I decided to reconstruct a coconut. There was a trend a few years back about creating deconstructed desserts. German Chocolate Cake would come as a wedge of chocolate cake with a pitcher of ganache and a wall of candied pecans or some such stuff! With this recipe I decided to take all the components of a poor little coconut and mush them all together. I became obsessed with making shortbread with coconut oil, coconut sugar, and coconut flour. So that’s what I did. It’s almost Paleo because Paleo’s don’t eat sugar…so I’m thinking the coconut sugar isn’t strictly Paleo. Almost Vegan because of the bittersweet chocolate…although you can buy Vegan chocolate…and the gluten free comment speaks for itself.
These cookies will go from cooked to burned in no time, so don’t walk away from the oven and the flavor is very intense. Not intensely coconut, just intense.
½ C coconut oil
2 t vanilla
½ C coconut sugar
1 C coconut flour
2 oz bittersweet chocolate
1//3 C toasted flaked coconut
1/3 C toasted slivered almonds
Heat the oven to 350
Ever so slightly warm the coconut oil, only so that it’s more pliable (I did this by placing the coconut oil in the microwave at 50% power for 15 seconds). Place the coconut oil, vanilla, and coconut sugar in a medium bowl. Add the coconut flour and smudge with your hands until you have a nice ball of dough. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and place the dough on the sheet. Flatten the dough with your hand or a rolling pin until you have a disk about 1/4-inch thick. Score the disk into 12 wedges. Place in the oven and bake 12-15 minutes. Remove from the oven and score the hot shortbread again going over your original marks with a sharp knife. Set aside to cook completely. Once cooled melt the bittersweet chocolate and frost the outer edges of the shortbread with chocolate and press the coconut and almonds into the chocolate. Set aside for the chocolate to harden and serve. Makes 12 cookies. These don’t hold real well, you should eat them within several days of making them.
