From cake to cookies...

I was recently reliving the memory of one of my best friend Erin’s birthdays. Before her actual party, a group of us celebrated Erin’s birthday with dinner and, of course, dessert. Erin requested a coconut cake with lime curd filling and coconut cream cheese frosting. Mmm. Now that was a memory worth reliving. The cake was delicious. (The only thing better was the company!)

(That's me, Sarah Phillips, Callie, and Erin. Oh, and the cake all the way on the left!)

All of this remembering made me pretty hungry, and I had a craving. A craving for coconut! I must admit that thick coconut shreds just don’t do it for me, but the flavor—ah that coconut flavor—that’s what gets me every time. I had no good excuse to make a whole coconut cake (and believe me, it doesn’t take much for me to find an excuse for cake), so I moved on to the next best option: cookies! Mmm, coconut cookies. With macadamia nuts. And white chocolate chips.

These coconut cookies aren’t overly sweet, but they make up for it with their rich coconut flavor. In addition, they’ve got macadamia nuts and white chocolate chips! The cookie’s texture falls somewhere between soft, chewy, and crispy. The cookie is relatively light and fluffy, chewy enough to bend rather than snap apart, and slightly crispy from the crunch of the nuts.

This cookie is also somewhat special because it replaces some butter with a “coconut-macadamia nut” butter. This concoction is created by food processing coconut shreds and macadamia nuts until they form a wet-looking “butter.”

If you’re looking for a slightly sweeter cookie, you could add about a half cup of extra sugar, or you could replace the unsweetened coconut shreds with sweetened ones. I also use the thinly shredded coconut (because of my thick-shred-phobia); if you can’t find the thinly shredded, you can food process the coconut for a bit (or just use the thicker shreds).

Coconut White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

1 cup bread flour
1 ½ cups cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ tsp cinnamon
1 ¼ cups finely shredded coconut, divided
1 ½ cups macadamia nuts, divided
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 stick butter, softened
2 eggs
1 ½ tsp vanilla
1 package of white chocolate chips (about 2 cups)

1. Sift together flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.

2. In the food processor, blend ¾ cup of finely shredded coconut and ½ cup of whole macadamia nuts. Process the mixture until it reaches a smooth, wet consistency. This should give you approximately ½ cup of “coconut-macadamia butter.”

3. Cream butter, sugars, and coconut-macadamia butter until lighter in color (about 3 minutes). Beat in eggs one at a time until just combined. Stir in vanilla.

4. Beat in flour mixture in two parts until just combined.

5. Chop remaining cup of macadamia nuts. Fold in chopped nuts, white chocolate chips, and remaining ½ cup of coconut.

6. Refrigerate dough for at least 30 minutes.

7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake cookies for 12 minutes, until edges are just golden.

Makes approximately 35 cookies.