Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Tuesdays with Dorie—Coconut Butter Thins

Coconut Butter ThinsCoconut, butter, and nuts make up this delicious shortbread-like cookie. And they're so easy to make.
Whisk dry ingredients.
Cream butter and sugar (and zest).
Add wet ingredients.
Stir in dry ingredients.
Add remaining ingredients.
Macadamia Nuts and PistachiosI made half the batter with chopped macadamia nuts and half with pistachios (salmonella-free ones). After rolling the dough out in a gallon-size zipper-lock bag, I let it rest in the refrigerator for 2 hours. Then, after cutting them out, I put them back in the refrigerator to firm up a bit before baking.

Recipe

Makes 32 cookies

Ingredients for Coconut Butter Thins
1½ cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup cornstarch
¼ teaspoon salt
Pinch of ground coriander
2/3 cup sugar
Grated zest of 1 lime
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2/3 cup sweetened shredded coconut
½ cup finely chopped macadamia nuts (or pistachios)

You can find the recipe for Coconut Butter Thins in the book Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or here. To see how the rest of the TWD group fared with this week's recipe, click here and then click on each blogger! Thanks to Jayne from Barefoot Kitchen Witch who chose the recipe for this week.

Coconut Butter ThinsTasting Notes
These cookies melt in your mouth at first and then you're left with a bit of a chew from the coconut and nuts. I couldn't decide which version I liked better. The pistachio cookies were slightly chewier, and I love their green flecks. Either way, we'll have crumbs left in the cookie jar.

Recipe for Next Week (April 7)
Banana Cream Pie on pages 342 and 343 chosen by Amy of Sing for Your Supper.

Winner of the Giveaway
Thanks to everyone who left a comment on last week's Tuesdays with Dorie post. Green Valley Pecan Company sent me two ½-pound bags of pecans cultivated near Tucson, Arizona. I'm giving away one of the bags they sent me, and Grace from A Southern Grace was the winner!

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  • 35 comments:

    vibi said...

    Hummm... I'm wondering if you used fresh coconut for those? And if it made the coconut taste shine through? For it was way subtle in my cookies... although I thought they were great, if there'd any way to make them greater... I'd like to find out! LOL

    So did ya?

    Very nicely done, Shari!

    chocolatechic said...

    Looks wonderful.

    Did you hear that pistachios are being recalled?

    Amy of Sing For Your Supper said...

    These look fantastic!! I bet pistachios would be great!!

    -Amy
    www.singforyoursupperblog.com

    Jennifer said...

    Love your photos!
    I really liked these cookies, too, and am curious about making pistachio ones. Of course I'm craving pistachios now that they are recalled!

    Unknown said...

    Great photos as always! Way to go on making two different versions. Glad you enjoyed them.

    Leslie said...

    Beautiful photos! I bet both versions were delicious!

    Angela@spinachtiger said...

    A lovely photo as always. I finally got my post up. Did you like the pistachio choice?

    Joy said...

    Beautiful cookies. The ingredients remind me of Hawaii.

    Anonymous said...

    Beautiful ideas. Well done.

    Audrey said...

    I like the triangles...and thanks for the tip about putting them back in to chill again before baking. Does that keep them from spreading?

    Malak said...

    Beautiful execution. Your cookies look totally professional. Great photos!! I like the pistachio variation.

    Monica H said...

    I love how everybody's butter thins turned out differently.

    It's been fun to click on different blogs and see the same cookie in different shapes.

    Pretty coconut!

    Welcome to our crazy blessed life said...

    Love the triangles! :) Your photos are always beautiful!

    Anonymous said...

    I love the triangle shape. The pistachio ones must have been delicious.

    eliza said...

    looks so good Shari! i love coconut cookies too.

    NKP said...

    I love the green flecked ones too - they look awesome!

    CookiePie said...

    Great-looking cookies! I love the triangle shapes, so pretty!

    Elyse said...

    What awesome looking cookies! I love that you used (salmonella free) pistachios in part. That sounds like such a great idea! I'm so sad about this salmonella pistachio thing, by the way. UGH.

    Maria said...

    The cookies look fantastic!

    farah said...

    I love your style of photography, your cookies look so good. :)

    Teanna said...

    I'd love to try these with pistachios! They have the most wonderful color!

    Flourchild said...

    Great post. I love the coconut! Your cookies look wonderful and tasty. I thought this recipe was very good and Im sure I will make them again!

    Linda said...

    Wow, I love that you went the extra mile and used fresh coconut...I bet your cookies tasted sublime!

    I loved this recipe ... at my house these cookies didn't have a chance to sit in a cookie jar...they were inhaled right off the cooling racks! :)

    Unknown said...

    I love pistachios! Great post once again. You site is so fresh and professional.

    Jin Hooi said...

    Looks great !!! well done, i really like the idea of adding pistachios

    Engineer Baker said...

    Pistachios - now why didn't I think of that?! I love the green color they bring to baked goods.

    La Bella Cooks said...

    Looks like yours turned out beautifully. I think the pistachio ones would definitely be worth the effort.

    doughmesstic said...

    These look great, Shari! Way better than mine. (nothing unusual there.)

    Cathy said...

    Oooh -- love these with pistachios! We thoroughly enjoyed these cookies as well. Yours look gorgeous!

    TeaLady said...

    I love the little green flecks in the cookie. Hope your pistachios are some of the safe ones. Great job. They look yummy!

    grace said...

    ah, i do so prefer salmonella-less pistachios, and creamy macadamias make me weak in the knees. awesome, awesome cookies, and thanks again for the pecans!!

    Shari said...

    Vibi - Unfortunately I just threw that pic of fresh coconut in because I liked it. I didn't use fresh coconut in this cookie, although I'm sure you could after drying it. No time to do that these days!

    Chocolatechic - My pistachios are from my freezer and quite old (but don't tell anyone...they still taste good). :)

    Amy - The pistachios were the ones I grabbed first.

    Angela - I like the pistachio version the best.

    Audrey - Yes, I think chilling them again helps avoid spreading. Also, if the oven is too hot, cookies will spread.

    Linda - I have to admit that I didn't use fresh coconut...shhhh...don't tell anyone.

    Thanks to all who dropped by!
    ~Shari

    The Food Librarian said...

    Wow! What great ingredients! Love the pistachios. Your cookies look wonderful!!!

    Kayte said...

    Love the comparison of the two recipes! Always all about the research you know! Your photos are so inspiring. Mark loves pistachios, so I think he would like this a lot, and the little green flecks are really pretty.

    AIR said...

    Congrats to "Southern Grace" for winning the free pecans from Green Valley Pecan (pecanstore.com)