Brown Butter Toasted Coconut Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Joy the Baker inspires again. These are fantastically incredible cookies! They smelled fantastically incredible and tasted the same. Can you believe I almost halved the sugar from Joy’s recipe? My family and friends certainly didn’t believe it. I can’t even imagine adding any more sugar than I did. Make these cookies and you won’t be disappointed!

I made these cookies while preparing Black Bean Quesadillas. My friends had been out of town for about three weeks and I was a bit disturbed to hear how much fun they had in Cranbrook, the city we both moved away from six years ago and wanted to remind them that it’s pretty awesome here too.

Here’s what I did:

Brown Butter Toasted Coconut Chocolate Chunk Cookies

• 1 cup Unsalted Butter
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 1/2 cup Demerara Sugar
• 1 tbsp Vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
• 3/4 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 2 Eggs
• 1/4 cup shredded Coconut
• 1 cup dark Chocolate Chunks

1. Place a rack in the centre of the oven and preheat to 350’F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. On one baking sheet, spread out shredded coconut. Toast coconut for about 6 minutes, until browned and fragrant. Remove from the oven and place in a small bowl and let cool.
2. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. The butter will begin to foam and crackle. That’s a great sign. That means that the water is evaporating from the butter. Once the crackling subsides, keep an eye on the butter. The butter solids will begin to brown. You’ll smell the butter as it browns. Once well browned, immediately remove the butter from the heat and place in a small bowl. Removing the butter from the pan will ensure that it doesn’t continue to cook and burn in the hot pan. Allow the butter to cool for a few moments.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl, mix sugars together with an electric mixer. Add the browned butter and beat together, on medium speed, for about 2 minutes. The sugar will look grainy.
5. Add the eggs and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. The mixture should become silky smooth. Add vanilla extract and beat.
6. Stir in the dry ingredients until just incorporated and fold in the toasted coconut and chocolate chips. This dough will be thick.
7. Cookies can be baked immediately, or the dough can be left in the refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes.
8. Roll dough into balls by the tablespoonful and flatten slightly on baking sheets. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until golden brown but still slightly soft in the centre. Allow the cookies to cool on the pan for 5 minutes, before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.