Brown Butter Toasted Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

April 11, 2011

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I think what I need is someone to catch a grenade for me.

… perhaps someone to throw their hand on a blade for me.

Someone to jump in front of a train for me?

Wait.  What?  Clearly I have a problem.  I can not stop listening to this silly song.

… and now I want people catching grenades.  Please.

Actually, no.  All I really need is someone to make cookies for.  … and maybe someone to push a piano around Los Angeles for me.  That would be… odd.

Just listen to the song… most of the words I’ve written will make more sense.

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cookie making

I’ve wanted to make chocolate chip cookies for weeks.  For one reason or another I’ve been dilly-dallying with quinoa and scones and vegan cookies.

None of these things really removed my brain from chocolate chip cookies.

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Yesterday morning I woke up and browned butter.

See?  It’s literally brown.  It smells just as delicious as you might imagine.  The kind of delicious that you want to rub all of your body.  That kind.  The good kind.

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Once the butter was browned, I knew there were chocolate chip cookies in my future.

I just had no idea how dang good they would turn out.  I mean… seriously.  I kinda impressed myself.

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With browned butter and and AAANNNDDD toasted coconut, these cookies have depth.

If I had to use words to describe them (and I do have to), I would say these cookies are:  nutty, toasty, chewy on the inside, crunchy on the outside, studded with dark chocolate, a total high five, and a pat on the back.

test cookie

And they don’t bake up super flat.  They have junk in the trunk… thick thighs… you know what I mean.

Make these.  Catch grenades.

Brown Butter Toasted Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

makes just over 2 dozen cookies

recipe adapted from this smittenkitchen recipe

Print this Recipe!

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and browned to about 3/4 cup butter

1 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon salt (depending on how salty you like things)

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1/4 cup toasted coconut (I used unsweetened, but sweetened will work as well)

1 cup dark chocolate chunks

Place a rack in the center and upper third of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  On one baking sheet, spread out shredded coconut.  Toast coconut for about 6 minutes, until browned and fragrant.  Remove from the oven, place in a small bowl and let cool.

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  The butter will begin to foam and crackle.  That’s a great sign.  That means that the water is evaporating from the butter.  Once the crackling subsides, keep an eye on the butter.  The butter solids will begin to brown.  You’ll smell the butter as it browns.  Once well browned, immediately remove the butter from the flame and place in a small bowl.  Removing the butter from the pan will ensure that it doesn’t continue to cook and burn in the hot pan.  Allow the butter to cool for a few moments.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, measure granulated and brown sugar.  Add the brown butter and beat together, on medium speed, for about 2 minutes.  The sugar may still look grainy.  That’s ok.

Add the egg and egg yolk and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes.  The mixture should become silky smooth.  Add  vanilla extract and beat.

With mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients.  Beat until just incorporated.  Remove the bowl from the mixer and use a spatula to fold in the toasted coconut and chocolate chips.  Dough will be thick.

Cookies can be baked immediately, or the dough can be left in the refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes.

Spoon balls by the tablespoonful onto the prepared baking sheets.  Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until golden brown but still slightly soft in the center.  Remove from the oven.  Allow the cookies to cool on the pan for 5 minutes, before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store cookies in an airtight container until you can’t help but eat them all.  Delicious.

 

 

 

 

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{ 265 comments… read them below or add one }

o.d May 14, 2011 at 8:01 am

yumm! I made this today! I love it to bits. lucky me, coz only me in the house to eat em all! :D

this is how mine looks like :

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150160938388414&set=a.456643443413.241465.610798413&type=1&theater

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Elizabeth May 20, 2011 at 6:53 am

OMG yes please.

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Kimberly May 21, 2011 at 9:16 pm

Everytime I read your blog, it makes me wish we were friends because we have the same humor. Best Blog ever! You make the most clever recipes and everytime I copy it, they turn out amazing! Makes me want to have a nice glass of wine and bake and laugh and sing catchy songs like grenades with you :) haha keep up the good baking, girl!

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Aurora May 24, 2011 at 8:41 am

I held off on reviewing these until today because I’m not sure how I feel about them. I think my biggest problem is that I think that they are too sweet- the cookies have an almost grainy-ness from the sugar. I think that the brown butter does come through and so does the vanilla, but the overwhelming sweetness bulldozes everything. I would have also liked to taste the coconut more. Not that they are bad or anything, I’m just picky about cookies.

This makes 17 recipes that I’ve tried of yours. My favorites so far are the Red Velvet Black and White Cookies, Cinnamon Pull Apart Bread, and Spinach and Potato Breakfast Hash. I loved loved those three recipes to pieces. But I’ve liked pretty much everything and I think some of the others just require tweaking to fit my personal taste and multiple tries.

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Marina May 24, 2011 at 11:13 am

Just made these and they are DELICIOUS. but the dough was very crumbly and I really had to press the cookies into balls, then flatten them, to bake. Any ideas on how to make the dough more moist/why they came out that way?

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Tiffany May 24, 2011 at 2:17 pm

OK these were in fact delicious and by far the prettiest cookie I’ve ever baked. I am wondering though if I ruined the rest of the dough. I only baked half of it yesterday and refrigerated the rest… did I ruin it? The cookies don’t seem to be baking as pretty. :(

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Tina July 2, 2011 at 5:30 pm

Cookie dough is definitely not the same when you refrigerate it and use it the next day. Even when you leave it for an hour to go to the store to get chocolate chips…yea, been there done that.

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Katie June 6, 2011 at 4:22 pm

Made these this weekend and they are outta this world. I only had semi-sweet chocolate morsels on hand. They worked just fine, but made the cookie a little sweeter than I’d typically like.

So stick with the dark chocolate–so worth it.

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Bracelets homme June 7, 2011 at 2:51 pm

Thanks for this amazing recipe !

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Lisa June 14, 2011 at 11:05 am

Finally made these today after planning to for a while! I LOVED them… it’s amazing I even baked them since I couldn’t stop eating the dough. Mmmmm. Thanks for the awesome recipe.

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Kate June 19, 2011 at 8:45 am

The quintessential chocolate chip cookie! I used half whole wheat flour and half all purpose flour because that’s what I do and they still came out perfect. They will be my go to recipe for chocolate chip cookies. Thanks for the killer recipe!

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Elina June 20, 2011 at 12:51 pm

OH WOW! just got mine out of the owen, and they’re sooooo delicious!

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Sarah G. June 23, 2011 at 1:46 pm

these cookies came out great! I think I maybe browned my butter a little bit too long because the dough seemed a bit darker brown, but regardless they came out a nice pale color. Thanks for the recipe!

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eRiN June 26, 2011 at 12:05 am

I just found your blog today and I think I scrolled through about 6 months worth of recipes ^_^; this was the one I chose to make tonight because the cinnamon-sugar pull-apart bread was going to take too long for my impatient self! I ended up having to make my own brown sugar, also using your recipe, and the cookies turned out AMAZING. They taste like the most buttery, delicious toffee in cookie form. I loooove youuuuuu xD

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Neev July 2, 2011 at 10:30 pm

Hi there, I made these today and they were yum. However the cookies did not come out flat like yours any idea why that happened. Also next time I might add more coconut or leave it out altogether as it does not come through. The cookie dough tasted like caramel because of the brown butter.
Overall a great recipe…smiles for you.
Neev

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Carolyne September 1, 2011 at 2:53 am

Delicious!! Mine were a bit dry, I think I reduced the butter to less than the recommended 3/4 cup, but so good! You have really good taste in all sorts of sweets :)

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BRENDA September 21, 2011 at 10:37 am

These are wonderful cookies i have been making some very simmilar to this recipe for some time now. I use more brown sugar then white and add almond extract to the mix. The browned butter makes a big diffrence in the flavor of the cookie.

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KWeage@simplebakingmachines January 17, 2012 at 5:32 pm

JTB, you rock my socks off.

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Ellen February 20, 2012 at 2:47 am

Hi, I’ve green reading your blog for ages now, and i’ve made some recipes with great success!
I made these cookies for a New Years Party for the first time, doubled the recipe and made really big cookies. People went crazy over them, I had at least 50 and they were all gone in 15 minutes, tops! :)
Made them again last night, normal sized, and again they don’t disappoint :). I did decrease the chocolate chips to 2/3 cup, because last time I realized I prefer more dough than chocolate chips. This is my go to favorite recipe! Thank you :)
And keep writing those great posts, you’re my favorite foodblog to read! :)

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