Mrs. Field's Cocomia Cookies
Our kitchen on Cherokee Road was a long alley kitchen. There wasn’t an island, but a peninsula, at the opposite side of the kitchen from the oven. Every now and then, while the boys were doing homework, I would make a batch of cookies. It was these nights that those boys, whose combined weight was probably 685 pounds, became stealthy ninjas. I’ll never understand how I always heard every step they made in the house, except for when I was making cookies.
Taking the cookies out of the oven, I would head to the peninsula to slide the cookies onto the wire rack to cool, return to the other end of the kitchen to reload the cookie sheets, and place the new batch in the oven. By the time I closed the oven, I would turn back to the wire rack to find 6 of the 24 I had just baked. . . I hope they burned their tastebuds right off.
Every September 25th, whether I make them or not, I think of these cookies. They were Dan’s favorites on Cherokee Road. For the first couple of years after we had moved out, I would send him a batch for his birthday. I had forgotten how easy they are to make; I need to renew the tradition.
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup softened butter
2 large eggs
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup macadamia nuts
1 cup white chocolate chips*
*I added this. Mrs. Fields didn’t use chocolate chips.
~ Preheat oven to 300º F.
~ Cream sugars with butter. Then add eggs and vanilla. Beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.
~ Mix flour, baking soda, salt together, then slowly add mixture to butter mixture.
~ Add coconut, macadamia nuts, and white chocolate chips until just combined.
~ Drop by rounded tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets, 2 inches apart.
~ Bake for 23 minutes at 300º F.
~ Transfer to wire rack and keep an eye out for ninjas.
