Coconut Adventure

Whether it's rainy outside or I've had a rough day, I find spending time in the kitchen comforting. With the holiday season here cookies are my focus. I have my list of traditional holiday cookies but I felt like branching out a little. Last night I tried out a recipe from one of my favorite cookies: Coconut Nests. The ingredient list is simple, although I slightly adjusted it to the following:

3 cups shredded coconut
10 oz condensed milk
1/4 cup cornstarch
a pinch or so of salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Before you bake them, they're sticky, and I was thinking, this isn't going to work very well, but then I thought "Well, condensed milk is in fudge, and probably gets chewy with baking..hmmmm." I questioned the result as I shoved them in the oven.

After 12 minutes I went to check on them, and they hadn't spread all over the place; in fact they held up pretty well. I learned a few things. The first, coat the pan really, really well with some sort of cooking spray. The second, make sure the bottom of the cookies are very well coated with coconut. The third, move quickly, but gently. Once you take them out of the once, get them on a cooling rack fast. As they cool they will basically glue themselves to the pan.
And of course, while I was working hard to not brake my cookies, my husband was looking over my shoulder, looking for any "misshapen ones" so he could have a taste. He managed to sneak two before I chased him out of the kitchen. They're chewy and crunchy, soft, and delicious. If you like coconut, you should try out this easy recipe.

* From 1,000 GF Recipes by Carol Fenster