By Valentine week at the daycare and I made heart-shaped sugar cookies for the class. This is the third time I have made sugar cookies and each time the technique improves slightly. This time the cookies kept their shape in the oven, which requires chilling the dough thoroughly before cutting and not rolling it too thin. I have been keeping notes in a small notebook about what works and what does not. Gloria taught me to do this, she has her index cards, I have my notebook.
Elijah made a Valentine for his mother at the art table and then looked at it for a long time and then made a second one. I asked him who the second one was for and he said you. He handed it to me. It had his name written on it in the wobbly letters he has been practicing, ELI, and a lot of pink crayon around the edges. I put it up next to the purple oval drawing. My wall is becoming a small gallery of what it looks like when children decide to trust you.
On the phone with Gloria this week I asked about her hands. She said better in the warmth, the winter is hard but spring will help. I said do you want me to bring anything Sunday. She said just yourself. I said I will bring bread too. She laughed. She said fine, bring the bread.
I am thinking about what comes after the associate degree. Whether I want to keep going. Whether a four-year degree is something I could do and something I should do. I have not told Gloria this part yet. I am still figuring out if I believe it is real before I say it out loud. That is sometimes how possibility works. You have to believe it alone first before you can speak it into a room.
After the sugar cookies went out the door with the valentines, I still had that baking energy in my hands and a bag of sweetened coconut I’d picked up on sale. These coconut white chocolate cookies are the ones I made for myself that weekend — softer than sugar cookies, a little more forgiving if you’re still building confidence at the mixing bowl. I wrote the notes down in my notebook the way Gloria would, and this time everything came out right.
Coconut White Chocolate Cookies
Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 12 minutes | Total Time: 27 minutes | Servings: 24 cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Cream the butter and sugars. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter with the granulated sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition, then mix in the vanilla extract.
- Combine the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add the dry mixture to the wet mixture, stirring until just combined. Do not overmix.
- Fold in the coconut and white chocolate. Gently fold the shredded coconut and white chocolate chips into the dough until evenly distributed.
- Chill the dough. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. This helps the cookies hold their shape — a trick that works for sugar cookies too.
- Preheat and scoop. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Scoop rounded tablespoons of dough onto the sheets, spacing them about 2 inches apart.
- Bake. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges are lightly golden but the centers still look slightly underdone. They will firm up as they cool.
- Cool completely. Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 195 | Protein: 2g | Fat: 11g | Carbs: 23g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 115mg