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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Kartik @ Bakeology 101
Anything is always better with browned butter! That should be a new catchphrase. My first experience with it was making a brown butter hazelnut cake and I look forward to do making more brown butter recipes now with this one.
This recipe is almost like a thriller – starts off with a bang with browned butter, rises to its climax with toasted coconut, and ends in a whirlwind of chocolate.
Rachel @ The Avid Appetite
I have been dying to try something with brown butter! I think I just need to go ahead and do it :) Thanks for sharing this!
Seanna Lea
I really want to make these, but my husband is one of the coconut averse. Silly man.
Maybe I will make a half and half batch and just add the coconut in to some of them.
joythebaker
good thinkin!
Mary at n00bcakes
Love that you’ve been working with coconut recently…I adore chocolate + coconut. Mounds are my favorite thing – EVER. Can’t wait to give these cookies a try. Thanks Joy!
Hannah
Darling I would catch a grenade for these.
Also, browned butter is awesome. After the first time I browned butter, I have never just melted butter again.
Mary Margeson
Ooooohhhhh….browned butter. I was craving chocolate chip cookies so much the other night that it made me sad and pouty that I didn’t have choc. chips or chunks or anything in the house! THEN I realized that we had some leftover favors from our one-year old friend’s birthday party. Chocolate lions!! Woo-hoo! Chopped those suckers up and threw them right into some cookie batter! :)
Thanks for what appears to be another scrumptious recipe, Joy! AND a funny new song to listen to! :)
Erika
Browned butter just takes things to the next level, doesn’t it? I also love Smitten Kitchen’s Rice Krispie Treats with browned butter – WOW! It makes such a difference!
p.s. Loving the little chickie in the photo…
Kati
Lol, the song! I work at a small Christian university. A couple of weeks ago, my very buttoned up, middle-aged, conservative boss came into my office to use the copier. While standing there, he started singing that song. I almost fell out of my chair! A week later he asked me if I liked Rihanna’s new song “S&M.” Wow.
Samantha Angela @ Bikini Birthday
I love browned butter. and coconut. and crunchy-on-the-outside chewy-on-the-inside cookies.
I might need to pull a piano across LA to burn off all the calories I’d be eating if I bake these.
Rita D
Swoon~I’ve had chocolate chip cookies on the brain for weeks. This just might send me over the edge into baking them.
Laura @ SweetSavoryPlanet
coconut is the best! Chocolate makes it better and I love the browned butter touch.
Sara
hahaha! I hear that song daily and in spin class…it sticks with you! Can’t wait to make these cookies for my friends! Thanks :)
jen @ the baked life
That song is borderline annoying and amazing all at once. I think it’s because the radio plays it CONSTANTLY. These cookies on the other hand are only amazing. Browned butter should be put in everything it is that good. I’ve said it before, I could bathe in that stuff.
Kerry
your tablescape makes me want to dance!!
joythebaker
you totally just said tablescape.
kerry
I’m kind of a huge nerd. Slash wannabe intetior designer.
Michelle
SNAP! These are going in the oven today.
Cheerio!