Confused Coconut Cookies

“And the award for best picture goes to….”

Surely you all saw the slip-up. The Warren Beatty/Faye Dunaway (maybe their fault but probably not) mistake heard ’round the world. The best picture award fiasco.

As the masses tweeted, snapped, insta-ed, and FB’d, their jaws dropped, TV remotes tossed, Oscar betting brackets ripped to shreds, I was having my own dilemma of Hollywood proportions.

“Drat! Are these cookies or are these blondies?”

For a friend’s swanky Oscars party I decided to make a family favorite, my Aunt Deb’s blondie bars. Rich, buttery, coconuty, crisp yet soft – a recipe I knew demanded exact ingredients and attentive instruction following.

But after a Sunday afternoon of… well Sunday afternooning, I found myself woefully unprepared for proper baking and unwilling to exit my bed.

As the hour of the party approached the guilt started to get to me. I HAD promised to bring something. I DID need to shower. I WOULD be a crap friend to bail. Alright, alright… let’s do this.

I whipped up the batter, replacing ingredients I didn’t have with subs I hoped would work, fudging amounts and guessing on baking times. Too lazy to cut bars, I scooped the dough into muffin tins. With a deep sigh of “well, whatever,” I stuck those suckers in the oven and crossed my fingers.

Maybe it was 30 minutes later (I’m not sure. I was busy mentally pumping myself up to put real pants on and make the two block trek to the party) when a delicious smell filled every corner of my apartment. They must be done.

My little whatever-they-weres had puffed up beautifully. Golden brown, perfectly circular, crunchy outside and soft, doughy inside – I had no idea what to call them or even how to describe my confused creation but that seemed to matter less as I passed them around to smiling friends and settled in to watch Hollywood’s biggest night.

So maybe La La Land had the old switch-a-roo pulled on them and Warren Beatty might not be asked back to the Oscars. Don’t worry. At least my Confused Coconut Cookies got a taste of the spotlight that night and became an instant Turner classic.

Want them to look red carpet ready? Drizzle with a little dark chocolate for extra flare!

Alright, fine, I’m done with the poorly executed movie references.

Here’s my recipe:

Get your ingredients out! Put the butter and sugars in a bowl and all your dry ingredients in a separate bowl (like above).

Cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating until each is incorporated.

After the eggs, add the vanilla.

Dry ingredients follow the vanilla. Mix until just incorporated. Don’t over-beat or it’ll be tough cookies, literally.

Fold in coconut.

Using an ice cream scoop, divide the batter evenly among the lightly greased muffin tins.

Place in the preheated oven and bake for 25 – 30 minutes, until golden around the edges and just set in the center.

Flip out on to a cooling rack to cool completely before drizzling with melted chocolate (if you so desire (Why wouldn’t you? Are you crazy?)).

And the award for best breakthrough cookie performance on a lazy Sunday goes to…. you get it.