~Milk Chocolate Chip & Coconut Almond Joy Cookies~
Who doesn't remember the Peter Paul Candy Company's 1970's TV jingle: Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't, Almond Joy's got nuts, Mounds don't. Ok, if you weren't of the era, you don't remember it, but the rest of us do. Besides the packaging (blue for Almond Joy bars and red for Mounds bars), there's another, and very important, difference between these two candy bars too: Almond Joys bars are coated in milk chocolate, Mounds bars are coated in dark chocolate. I mention this because all the Almond Joy Cookie recipes I've seen recently call for semi-sweet chocolate morsels -- this is just plain wrong. A wrong I am here to right -- today.
Almond Joys = milk chocolate. Mounds = dark chocolate.
Almond Joy cookie recipes contain milk chocolate chips. Mounds cookie recipes contain dark chocolate chips. Got it?
2 1/4 cups + 2 tablespoons unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon each: baking powder, baking soda and salt
1 cup salted butter, at room temperature, very soft (2 sticks)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup firmly-packed dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons each: pure almond extract, chocolate extract and vanilla extract
2 large eggs, preferably at room temperature
18 ounces Nestlē milk chocolate chips
4 ounces sliced almonds
3 ounces sweetened, flaked coconut
~Step 1. In a small bowl, stir together the dry ingredients: the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and, salt. In a large bowl place the butter, both sugars, and both extracts. On high-speed of hand-held electric mixer, beat until creamy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the two eggs, about 1 minute. Lower mixer speed, add the flour and gradually incorporate it into the mixture, until a smooth, sticky dough forms.
~Step 2. Using a large rubber spatula, thoroughly fold in the milk chocolate chips, followed by the coconut, followed by the sliced almonds. Using a 1 1/2" ice-cream scoop as a measure, drop cookies, well-apart, onto each of 5, parchment-lined, 17 1/2" x 12 1/2" baking pans (15 per pan).
~ Step 3. Bake, one-pan-at-a-time on center rack of 325° oven, 11-12 minutes, until light-golden. Remove from oven and cool cookies on pan, about 2-3 minutes prior to using a small spatula to transfer to a wire cooling rack, to cool completely.
For those times when you feel like at nut -- be Joyful:
For those times when you don't feel like a nut -- go Mounds:
Milk Chocolate Chip & Coconut Almond Joy Cookies: Recipe yields 6 dozen 2 1/2"-round cookies.
Special Equipment List: hand-held electric mixer; large rubber spatula; 5, 17 1/2" x 12 1/2" baking pans; parchment paper; 1 1/2" ice-cream scoop; wire cooling rack; small spatula
Cook's Note: The Nestlē Crunch Bar -- creamy milk chocolate chocked full of crunchy-crisped rice. It, along with the Reese's peanut butter cup (milk chocolate and peanut butter) is at the top of my "favorite candy bars list". As with several other favorites, for an adult activity, I prefer to chop up said candy bars and bake cookies with their bits and pieces -- I prefer a cookie to a candy bar and I adore a candy bar in a cookie. Try my ~ Milk-Chocolate-Lovers Nestlē-Crunch-Bar Cookies ~.
"We are all in this food world together." ~ Melanie Preschutti
(Recipe, Commentary and Photos courtesy of Melanie's Kitchen/Copyright 2020)
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