There’s something about cookies that makes me want to do good deeds.

Perhaps it’s the childish innocence of them. Or maybe it’s the fact that before I learned to cook, the only thing I would ever contribute to bake sales, parties, work functions and surprises of any sort were cookies like these.

Whatever it is, I decided to make these Giving Cookies.

The cookies themselves were also chalked full of good things. Things that had been given to me, in fact.

I got lots of awesome fair trade and organic baking supplies from a Camino party that I went to earlier in the week. For those of you who have never heard of Camino (formerly known as Cocoa Camino), it’s a Canadian brand of fair trade and organic certified food. The party was being held in honour of the co-op’s appearance on CBC’s The Big Decision. Camino got a HUGE amount of funding from Arlene Dickinson (you know, from Dragon’s Den) to help them continue to sell their sustainable products. I love when good people get recognition for all they’re doing, and this party was a great example of that. You can follow Camino on Twitter @caminolala.

Anyways, Gord and I were spoiled and got a whole bounty of stuff.

I set off to find the perfect cookie recipe to use these ingredients in, and googled upon Joy the Baker’s recipe for brown butter toasted coconut chocolate chip cookies (I like Joy because, like me, she sees the need to put every important ingredient into the recipe name). Oooh la la.

The idea intrigued me. After much butter browning and coconut toasting, these cookies came together nicely (though I needed to add some milk to make the batter have a more dough-like consistency).

And of course, as is essential when you’re making cookies, I ate a tonne of dough. Now I’m not hungry for supper. #storyofmylife

These turned out nicely, and I loved the slight coconut twist on the traditional chocolate chip cookie. The dark chocolate chunks were a nice touch too. Finally, underbaking these cookies made them soft and chewy, even by Monday.

Operation Clear Cupboard: The slow utilization of all my baking products – coconut, chocolate chips, chocolate and vanilla

Recipients of the cookies: 
1. The Mannshahi family that manages the Old Ottawa South corner store near my house. They are always so nice to me and even listen to my requests to stock things like pesto, cherry pie filling and graham cracker crumbs. Be it dish soap, milk, a(nother) bag of icing sugar or a popsicle, they always welcome my (normally) sweatpants-laden self.

2. My old roommates. I smuggled an old sour cream container full of cookies into the play that Ariel and I went to on Saturday. These four haven’t gotten to eat a lot of my treats lately, so they deserved these. Update: these apparently never got to my roommates…they were eaten during the play’s intermission instead – at least they were appreciated!

3. Random friends, roommates and classmates, over the course of the weekend and Monday morning.

There’s two left. Guess what I’m eating as a late night snack?

Recipe: Brown butter toasted coconut chocolate chip cookies
Adapted very slightly from Joy the Baker
– 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and browned to about 3/4 cup butter
– 1 cup granulated sugar
– 3/4 cup brown sugar
– 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
– 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
– 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
– 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon salt (depending on how salty you like things)
– 1 large egg
– 1 large egg yolk
– 1/3 cup milk
– 1/4 cup toasted coconut (I used unsweetened, but sweetened will work as well)
– 1 cup dark chocolate chunks

Place a rack in the center and upper third of the oven and preheat to 350° F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spread out the shredded coconut.  Toast coconut for about 3 minutes, until browned and fragrant.  Remove from the oven, place in a small bowl and let cool.

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  The butter will begin to foam and crackle.  That’s a great sign.  That means that the water is evaporating from the butter.  Once the crackling subsides, keep an eye on the butter.  The butter solids will begin to brown.  You’ll smell the butter as it browns.  Once well browned, immediately remove the butter from the flame and place in a small bowl.  Removing the butter from the pan will ensure that it doesn’t continue to cook and burn in the hot pan.  Allow the butter to cool for a few moments.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, measure granulated and brown sugar.  Add the brown butter and beat together, on medium speed, for about 2 minutes.  The sugar may still look grainy.  That’s ok.

Add the egg and egg yolk and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes.  The mixture should become silky smooth.  Add  vanilla extract and beat.

With mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients, making three additions of dry ingredients and two of milk.  Beat until just incorporated.  Remove the bowl from the mixer and use a spatula to fold in the toasted coconut and chocolate chips.  Dough will be thick.

Spoon balls by the tablespoonful onto the prepared baking sheets.  Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until golden brown but still slightly soft in the center.  Remove from the oven.  Allow the cookies to cool on the pan for 5 minutes, before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes three dozen cookies.