February came to an odd sort of end in the U.S. South with a winter storm that left places like Little Rock and Nashville dealing with ice then snow, and days off of school. Atlanta was right at the edge of the frozen precipitation line. Friends in the northern suburbs experienced decent snow. Intown, we saw a few chunky flakes fall, but mostly a bit of sleet and lots of cold rain.
Many area school districts cancelled classes in anticipation of winter weather which led to a strange sort of “Southern snow day” phenomenon where kids were out of school but daytime temps were in the 40s and nothing frozen actually fell from the sky.
Lucky for me, my kids’ schedules weren’t disrupted by the weather. Their school doesn’t rely on bus service, so we don’t have to cancel unless the weather actually gets terrible. And our school’s week was already shortened by virtue of parent teacher conferences.
Back in September, I volunteered to bring in goodies for conference days. I w
as elated to see a volunteer spot for “GF treat” on the Sign Up Genius board. That I can do.
My assigned day was Friday so I made these cookies on Thursday evening. My friend K and her daughter J popped by while they were in the oven. They’ve been wanting to work on their upper body strength and I had promised to help them safely address their goal. (Incidentally, we relied heavily on Katy Bowman’s Hanging and Swinging 101 post in our session.)
When K came into the house, she immediately asked about the glorious smell. I explained why I was making cookies and she offered to taste them for me. I told her they had to cool before I added the chocolate. She offered to take them home and add the chocolate herself. (She wanted to get her hands on these cookies!)
While I was working with K and J, my son W had a piano lesson. Evidently, his teacher mentioned the cookies as well, because W promised him we would make them again next week and share.
The takeaway? These suckers smell good and they taste even better than that.
I just got a text message from K, by the way. She wanted to know if I had posted the recipe to the blog yet. Here it is, K. Enjoy!
- 4 cups unsweetened shredded coconut
- 4 eggs, lightly beaten
- 4 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup (scant), honey
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- 1 TBSP coconut oil
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In medium to large mixing bowl, combine coconut through vanilla.
- Warm honey to soften. I do this by putting the cup in near-boiling water in a flat-bottomed pan on the stove. This step isn't required but it makes the honey more mixable.
- Add honey to mixture and stir until well combined.
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Drop by rounded tablespoonful onto baking sheet. Press down to make a flat circle and then use your finger to dig a small well in the middle of each cookie.
- Cook for 20 minutes at 350 degrees F, or until the edges just begin to brown.
- Remove and let cool. When pans are cool to the touch, place them in the fridge to harden slightly.
- When the cookies are cool and hard to the touch, melt chocolate chips and coconut oil over a double boiler, whisking constantly. You do not want the chocolate to burn.
- Using a small spoon (a pointed tip helps, like a dinner spoon), carefully spoon some chocolate into each cookie's well.
- Return to fridge and cool until the chocolate has fully hardened.
- Serve.
This recipe can be found at Thank Goodness It’s Monday for March 2nd here!
