When an entire day passes in which you feel as though you’re living in a giant grey lightbox, cookies are a good idea.
The house was empty and I’d just spent a solid hour looking through the archives of my favorite food blogs. I wanted to make something… I just didn’t know what. You know those kinds of days?
Shutting my computer, I eventually realized what I really wanted were cookies. Cookies with whatever the heck I felt like putting in them. (That’s actually the official name of these cookies- Cookies with Whatever the Heck I Feel Like Putting in Them. But for the sake of brevity and clarity and search engines, I went with a more boring title.)
Anyways, I reached for our super messy recipe binder and referenced our marked-up copy of Toll House cookies, really just needing to know how much baking soda to use. I had zero intentions of making plain chocolate chip cookies. (Though there is absolutely nothing wrong with plain chocolate chip cookies.)
Cookies with whatever the heck I feel like means:
-the butter is browned.
-there are big chunks of dark chocolate.
-there’s some coconut too, because i haven’t used any in a while.
-i don’t pay any attention to the socially accepted amount of vanilla extract.
All of these things ensure a marvelous finished product; one that the whole house is already begging for again.
cookies with dark chocolate, pecans, and coconut
very loosely based on nestle toll house cookies
[ makes quite a few cookies, aka i forgot to count the exact number ]
1⅓ cups (5.5 ounces) flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
½ cup (4 ounces) butter, browned
¼ cup (2 ounces) white sugar
¼ cup (2 ounces) packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
⅓ cup + 2 tablespoons (¾ ounce) coconut chips
⅔ cup (3 ounces) dark chocolate, chopped
½ cup (2.25 ounces) pecans, chopped
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and sea salt.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the butter and sugars. Add the egg and vanilla extract. Stir vigorously for several seconds until the mixture is thick and pale and ribbon-y.
Add the flour mixture and stir a few times with a wooden spoon, then add the coconut, chocolate, and pecans and stir until just combined and no dry spots of flour remain.
Scoop into balls (about 2 tablespoons each) and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 9-11 minutes, until slightly golden around the edges. The cookies will not spread very much, and I like to take them out when they’re still just a bit shiny on top.
Note: This is one of those rare cookie recipes that can actually be baked right away, with no chilling involved. It’s a fairly stiff dough, so if you do plan to chill it, I would recommend forming it into balls before you do that. It will be easier that way.