Coconut Sugar Cookies

Boy, do I love coconut! When I saw this recipe on Piece of Cake back in December, I immediately saved the recipe to make. They just sounded so delicious! And, they are pretty easy to make. There are four different kinds of coconut flavor in this recipe- desiccated coconut, sweetened coconut, coconut extract and coconut milk. Since I halved the recipe as I usually do, the dough wasn't coming together enough (probably because I used half an egg and that's not really a scientific measurement...) so I added a few tablespoons of water and that worked.

My half recipe made 15 cookies.

Here's the recipe:
(Slightly adapted from Piece of Cake)

1 1/4 cups flour
2 tablespoons dessicated coconut
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 large egg, room temperature (I whisked an egg in a bowl and took out 2 tablespoons)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon coconut extract

For the icing and decoration:

1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons coconut milk
1/2 cup shredded, sweetened coconut
1 tablespoon white sanding sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Whisk together the flour, dessicated coconut, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.

Whisk together the oil, egg, vanilla and coconut extracts in a small bowl.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugars until fluffy and pale in color, about 2 minutes.

Beat the egg mixture into the butter and sugar mixture on medium speed until well-blended. Scrape down the bowl and reduce the mixer speed to low. Gradually stir in the flour mixture until all the dry ingredients are incorporated. The dough will be very soft.

Using a 1-tablespoon-sized scoop, portion the dough into balls onto a baking sheet. Pour 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar onto a plate. Dip the flat bottom of a glass into the sugar, and press onto each dough ball lightly to flatten each to about 1/4-inch thick, dipping the cup or glass again before pressing each cookie. Sprinkle some of the leftover sugar on top of the cookies before baking.

Bake the cookies until they are lightly golden and crisp at the edges, about 12 minutes. Let the cookies cool in the sheets for a minute before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

When the cookies have cooled, whisk together the confectioners' sugar, coconut milk and salt in a small bowl. Toss together the shredded coconut and sanding sugar on a plate. Spread each cookie evenly with icing and sprinkle generously with the sugared coconut. Let the icing dry for about an hour before serving. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week (the cookies will soften a bit after the first day).

Enjoy!