Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's been a while since I last shared a recipe, and I hope that this delightful cookie recipe will make up for the wait. I am always intrigued when I find a recipe with a twist on a classic recipe, and when I came across this recipe for Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies from Plain Chicken I knew I had to try it. I love coconut flavors in both savory and sweet foods, and fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your point of view) I had all the ingredients on hand. To those who do not use coconut oil, you're missing out. You can cook with it like other oils, make your own chocolates like these, heck you can even use it as a hair mask. Basically, it's pretty darn handy.

The coconut flavor in these cookies is not overwhelming, but more a subtle hint in these pillowy-chocolate-chippy morsels.

I know you're not supposed to trust people when they say Trust me. But trust me on this one, these will change the way you look at those jars of coconut oil at the grocery store. Seriously.

I halved the recipe and made jumbo-sized cookies (8 total, so I'll give y'all the regular amounts in case you have a party or a bake sale to attend), but other than that I stayed true to the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup coconut oil
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 c. flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 cups chocolate chips

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. 
2. In a large bowl, mix the coconut oil and sugar until smooth. Mix in the egg and vanilla. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt, mix until combined. 
3. Fold in the chocolate chips, then divide the batter into golf ball-sized pieces of dough. This should yield roughly 3 dozen cookies, but if you want to make jumbo cookies, divide the batter into larger pieces so you make 16 large cookies
4. Bake in the center of the oven for 10-12 minutes. For jumbo cookies, the baking time increases to closer to 15-17 minutes.

Cool completely before storing in an air-tight container. Or if you're like me, wait until the chocolate is not molten so you can scarf one down and then regret not savoring the chewy, soft, coconutty flavors, rationalize that you really must experience that taste again and eat another one much slower. Then feel really full and delay making dinner for another 3 hours. 

Chocolate Covered Pretzels with Toffee Pieces

Contributing to a bake sale is a fun excuse to try out new treats that we don't normally make at home. I really love sweet and salty foods, especially in desserts, and chocolate-covered pretzels are one of the best examples of that combo. Plus, they look adorable and that's how you first snag customers at a bake sale!

This week my boyfriend's work was hosting a holiday bake sale so I made a batch of these pretzels for him to bring along.  This bake sale treat is quite inexpensive to make, less than $15 for all the ingredients and you can purchase little bags and ribbons from most dollar stores or craft supply stores for a relatively low price. We ended up with over 100 pretzels plus all the broke bits that I mixed into the leftover chocolate and toffee bits at the end, so it was pretty successful in my book.

Of course, as with many of the recipes I share, you can put your own spin on this treat (such as crushed peppermint candies, sprinkles, or toasted coconut) if you're not a fan of toffee. 

Ingredients:

• 1 bag of pretzels
• 3 cups dark chocolate chips (2 packages)
• 1 1/2 cups toffee pieces (I used 1 package of Skor bits)

Equipment: parchment paper

Directions:

1. Prepare the toffee bits by placing them in a small bowl for easy access later. 
2. Pour the chocolate into a double boiler and melt until smooth. If you do not have a double boiler place a bowl filled with the chips over a pot of shallow, slowly simmering water. You do not want the bowl to be touching the water, it needs to rest above it so the steam will gently melt the chocolate (this way you won't risk burning your chocolate). Please check first to make sure the bowl fits snugly on top of the pan as you do not want any large space between the bowl and the pan. 
3. One at a time, dip a pretzel into the chocolate, shake lightly to let excess chocolate drizzle off, then place on a sheet of parchment. Sprinkle with toffee bits, then repeat for remaining pretzels. (This can be made more efficient by working with someone and having one person be the dipper and the other working to sprinkle toffee). 
4. Let the pretzels cool to room temperature until no longer glossy and chocolate has set, approximately 2 hours. Gently pull the pretzels off the parchment and separate into bags for the bake sale (or into a large tupperware container). Store sealed at room temperature.

Helpful hint:  I hand dipped each pretzel to ensure that they would remain intact and because I also liked the exposed pretzel for easy no-melt handling later on. If you're pressed for time and not concerned about having bits and pieces rather than separate full pretzels you can cut down on the work by gently mixing the pretzels straight into the chocolate. Then use a spoon to spread the pretzels out on a large span of parchment, sprinkle the toffee bits on top and let it cool like that. It won't be as pretty but it will still be delicious!