive. The only down side of the cookies are the coconut taste is very very mild which I will prefer to be stronger but I love the crunchiness of dessicated coconut during the munching of cookies. Next time, I will definitely use both coconut cream powder and dessicated coconut and probably increase the amount to try it out again.