If you haven't noticed, I've been on a bit of a cookie tear lately. Well, as much of a tear as someone who bakes only once a week can be on. This is the third cookie recipe in the last few weeks, and I'm going to have to put a stop to it. It's way too easy to just eat cookies all day. Go into the kitchen, take a cookie; go into the kitchen take a cookie ("You know, I put a dollar in, I got a car. I put a dollar in, I got a car").

I wasn't a huge cookie person when I was younger, at least not packaged cookies. I mean, don't get me wrong, I loved cookies, but it wasn't my go to. This has changed drastically over the last year. It seems I have developed a never ending cookie craving. I fear one day soon, I will sprout blue hair and my eyes will swell to googly proportions. As it happens, this craving has actually caused me to evolve a taste for cookies that I never liked when I was a kid. Oreos for example, which I now enjoy and despised up until this past year. I will even go so far as to say that I like Vanilla Oreos better. If you're counting, that's two things I didn't like as a child.

Fast fact: Canadian Oreos are made with coconut oil. As a result, they differ in flavour from the American version.

I typically don't make a lot of chocolate chip cookies. Perhaps, in my head, there is something a little to "obvious" about them. However, a week or so ago I developed a craving for chocolate chip cookies like you wouldn't believe. After the success I had with my honey cookies the week before, I decided on a recipe from Crisco themselves. Ultimate chocolate chip cookies. We'll see about that.

I'm typically a little wary playing around with cookie recipes, especially in this case, as I don't have a lot of experience baking with shortening (this is recipe number two). So I did something I rarely do, followed instructions. Except for one little thing. I swapped out the pecans for coconut. My brother absolutely loves coconut and it was an attempt to blow his brain out the back of his skull aannnnd maybe I had a serious coconut craving as well.

The dough for these cookies was probably the most "traditional" looking I have ever made. It looked perfect. It was the kind of dough that would show up on the packaging of a Pillsbury product (hmmm..apparently they don't put pictures of the actual dough on the packaging). I dare say it was "quintessential."

Despite this promise, these cookies were strange because I couldn't decide exactly how I felt about them until I had eaten a number of them over a twenty-four hour period. I was in love with the texture right away as these are probably the closest to a packaged cookie I have ever made. A good thing in my book. They were crisp throughout, except for the very centre where they were just slightly softer. As for flavour, maybe whatever else I had been eating messed up my palate a bit, but I couldn't determine if they were good or not. When they had first finished cooling, I thought they were too sweet; when I had a few later that night, I thought they were a bit too salty (I know, what?) and then when I ate them the next morning, I thought they were really quite good. I'm certain that this is the correct answer as no one else said anything except "these are really good". The coconut flavour was subtle, becoming more noticeable the longer the cookie lingered on your palate; becoming most present as an aftertaste. Although this was unexpected, it was quite nice. The coconut wasn't battling any other flavours and provided some balance to the the chocolate. I actually think these cookies might benefit from even more chocolate chips (did I just say that?). Although, I do have to say that these are the sweetest cookies I have ever made in terms of "sugary sweetness". It almost made the cookies seem more like milk chocolate chip cookies. This is not a criticism, only a comment. At the end of a "long" weekend full of cookie eating, I was thoroughly happy with how they turned out.

If you like chocolate chip cookies and coconut it would be difficult to not enjoy these cookies. They have terrific texture and flavour that I'm sure would go wonderfully with a tall glass of milk. Something I never got to enjoy. For some reason each time I was near these cookies my arms started flailing, crumbs started flying, I started shouting, and I think I may have blacked out. That's normal right?

~Adam

Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookies

Adapted from Crisco

Yields approx 6 1/2 dozen cookies (using a small cookie scoop)

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (228g)
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup Crisco Golden (butter flavoured) Shortening (144g)
1 1/4 cups packed golden yellow/light brown sugar (275g)
2 tbsp milk
1 tbsp vanilla
1 large egg, room temperature
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup medium grated unsweetened coconut

Preheat oven to 375F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl add flour, salt and baking soda and whisk to combine.

In the bowl of a mixer cream together shortening and brown sugar. Add milk and vanilla and beat until completely combined. Add egg, and mix until completely combined.

Slowly add dry ingredients to wet, mixing until no streaks of flour remain.

Fold in chocolate chips, followed by coconut.

Drop by rounded teaspoons onto prepared cookie sheets, and bake for 9 to 11 minutes (I found around 10 minutes to be best)

Allow cookies to cool for 2 minutes on cookie sheet before moving to rack to cool completely.