December 12, 2012

Coconut Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies

cookies finished cooling 2.1

Hi. My name is Christine, and I’m a Cookieholic.

This isn’t a surprise, I know. But the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem, so here it is:

I have a serious addiction to le cookie.

Yesterday I told you all about my recent cookie coma, and today I am showing you why I’ve hit sweet, delicious rock bottom- Coconut Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies.

It all started with my participating in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. In short, the event connects food bloggers from around the country in a holiday cookie swap that raises money for the charity Cookies for Kids’ Cancer. You get three bloggers names & addresses and send them each a dozen of your favorite cookie recipe. In return, you receive three delicious batches from other bloggers. The result? Making new friends, helping kids with cancer, and a mandatory wardrobe of stretchy pants – everybody wins!

I knew from the start that participating in this was going to be bad news – Would an alcoholic join a bar crawl? A shopaholic attend a sample sale? ~~Probably~~ Hopefully not, but I just couldn’t find the willpower to pass this up. Inspired by the amazing story behind Cookies for Kids’ Cancer and the incredible work their foundation supports, I knew I needed to roll up my sleeves and start baking.

cooling toffee – ready to break!

Settling on a recipe wasn’t very difficult – hellooo, I’m an addict! Starting with my basic kryptonite, chocolate chip cookies, I added texture and flavor to my recipe by incorporating coconut and toffee. My rationale was simple – I love Mounds, and I love Heath Bars, so why not merge these combinations into one delicious little bundle? As soon as I started twitching, I knew I was on to something…

To keep things authentic I chose to make my toffee from scratch, a process I was happily surprised to find very easy. For the coconut, I stuck to my preferred sweetened flakes from Baker’s, and for my chips I used good ole’ reliable Nestle Toll House. To make my cookies extra soft, I scoured some basic recipes and tweaked a few ingredients – aka, a little more sugar, a little more butter! – to develop a silky smooth batter that produced deliciously soft results. The end product was so good, one batch wasn’t enough – yes folks, I made these bad boys twice!

my expertly mixed dough

ready for the oven

So now, here’s where I stand. I’ve got a dozen Peanut Butter (thanks Tortillas & Honey), Chocolate Crinkle (thanks Never Settle Blog), and Cranberry Ginger (thanks Dream About Food) cookies to feed my cravings, along with a few dozen of my own. Suffice it to say my kitchen is no longer a safe place for me, though it is a rather tasty one! Thankfully, I have Dave to help me dispose of all this contraband 🙂

Coconut Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yield: 48 servings

Prep Time: 25 mins

Cook Time: 30 mins

Total Time: 55 mins

Print Recipe

Ingredients:

TOFFEE:
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Salted Butter
2 tbsps Water
COOKIES:
2 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
1/2 cup Sugar
1 cup Dark Brown Sugar
1 1/4 cups Salted Butter
3 Large Eggs
3/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Vanilla
1/2 tsp Sea Salt
2 1/2 cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
1 1/2 cups Homemade Toffee Chips
1 1/4 cups Coconut Flakes
Crisco to grease

Directions:

For the toffee, in small pot bring sugar, butter, and water to a boil over medium-high heat. Once boil is reached, continuously stir mixture as it beings to brown. When a caramel color forms, remove from heat and pour mixture over parchment lined baking sheet, spreading thin with a spatula. Allow toffee to cool (~10mins) before breaking into pieces with bottom of small pan or measuring cup.
In large bowl, use electric mixture to beat butter, sugar, brown sugar and baking soda. When well combined, beat in eggs, vanilla, and salt, then finally beat in flour.
With dough formed, add in chocolate chips, toffee chips, and coconut, stirring with spoon or by hand. Once thoroughly combined, roll up golf ball size pieces and place on well-greased baking sheet. Bake at 325F for 15 minutes until slightly browned at the edges. Transfer to wire rack to cool, then serve.

>> Bake cookies on top & middle oven racks ONLY – bottom rack is too close to heat and will cause the toffee bits to burn.