Coconut Cookies
Text and Photo © JE Nilsson and CM Cordeiro 2012
I grew up with colourful homemade coconut candy and have been so accustomed to the thought that the recipes for most coconut related foods would contain Asian influences, I was surprised to have found a coconut cookie recipe in the Swedish cookie book, Sju sorters kakor that was labelled a “traditional” Swedish recipe!
Of course Sweden already began trading with the Far East since the 1700s, and would have had access to a variety of tropical spices and food types, so on hindsight, it was perhaps the realization that these coconut cookies were a favourite sort of the household that came as a pleasant discovery.
Coconut batter.
It takes less than 30 minutes to put together this batter, the ingredients being just four:
50g butter (melted)
2 eggs
ca. 90g sugar
200g desiccated coconut
The desiccated coconut is simply stirred into the butter and eggs mixture.
The eggs and sugar were whisked till a light yellow with some air incorporated, then in went the butter and coconut. The mixture was left to sit at room temperature till the coconut softened some and the mixture was spooned onto a lined baking pan about an inch apart from each other as these cookies tend to spread and flatten some during baking.
This recipe isn’t too fussy with the shape of the cookie and you’ll have a choice to making cookies that are fairly rounded or flatter at the top. Depending on the shape of the cookies, the baking time at 175C will differ if the cookies are flatter. On average, it takes just 12 minutes in the oven per batch.
What results is a crisp around the edges but chewy in the center cookie, the flavour of which reminds me of Love Letters. Once in your mouth, a ratatouille moment will give sudden inspiration for all sorts of toppings and hot drinks that might go with this cookie, from dunking it in melted chocolate or to let it stand and coat itself in a pool of decadent dark chocolate for that homemade Bounty resemblance, to grating lime rind over the cookies for a more refreshing ‘by the beach’ feel to each bite. Hot chocolate is often my preferred choice of drink but in this warm summer months in Sweden, a tall cold glass of milk works well too.