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It's Fat Tuesday and though I don't have fastnachts, I have a big fat cookie to help you get through the day. Traditionally, Fat Tuesday is the day to get the lard and fat out of the house before lent. I used all my shortening to make these, so the tradition lives on in my house (if you don't count the chocolate, girl scout cookies, ice cream and copious amounts of butter I have lying around). These big fat sugar cookies are laced with sweet shredded coconut and topped with a light fluffy frosting. Think Lofthouse sugar cookie meets coconut macaroon.
I stumbled across the recipe for this cookie in a book full of hand written recipe cards I got for Christmas a few years back. I remember that the original recipe came from a former coworker who brought these cookies in to share around Christmas. I asked her for the recipe and quickly copied it onto one of my new recipe cards.
The worst thing about hand written recipes is that I always manage to forget to copy an ingredient - in this case, it was flour. Yesterday I stared at the list of ingredients thinking "how can this cookie not have flour in it?" Then I looked again at the directions and there it was, "next add the flour." So I improvised, adding as much flour as I thought necessary to get the dough to the consistency of a fluffy sugar cookie. Thankfully, it worked and the cookies turned out just as big as I remember them.
Iced Coconut Sugar Cookies
For the cookies:
2/3 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 oz. sweetened coconut flakes
1 2/3 cup flour
Preheat oven to 375. Line cookies sheets with parchment paper.
In a stand mixer, beat sugar, shortening, milk, salt, baking powder and vanilla for 2 minutes. Add eggs and mix for 2 more minutes. Add coconut and mix until combined. Gradually add the flour.
Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop dough unto the prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned.
For the icing:
1 stick butter
1 lb. box of powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 pinch salt
Cold water
In a stand mixer, cream butter, salt and vanilla. Gradually add in the powdered sugar, alternating with a little cold water to keep it creamy.
Frost each cookie with a generous heaping of the frosting and top with flaked coconut.
Makes 2 dozen big fat cookies.
