Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hi everyone!  It has been very stressful the past couple weeks for me.  The lease for my college house ended at the end of July, so I have been busy packing things up and moving things out to go back home. Once I got home, my room looked as if a hurricane came though and I just couldn't deal with the chaos for a few days before I was able to start tackling the mess and organizing it bit by bit.

Before I packed everything away, I had been scanning through my pantry to see what food I could use up... one less thing to take back (and I hate throwing away food). I noticed I had a bag of coconut that I had used just a little bit of for coconut shrimp. I was wondering, what could I use the rest of this coconut for? I knew I wanted it to be something sweet versus savory and I had asked my boyfriend if he wanted any cookies for when I went to visit him.

Enter coconut chocolate chip cookies.  Chocolate chip cookies are always a great cookie to make, because who doesn't love them? I thought it would be a fun and interesting twist to incorporate coconut into them as well!

I modified the chocolate chip cookie recipe I normally use and went from there! They were the perfect combination of crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside.

Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 C packed brown sugar
1/4 C granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 1/2 C sweetened coconut flakes
1 1/2 C semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 F

Whisk flour, baking soda and salt in a medium sized bowl. Set aside.

Combine softened butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar in a large bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time and until well blended. Add the vanilla. Making sure you scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Add the flour mixture a little at a time until well blended.  Add the coconut and then the chocolate chips

Drop dough, about 1 inch in diameter onto a lined cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Depending on your oven, bake 9 to 11 minutes or until golden. Remove from oven and allow cookies to cool on a wire rack or a spare piece of parchment paper.

You can keep these in an airtight container for about a week, although they probably won't even last that long!  Cookies are best enjoyed with a glass of milk :)