Tag Archives: Coconut

Coconut Chocolate Chip Bars

Recipe for chocolate chip cookie bars; These coconut chocolate chip cookies are filled with coconut and Mounds bars, baked in a sheet pan, then cut into bars.

Watching how differently my kids handle situations is one of the great joys of my life. For instance, as I’m writing this, two of my three kids are at a karate exam. It the first of its kind for the Hippie Chick but it’s old hat for the Lizard.

The Lizard always thinks he has everything under control, even when he doesn’t, but I think the Hippie Chick is nervous. She’s a little too timid to really excel at karate.

Let me rephrase. She’s totally capable of martial arts excellence, but she’s too scared of hurting someone to actually hit them with any fury.

Everyone but the Lizard, that is. He’s the only one that can really antagonize her until she hits her breaking point. Which is great at karate, but not so fun at home.

Some parents tell their kids to stop fighting, but not us. WE yell things like, “Hit him!” or “Harder! Leave a bruise!” My go-to motivational phrase for her is, “Make them remember you.”

I had a moment of realization when I heard myself tell someone (tongue in cheek) that I had threatened the Hippie Chick with bodily harm if she didn’t cause some bodily harm during her test.

This is my life.

We all have our little struggles and our little preferences, I guess. I love a good chocolate chip cookie and Robb loves anything coconut. It’s the kind of love that makes the world go round.

Put them together and you have heaven on earth.

I remember Lindsay at Pinch of Yum saying she was out of brown sugar, so she just went for it with white sugar only in the cookies. I took a page out of her book and made these sans brown sugar. The lighter cookie flavor was great with the mild coconut and the totally awesome-sauce dark chocolate.

Did you know Mounds was made with dark chocolate? Let me just give a big shout out to the Mounds people for that. If you’re not a dark chocolate person, I feel really, really bad for you. I once was not a dark chocolate person, too. I guess you could use those totally amazing Hershey’s Coconut Kisses, but can I just beg you to give dark chocolate another chance?

I put about 2/3 of my cookie dough in a quarter sheet pan, but feel free to use whatever pan you want. A regular old 9×13 would work great. I sprinkled on the coconut and chopped up Mounds bars, the dropped on the remaining cookie dough in little globs.

Refer to the photos to see exactly what a glob looks like.

And if you feel the need to express your unique personality with some well-controlled violence, I’ll understand!

More fantastic coconut recipes!

Coconut Cream
Cookies

Coconut White
Chocolate Scones

Coconut Crispies
(with Corn Flakes)

Continue reading “Coconut Chocolate Chip Bars” »

Coconut Lime Poke Cake

Poke Cake is fun and delicious. This Jello poke cake recipe is made with coconut cake and lime Jello.

I’ve been trying to dream up some green recipes, since it’s March and all, and the thing is, there just aren’t that many desserty flavors that are green. I mean, you have pistachio, mint, lime, and that’s about it.

Avocados and spinach, while present on this blog, are not great for desserts.

Then I remembered the time I made Coconut Lime Sugar Cookies and decided I needed that flavor combination in my life again.

I went looking around the Pinter-webs for inspiration. Which is when I realized that I have never actually made a poke cake. In fact, I’ve obviously never even spoken about making a poke cake, because when I announced to the family that their dessert tonight would be poke cake, they all thought I said “pote cake.”

Robb: “What’s a pote cake?”
Me: “POKE. Poke… Cake. Because you poke it with a fork and pour jello over it.”
Robb: {look of bewilderment} “Hmm. I’ve never heard of it.”

No kidding? {Sarcasm becomes me.}

I have this thing where I like things to have more than one flavor. I mean, why have banana muffins when you can have Banana Chocolate Chunk Oat Muffins? Why have buttermilk scones when you can have Coconut White Chocolate Buttermilk Scones? You see what I mean.

Unless the flavor is chocolate. Then chocolate with more chocolate is just plain fine with me.

So it really could not be a lime poke cake. It HAD to be a Coconut Lime Poke Cake. It was the only choice.

I did one thing which was brand new for me. I made whipped coconut cream frosting, which you probably guessed is dairy-free. I don’t really care about being dairy-free that much, but I do love me some coconut. What you have to do is buy a can of coconut milk, and when you get it home, immediately put it in the fridge and Do. Not. Touch. it for a day-ish.

Don’t shake it, don’t stir it, don’t turn it upside down. Move it as little as possible. Because, just like real cream and milk, coconut cream will separate from the syrup. You can just gently scoop the cream off the top, whip it up with some powdered sugar, and you have a might fine icing, my friends.

You’ll have to spread it thin, but it will taste mighty fine. Especially on lime poke cake. Continue reading “Coconut Lime Poke Cake” »

Coconut White Chocolate Buttermilk Scones

Scones are one of my favorite breakfast foods. This scone recipe uses coconut, white chocolate, and buttermilk.

I understand that most kids do their chores on Saturdays. At our house, chores are done on Fridays. It’s a lot of work, but it makes the Saturdays ever so pleasant.

This Saturday, the kids {and adults} woke up late, lounged in pajamas for a while, and started craving a home-cooked breakfast.

There’s not much in the fridge these days, but the search for breakfast food netted one gem: buttermilk. The kids love buttermilk. They immediately came asking if they could make buttermilk pancakes with buttermilk syrup.

Not that I blame them. Buttermilk syrup is the nectar of the Gods. It’s like having candy for breakfast. Exactly like it.

It’s lucky they asked, though, because I had other plans in mind for that buttermilk, namely buttermilk scones.

“Scones?!” The Lizard queried. “For breakfast?” He thought I was talking about the fry-bread that you smother in honey butter, and to be fair, I make that with buttermilk as well, and it’s also wonderful, heavenly food.

Once I explained about these dense, muffin-like scones, he was completely on board. I even convinced them to put clothes on and help me bake. {It’s not every Saturday that I can be successful at that job.}

The Fruitarian was counting minutes until these were ready to eat.

“How long until I can eat them?”
“They need to bake for about 20 minutes.”
“I think I’m going to die!”
“And I’m going to photograph them before you eat them.”
“I’m going to die again, Mom!”
“Have a piece of candy while you wait.”
“You just saved my life, Mom.”

Mother of the Year, I know.

The kids reveled in this rare Saturday morning family breakfast. The Hippie Chick devoured her grapefruit, and two scones. The Fruitarian spent the morning making “This is so delicious!” comments. The Lizard asked me to make it again tomorrow. Robb even stepped away from his work to try one, which is a compliment all by itself.

On top of it all, the sun came out for the first time in probably six weeks.

{Smile} Success.

Banana Chocolate Chunk
Mini Muffin

Coconut
Crispies

Nutmeg Buttermilk
Cookies

You might also like this “Muffins & Scones” Pinterest Board!

Continue reading “Coconut White Chocolate Buttermilk Scones” »

Coconut Crispies

Coconut cookies are almost worth dying for. I know that the title suggests this cookie is all about coconut, and don’t get me wrong, I love coconut cookies like I love breathing, but there’s no reason you can’t throw some corn flakes in those babies. In fact, we usually call them Cornflake Cookies.

In fact, the Fruitarian took a bite and said, “Do these cookies have corn flakes in them?,” as if he had not eaten these cookies every single Christmas of his young life.

Me: “Why do you say that, as if you’ve never eaten these before?”
Fruitarian: “Have you made these before?”
Me: “Get over here, so I can slap you.”

Robb told me the other day that he thinks we have a pretty good mix of family recipes from both sides. His family brought these gorgeous cookies, as well as the Norwegian chewy bread, Kringla, and some homemade chicken and noodles served over mashed potatoes. It’s solid farm food.

My family brought potato cheese soup, some plain-as-can-be enchiladas, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and, of course, the black cherry eggnog. I have yet to convince Robb about the wonders of black cherry eggnog, but the plain old enchiladas are his all time favorite meal.

I’ll admit that the first time Robb told me about this family recipe, cookies with corn flakes in them, I probably gave him a weird look. Because, let’s face it, it sounds weird.

But, that’s how genius is born, right? Out of unusual combinations that others would not have thought to try? It’s true in this case, at least, because this might just be the perfect cookie. Just crunchy enough, but still chewy, kind of small, and great with a glass of cold milk.

What more can you ask in a cookie? Continue reading “Coconut Crispies” »

Black and White Fudge

I realize that there are people out there who believe that coconut is not the most amazing thing ever. To those people, I would just like to say…

You’re Wrong.

Coconut may not be better than chocolate, (Or peanut butter. Or caramel.) but it is high on the list of amazing flavors.

And that is why I added coconut to the white chocolate part of this black and white fudge. And you coconut fence-sitters needn’t worry, because I used the unsweetened coconut, which gives a milder flavor and texture than the regular sweetened variety. I definitely think you should try it before you get all judgmental about it.

Oh, also? I’m lazy as crap, so this is not one of those recipes that has a bunch of ingredients, or requires annoying things like measuring the temperature or long bouts of whipping.

You’re welcome. Continue reading “Black and White Fudge” »

Vanilla Coconut Granola

Every year we take this ridiculous camping trip.

Well, it must not be that ridiculous, because we love it enough to do it every year. It’s mostly ridiculous because it takes us more than 9 hours to drive there (one way!), a drive that normally involves car sickness, and once we get there, we tent camp, often in the cold and snow, in a campground that has the worst smelly no-flush outhouse toilets and no sinks or kitchen facilities. AND we only stay two nights.

Some families have their reunions at Disneyland. Or a big cabin on the beach. But this family camps in the Big Horns.

Continue reading “Vanilla Coconut Granola” »

Best Ever Chex Mix

My favorite chex mix; This chex mix recipe uses coconut, almonds, and other cereals to make the best tasting chex mix you’ll ever have!

Do you drink much Kool-Aid? Me neither. I’ve never been a huge fan of the stuff. On the other hand, my kids get tired of drinking water, and I get tired of shelling out for milk and single-serving drinks. I found a sweet sale + coupon price of $.07 per packet on the Kool-Aid, so I went nuts and bought 45 packages, 5 each of 9 different flavors.

I learned something interesting by doing this. Did you know that a 13-year-old is perfectly capable of making a pitcher full of Kool-Aid, but completely incapable of cleaning up the mess? I always know when offspring #2 has been making Kool-Aid, because I find the following items on the kitchen counter:

– Empty drink packet, torn into two pieces
– Container of sugar
– Measuring Cup
– Pitcher of Kool-Aid
– Empty cup with traces of Kool-Aid in it

And so, Kool-Aid has surprisingly become a tool for teaching my son responsibility. Son: “Mom, can I make Kool-Aid?” Me: “Last time, that didn’t work out too well for me.” He is now pointing out to me that he cleaned up his mess. And I am responding by making him list every part of the mess that he believes he cleaned up.

Continue reading “Best Ever Chex Mix” »

Coconut Oil Kettle Corn and Giveaway!

I’m not one of those people who keeps trying the same recipes over and over, tweaking them each time, until I get them just right. I have no patience for it. If a recipe doesn’t work out the first time, I usually figure it’s just not worth making. But something was different about this particular recipe. It kept rolling around inside my head, begging to be made perfect. I was obsessed with the promise of perfectly addicting sweet coconut oil popcorn! And guess how many tries it took me to get it right?

Go ahead, guess.

SEVEN. You heard me right, SEVEN TRIES. Ugh. It was definitely a patience-builder, this one.

Continue reading “Coconut Oil Kettle Corn and Giveaway!” »

Coconut Cream Cookies

A recipe for a coconut cookie made with pudding mix, with vanilla frosting.

Yield: About 3 dozen cookies

Today, while driving my son to school, I said, “I need to bake today. What kind of cookies should I make?” He looked at me like I was crazy… like the answer was so completely obvious to everyone else. “Didn’t you hear me last night?” he said. “You should make coconut cream cookies!” The theme continued when I returned home, and mentioned the conversation to my husband and daughter. They both agreed that coconut cream sounded great. I wondered aloud how I would achieve such a feat, having never heard of a cookie like it. My daughter replied very matter of factly, “Just make coconut cream pie, and then turn it into a cookie.”

Duh, mom.

I’ve been working on getting my site re-designed. It was just time for an upgrade. While my designer is slaving away on my site design, I figured it was as good an excuse as any to give my home office a re-design too. Not really a re-design, per se. More like… a cleaning. My office is a complete disaster area. It’s a pig sty. It looks like an episode of “Hoarders.” I freely admit it. My goal is to have my office working like a well-oiled machine by the time I get my blog working like a well-oiled machine. So, like 1-2 weeks from now. And trust me, I’m going to need all that time.

I’m well practiced in the fine art of procrastination. For instance, I have a goal to clean some of the garbage out of the office today, but I’m spending my time baking Coconut Cream Cookies. And frosting them. And writing about baking and frosting them. And writing about not doing my cleaning.

I think I need a Diet Coke.

See what I mean?

I’ve decided to use this week’s cookie as my office-cleaning inspiration. Yeah, I know it sounds weird. The cookie is simple, clean, white. It’s unfettered, unspotted, and un-covered-in-chocolate. I want my office to be as beautiful and simple as this cookie. Wish me luck.

I actually did take my daughters advice. Sort of. I used coconut cream pudding mix to create these cookies. The last time I made cookies with pudding in them, they were extremely well-received. They are definitely one of my more popular cookies around this house. I have a feeling this version will be very well received, too.

Want more? Check out these coconut favorites!

Coconut Fudge
Cookie Bars

Toasted Coconut
Popcorn

Toasted Coconut
Milkshake

Coconut Cream Cookies

Save Print

Cook time

9 mins

Total time

9 mins

A coconut cookie made with pudding mix and covered in vanilla frosting

Recipe type: Cookies

Serves: 3 dozen

Ingredients

FOR COOKIE:
¾ cup butter, softened
¾ cup brown sugar
¼ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
1 (3 oz.) box coconut cream pudding mix
2 cups flour
½ cup shredded coconut
FOR FROSTING:
4 T. butter, softened
2 T. milk
2-3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Instructions

Beat butter and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well.
Add pudding mix, soda, and flour, and mix until just combined.
Add coconut and mix just enough to incorporate.
Drop scoops onto baking sheet, and bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 min.
FOR FROSTING:
Combine all ingredients and mix well. Adjust consistency by adding more powdered sugar or milk.
Frost cooled cookies

Lemon Crinkles

A recipe for soft and chewy lemon crinkle cookies made with coconut.

Source: Beyond Kimchee, a blog about Korean food.

Yield: About 3 dozen cookies

It’s spring, which for us means it’s time to plant… at my mother-in-law’s house. My husband had a busy Saturday planned, but scrapped it all to spend the day working in his mother’s yard, spreading mulch and planting the large garden she had recently purchased. Time is of the essence with plants, you know. He called to request my help. I told him I would be right over, which was kind of a lie. I baked cookies first.

Continue reading “Lemon Crinkles” »

Coconut Lime Sugar Cookies

A recipe for a chewy sugar cookie with lime juice and toasted coconut.

Source: The Girl Who Ate Everything

Yield: 3-4 dozen cookies

I love the smell of toasted coconut. When I realized that I would be toasting coconut to put in this cookie dough, I got a little excited. It was the first thing I did, actually. I spread about 1/2 cup of shredded coconut across my quarter sheet pan (one of my favorite little kitchen items) and put it in the oven. You can tell when it is ready because it smells fantastic. It made being in the kitchen ever so enjoyable!

Continue reading “Coconut Lime Sugar Cookies” »

Kitchen Sink Cookies

A recipe for a classic cookie with a little bit of everything in it!

Source: Karl Wilson, a friend and neighbor.

Yield: about 4-5 dozen cookies

I should call this post “A Failed Experiment in Kitchen Sink Cookies.” They did not turn out at all like I wanted. I was supremely disappointed.

Our neighbor, Karl, makes these cookies, and I first fell in love with them when his wife gave me one. They are possibly the best cookies I have ever had. They have a little bit of everything in them. Karl didn’t have a name for them, or a recipe, for that matter, so, consequently, I have dubbed them the Kitchen Sink Cookie.

Continue reading “Kitchen Sink Cookies” »

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