Coconut Dark Chocolate Squares

Blondies, bars, squares: however you call them, they’re one of my favorite endlessly tweak-able recipes. Being in possession of some shredded coconut leftover from the holidays, I decided to acquire some dark chocolate chips to go along with them. When making blondies I always obsess over whether to use light or dark brown sugar, and I went with dark on this one. If you want to add a nutty crunch, I’d suggest adding some toasted slivered almonds to the mix.

Ingredients
8 tablespoons butter, melted or browned
1 cup brown sugar – dark if you have it
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup flour
Pinch salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup plus 2-3 tablespoons dark chocolate chips

Steps
Preheat oven to 350º F. Melt or brown the butter, and let it cool slightly.

TIP: Browning the butter instead of simply melting it is a quick maneuver with a huge ROI in the flavor department. If you’re melting it over the stove, you’re already halfway there…

Mix melted butter with brown sugar and stir until any lumps are smoothed out. Beat in egg and then vanilla and mix thoroughly.

In a separate bowl combine flour, salt, and baking powder. Add to wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Stir in coconut and 1/2 cup of the chocolate chips.

Spread dough in an even layer in an 8-by-8 inch square pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until set in the middle. Cool on rack before slicing into squares and removing from pan and reassembling on a flat surface like a cutting board.

Microwave the remaining 2-3 tablespoons of chocolate chips in 20-second increments until melted, stirring in between. When melted, spoon into one corner of a plastic Ziplock bag. Cut a tiny piece off one corner of the plastic, and squeeze the chocolate out slowly and evenly over the blondies. I went with a pretty simple diagonal pattern, but you can get creative as you like!

Chocolate + Peppermint Dipped Coconut Macaroons

Coconut macaroons is probably one of the most useful cookie recipes that I know. Using only five ingredients, they are easy, quick, and delicious, and with a little extra time you can transform these already-scrumptious treats into a little ball of candy-coated holiday cheer. Enter: the Chocolate + Peppermint Dipped Coconut Macaroon, my Christmas spin on this classic cookie.

The cookie recipe below is adapted from Ina Garten’s recipe, and from Food & Wine (which were identical in proportions, although I found I could improve and expand on the directions provided in both).

Ingredients

COOKIE
14 ounces sweetened shredded coconut
14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 egg whites, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon salt

TOPPING
8 ounces bittersweet or dark chocolate
6 candy canes

Steps
Preheat your oven to 350º Fahrenheit. Stir together the coconut, condensed milk, and vanilla extract in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites and salt until they form soft peaks when you lift the beater out of the eggs. Fold the egg mixture into the coconut mixture, gently combining thoroughly.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, and drop the batter in 1 tablespoon mounds the sheets. They don’t flatten and spread the way some cookies do, so they can be fairly close together.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, one sheet at a time, in the middle of the oven. Rotate the baking sheet halfway through, and remove when tops are golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Chop the chocolate roughly and microwave it in 30 second increments, stirring in between, until it is melted. Don’t overdo it, as it will burn.

Place the candy canes in a quart- or gallon-sized plastic zipper bag, squeeze the excess air out, and zip tightly. Use a rolling pin or similar to crush the candy canes into decoration-sized pieces, but don’t completely pulverize them—you still want to see the red stripe along some larger pieces. Pour the pieces out into a small bowl.

Line a plate or cooled baking sheet—something you can fit in your refrigerator—with fresh parchment paper. Dip each cookie sideways into the melted chocolate and allow the excess to drip off. After the excess chocolate has dribbled off, dip the cookie quickly in the candy cane bits, pressing to help them attach. Place the cookie back on the parchment paper.

When complete, chill the cookies in the refrigerator for about 20-30 minutes to allow the chocolate to harden. Presto, you’ve made your own chocolate peppermint Christmas-y snowballs!