German Chocolate Cookies

Helga Glaesel de BlandingDecember 16, 2012

This post is also available in / Esta entrada también está disponible en ESPAÑOL (SPANISH)

I saw a photograph of this recipe and when I followed the link and found it came from the Disney Family page, I had my doubts. I decided to try them out anyway, the recipe made sense. I went to the store to get all my baking supplies, and was about to grab the bag of pecans, when I checked for the price – Enter car break sound here – Expensive!

Ok, so no pecans for this recipe. I have a long list of ingredients for a lot of different goodies and meals I’ll be preparing for this season, and I need to keep my budget in check, so I just substituted almonds. If you can find pecans at a reasonable price then by all means, use them. This cookie recipe is a take on the German Chocolate Cake recipe, which contrary to popular belief, did not originate in Germany. Its roots can be traced back to 1852 when American Sam German developed a type of dark baking chocolate for the American Baker’s Chocolate Company. The cake is a layered chocolate cake filled and topped with a coconut-pecan frosting.

I used a tablespoon to scoop the dough into my baking sheet. It is important that you press down on them to help their shape. These do not spread out, or grow a lot as other cookies would, they just puff up a little bit. As for the flavor: Fantastic! They are chewy, coconutty and chocolatey. They ended up being one of my favorites.

Helga

German Chocolate Cookies

Yield: About 30 cookies
Disney Family

Ingredients
2 cups sweetened, shredded coconut
1 ½ cups chopped pecans (or almonds)
1 ¾ cups flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup packed brown sugar
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) salted butter, softened
1 large egg
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract
4 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped or grated

Procedure

Heat the oven to 350 and grease 2 baking sheets or cover them with parchment paper.
Spread the coconut and pecans (or almonds) on a rimmed baking sheet and toast in the oven, stirring occasionally, for 7 to 10 minutes, or until they are lightly browned. Set them aside to cool.
Meanwhile, in a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt and set it aside.
In the bowl of a standing mixer, on medium speed, beat together the brown sugar and the butter until light and fluffy, then beat in the egg, corn syrup, vanilla and almond extracts. Beat in the flour mixture, then use a rubber spatula to fold in the coconut, pecans (or almonds), and chocolate.
Drop the dough onto the baking sheets by the heaping tablespoonful, spacing them a few inches apart, and use a table knife to flatten them slightly.
Bake one sheet at a time, in the upper third of the oven, for 7 to 10 minutes, until golden all over and lightly browned at the edges (you may want to reverse the sheet from front to back during baking to ensure even browning). Transfer the sheet to a wire rack and let stand a minute or two to let the cookies firm up, then transfer the cookies to the rack to cool