Butterscotch Coconut Cookies

I don’t talk about this a lot, but one of my hobbies is ballet. I started taking ballet as an adult and I have a great group of friends that I have made through ballet class. My dance teacher was diagnosed with cancer three years ago, and after a valiant fight, she recently passed away. The dancers had a memorial for her, where we performed a short piece to honor her memory. It was beautiful.

The memorial was a potluck, and I made cookies. My teacher loved butterscotch, so I went looking for a butterscotch cookie. While there were lots of recipes, most of them were oatmeal butterscotch cookies and I wanted something more exciting than that. It was a memorial in a park, so while I didn’t want something super fancy, I didn’t want to be boring. I came across these, butterscotch combined with coconut and that sounded interesting.

I know that this isn’t all that different from a chocolate chip cookie with different mix-ins, but they are really great! Butterscotch is a flavor that has fallen out of favor, which is too bad. I like butterscotch, sweet and buttery, how could that be bad? Combining the butterscotch and the coconut together adds to the buttery flavor, and the coconut brings a certain nuttiness. I made these cookies a little larger than I typically do, because these flavors deserve a nice, substantial cookie. 

Butterscotch Coconut Cookies

½ cup butter, room temperature

½ cup sugar

½ cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1½ cups flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1½ cups shredded coconut

1½ butterscotch chips

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter on medium until fluffy. Add the sugar and brown sugar and continue beating on medium until well incorporated. Add the egg and vanilla and stir until combined. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture. Stir in the coconut and butterscotch chips with a spatula.

Scoop the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, using about a tablespoon of dough for each cookie.     

Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until lightly golden. Allow the cookies to cook on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from The Daring Gourmet The Daring Gourmet