Coconut chews - delicious and very easy to make

I have never baked nor cooked any of Paula Deen’s recipes – and that is something I deeply regret after surfing her website – but I have heard of her before, dozens of times, and every time I see her name I think of a lot of butter and cream and sugar. And fried food. Yum. I should give this woman’s recipes a try. Soon. :D

While going through the beautiful Loveless Cafe cookbook and deciding on what to bake from it first – a very difficult task – I saw these coconut cookies, and with the recipe there was the following text:

"When Paula Deen visited the restaurant, she was absolutely clear about her yen for coconut. These rich, buttery cookies loaded with coconut were her hands-down favorites. She even packed up a few strays that were left on the plate and took them with her.”

I stopped looking and went straight to the kitchen; knowing a bit of Deen’s reputation I replaced half of the amount of sweetened coconut with the unsweetened kind. The cookies turned out delicious and irresistible. :D

Coconut chews
from the gorgeous Desserts from the Famous Loveless Cafe: Simple Southern Pies, Puddings, Cakes, and Cobblers from Nashville's Landmark Restaurant

1 cup (226g/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 ½ cups (300g) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 1⁄3 cups (326g) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 ¼ cups (225g) sweetened shredded coconut
2 ¼ cups (225g) unsweetened shredded coconut

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line 2 baking sheets with baking paper.
In a mixing bowl, cream the butter, sugar, and vanilla with an electric mixer on medium speed until very creamy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and scrape the bowl. Add the flour and baking soda and mix until combined.
Fold in the coconut by hand. Drop the dough by heaping tablespoons about 5cm (2in) apart onto prepared sheets.
Bake for 15 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the baking time. The cookies are done when they spread out and turn golden around the edges. Cool completely on the sheets over a wire rack.

Makes about 3½ dozen cookies – I halved the recipe, used 1 leveled tablespoon of dough per cookie and got 35