Coconut Choco-Orange Cookies

I had quite some coconut flakes left over from yesterday’s Vegetables in Coconut Milk. I was short of time yesterday to make some cookies out of them. So, I kept them in the fridge and managed to make some today.

Those cookies turned out really well, despite each batch being slightly different in crunchiness/chewiness! The first batch was very similar to macaroons as I was conscious of how long I was cooking them for and removed them a little bit earlier. Then, while drizzling them with chocolate sauce, I forgot about the second batch that became slightly crunchier! I like both versions!

By the way, I have to thank my boyfriend for his camera without which all these nice photos wouldn’t have been shot!

Ingredients (about 20 cookies)

150 g all-purpose flour
150 g desiccated coconut (or the flakes from the Vegetables in Coconut Milk recipe)
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
115 g butter
150 g demerara sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Juice squeezed from 1 orange

Chocolate drizzle topping:
50 g cooking chocolate chopped
1 tablespoon water

• Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius.
• Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
  
• In a medium bowl, thoroughly combine the butter and sugar, mixing quite vigorously. I used a wooden spoon to do this.
• Gradually blend in the flour mixture, and then mix in the coconut.
  
• Add the vanilla and orange juice. Mix well.
• Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto an greased floured tray. Shape slightly with fingers. Cookies should be about 3 cm apart as they will double in size.
  
• Bake for 10 to 14 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly toasted. Cookies will still be soft when removed from the oven, but they will harden when they are cooled.
• Allow to cool.

For the topping:

• Melt the chocolate either by combining it with the water in a bowl over bain marie*, stirring until all chocolate has melted. Or place the chocolate pieces with the water in a bowl in the microwave for 30sec to 1 minute.Remove and stir vigorously until a smooth sauce is obtained.
• Drizzle the melted chocolate on the cookies.

*Place a bowl with the contents over a larger bowl of boiling water. (The chocolate with gradually melt.)