More Coconut Cookies Please!

This isn’t the Malaysian version of coconut cookies, otherwise known as ‘Kueh Bangkit’. You can either call this a rip-off of the original or a creation of a new cookie recipe. All I did was replace the ground almond powder from the ‘Chinese Almond Cookies‘ recipe with dessicated coconut. ‘And why not?’ I thought, since both have similar textures.

It’s simply amazing how a change in just one ingredient could lead to uniquely different flavoured and looking cookies. The aroma from the coconut was irrepressible, even before the cookies were baked.

Ingredients:

• Sweetened dessicated coconut: 300g (2.5 cups)
• Castor sugar: 80g (a bit less than 1/2 cup)
• Plain flour: 250g (2.5 cups)
• Salt: 1 tsp
• Vanilla essence: 1 tsp
• Vegetable oil: 250ml  (1 cup)
• Egg: 1, beaten with 3 tbsp water

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200 deg. Prepare a greased baking tray and set aside.
2. Mix coconut, sugar, flour and salt together.
3. Add vanilla essence. Then gradually add oil into flour while kneading the mixture.
4. Knead till sugar has mostly melted and mixture does not crumble anymore.
5. Knead mixture into small round balls and place on baking tray.
6. Glaze top of balls with beaten egg and poke a hole in the middle with a straw (or tip of pen).
7. Bake for 15min.
8. Remove from oven and leave to cool for 15min before serving.

Tricks:

• If using unsweetened dessicated coconut, increase the amount of sugar to 180g.
• The poking of holes and glazing the top of the cookies were supposed to emulate the shape of Chinese ingots. Do not glaze first then poke the holes because then, the holes could become less well-defined.

Serving:
Makes about 40 medium-sized cookies