Do you notice a Brown Butter trend? I sure do!
Plus, I adore coconuts.
Maybe it’s because I have childhood memories of stopping at the neighbourhood naariyal paani wala for a chilled coconut water in the blistering summer heat, and then asking the naariyal paani wala to scoop out the tender inner flesh of the coconut, to eat as a glutinous snack [and he’s even make a spoon out of the husk, as we watched]. I also distinctly remember my first Thai curry, at the famous and favourite Thai Pavillion. Now given my love for spicy and coconut, Thai curry was a no-brainer instant love affair that just hasn’t ended, and I don’t see it ending, any time soon. But it continued. Coconut macaroons, coconut ice cream, khopra pak, and I finally noticed a strong personal preference developing.
So when I came across this recipe for coconut brown butter cookies from Smitten Kitchen, it because almost impossible to ignore.
For many counts:
(1) brown butter has quickly become my obsession – especially because of the lack of effort involved in making it!
(2) Coconut (see paragraph above)
(3) Smitten Kitchen.
So yeah, despite the odds [no readily available coconut chips in the city], I got down to business. I used these, which I picked up in Rhode Island, and they are unbelievably yum, even on their own. I’ve used them before in granola and the like, and they are just an awesome and flavour packed addition to any healthy treat. I wish it were available at home too – but substituting grated coconut or making coconut chips would also work just fine for this recipe of Coconut Brown Butter Cookies. 
- 115 grams butter
- 1 tablespoons water
- 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 75 grams packed light-brown sugar
- 1 tbs cornflour + 1 tbs water, mixed to form a slurry
- 85 grams all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 cups dried, unsweetened coconut chips
- Chill the brown butter in the freezer until it solidifies, about 30 minutes. Stir once or twice, to make sure the milk solids don't settle at the bottom.
- Heat oven to 175*c degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat.
- Scrape chilled browned butter and any bits into a large mixing bowl (or the bowl of your stand mixer). Add both sugars and beat the mixture together until fluffy. Add cornflour slurry and beat until combined, scraping down bowl as needed.
- Mix together the flour, baking soda and salt together in a separate bowl. Pour half of flour mixture into butter mixture and mix until combined, then add remaining flour and mix again, scraping down bowl if needed. Add coconut chips in two parts as well.
- Scoop dough into 1 or 2 inch wide balls and arrange a few with a lot of room for spreading on first baking sheet; use the back of a spoon or your fingers to flatten the dough slightly.
- Bake first tray of cookies; 1 tablespoon scoops will take 10 to 11 minutes; 2 tablespoon scoops, 12 to 14 minutes; take the cookies out when they’re deeply golden all over. If cookies have not spread as much as you see above, stir 2 teaspoons more water into cookie dough, mixing thoroughly, before baking off another tray. This should do the trick.
- Cool cookies on baking sheet for 1 to 2 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Cookies keep for up to one week at room temperature.
- Extra dough can be stored in the fridge for several days or in the freezer for a month or more.
- Replace the cornflour slurry for 1 egg, if you like.
- I found the end product fantastically buttery, and next time, might go down to 100gm of butter, leaving the rest of the recipe intact.
