Jill Can Cook: Coconut Almond Cookies

I still have some coconut flakes that I'd like to use up, so a few weeks ago I looked through a couple recipes that require them and came up with this one. I started pulling all the ingredients down from my shelves and realized that I was missing the almond extract. Everything went back into the cabinets and I completely forgot about wanting to make these.

About a week ago, I was at my mom's house and she opened up her spice cabinet. It randomly made me think of this recipe and my missing ingredient.

"Do you have any almond extract?" I asked her.
"That's random. Yes, I do. You need it?" she asked right back.
Well, duh, mom, of course I need it. I know I'm pretty random in general, but sometimes there's a method to my randomness. Anyway, I gladly took the almond extract off of her hands.

Thanks, Mom, for saving me from making a trip to the store! Now that I had my missing ingredient, I couldn't wait to make these.

Coconut Almond Cookies

Ingredients                

Remind me I need to buy flour and sugar! Those levels are dangerously low!

        

1 cup butter, softened

1 1⁄2 cup white sugar,

1 egg,

2 tbsp water,

1 tsp almond extract,

2 1⁄2 cup all-purpose flour, sifted

3⁄4 tsp baking powder,

1⁄2 cup flaked coconut, pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg, water and almond extract. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; stir into the creamed mixture. Stir in coconut. Roll the dough into walnut sized balls. Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto the cookie sheet.
3. Bake for 12-15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly browned on the bottom. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Makes about 24 cookies.

 

This turned out to be a super easy recipe. I made them in no time!

The batter just before I dropped spoonfuls on my cookie sheet.

Maybe I was able to make these so quickly because I didn't take a whole lot of pictures! Hahaha, actually, I did take a couple more pictures, but I didn't feel like boring you with them all. I wanted to get right to the finished product:

These are the most boring looking cookies EVER!!

I pulled the first batch out of the oven. I took a nice big inhale and didn't smell almond or coconut. I found that to be pretty odd considering the almond smell of the uncooked batter was almost sickening!

I knew what I had to do.

I had to eat a cookie, ya know, just to be sure they were the right ones.

No idea why they have craters in them, but they're not too noticeable.

The first bite didn't offer as much almond/coconut flavor as I would've thought. I was starting to become concerned that maybe I only imagined borrowing the almond extract from my mom. Maybe it was just a dream. Maybe.. maybe... maybe not, because by the time I got to the second bite of my fresh-out-of-the-oven cookie I started to get that flavor. It was very subtle. It was very satisfying. It was exactly the intensity I was hoping for actually.

Delish!

I considered adding chocolate chips to these cookies while I was putting the batter together. While they were baking, I kind of regretted not adding them, since they looked so boring. But once I tasted one, I was glad I'd left them out.

I don't want to sound like I want to live in a museum, but by not having chocolate chips in them, I'm more apt to let the kids devour them! I love that they won't make a big mess in the hands of little kids!

I give this recipe an A. Very tasty. Not too sweet. Plus they're a nice chewy consistency.