Recipe: Indulgent Butter Cookies

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Indulgent Butter Cookies

Makes about 48 cookies

These bountiful drop cookies -- soft, chewy and buttery -- can be made with all the extras. The dough can be made and refrigerated overnight before baking; increase the baking time by a minute or two for chilled dough.

The dough can be frozen, well wrapped, for up to 3 weeks. Adapted from cookbook author Lisa Yockelson.

3 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 pound plus 5 tablespoons (21 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/3 cups packed dark brown sugar

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

Seeds scraped from 1 moist vanilla bean

5 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups firmly packed sweetened flaked coconut

About 18 ounces (3 cups) semisweet chocolate morsels

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line several heavy baking sheets with parchment paper.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt onto a sheet of waxed paper.

In the large bowl of stand mixer on low speed, beat the butter for 4 minutes. Add the brown sugar in 2 additions, beating for 1 minute after each addition; add the sugar and beat for 1 minute, stopping to scrape the bowl occasionally during the process. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing just until incorporated. Add the vanilla bean seeds and vanilla extract; mix to combine. Add the sifted ingredients in 3 additions, mixing just until incorporated. Add the coconut and chocolate morsels by hand or on low speed, taking care not to break up the chocolate chips. The dough will be dense and bulky.

Place heaping, 2-tablespoon-size mounds of dough on the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 3 inches apart. Keep the edges craggy rather than perfectly smooth. Bake for 13 to 14 minutes or until light golden and just set. The surface of the cookies should no longer look glossy. Let the cookies rest on the baking sheets for 2 minutes, then transfer them to cooling racks, using a wide offset metal spatula. Store in an airtight tin.

VARIATIONS: The following ingredients may either replace or accompany the semisweet chocolate morsels:

Indulgent Butter Cookies With Nuts: Add 1 3/4 cups lightly toasted and coarsely chopped walnuts, pecans or macadamia nut halves/pieces along with the coconut and chocolate chips.

Indulgent Big-Chunk Cookies: Substitute 18 ounces coarsely chopped bittersweet chocolate (choose a bar chocolate with about 60 percent cocoa).

Indulgent Big-Chunk Cookies With Nuts: Add 1 1/2 cups lightly toasted and coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans to the dough along with the bittersweet chocolate.

Indulgent Toffee-Chunk Cookies: Reduce the amount of semisweet chocolate chips to 1 cup; add 2 cups coarsely chopped milk chocolate-covered toffee such as Heath candy bars.

Indulgent Butter Cookies With Everything: Reduce the amount of semisweet chocolate morsels to 1 1/2 cups. Add 3/4 cup white chocolate morsels; 3/4 cup milk chocolate morsels; 1 cup lightly toasted and coarsely chopped walnuts, pecans or macadamia nut halves/pieces; and 3/4 cup dried tart cherries.

Per cookie: 181 calories, 2 g protein, 24 g carbohydrates, 9 g fat, 22 mg cholesterol, 6 g saturated fat, 54 mg sodium, 1 g dietary fiber

Recipe tested by Sue Kovach Shuman; e-mail questions tofood@washpost.com