Coconut Tuile Cones (Page 667)

RECIPE #918

• Date: Saturday, January 10, 2009 -- 4pm
• Location: Bloomington, IN
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Dining Companion: Matty
• Recipe Rating: A-
  

This recipe was on the list generated by the random number generator. I hadn't made these cookies yet, despite my love of coconut, because it sounded from the recipe like they might be pretty fussy. In fact, they were no trouble at all and very tasty. I started by boiling butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup on the stove, then adding flour and then sweetened, flaked coconut. I let the mixture cool to room temperature. Meanwhile I fashioned a cone out of aluminum foil and buttered a baking sheet. Once the batter had cooled I dropped two 1-tablespoon mounds of it on my baking sheet, and used my fingers to pat each one out into a big circle. I baked them until golden, then let them sit on the baking sheet for two minutes. At that point I quickly flipped each cookie, then rolled one of them around my foil cone, holding it there for a few seconds before removing the cone, to allow the shape to set in. I then rolled the other cookie on my cone to shape it. I repeated this process with 3 more batches, to form a total of 8 cones. These tasty cones were almost more like candy than cookies. They were very sweet, and wonderfully brittle. The coconut wasn't too intense (it was drowned out a bit by the overall sweetness) so even people who dislike coconut might enjoy these. My picture didn't capture it well, but they were extremely elegant looking. The cones came out absolutely beautiful, and would have been very elegant served next to a scoop of ice cream.

Here is the recipe.

One thing that is a little bit curious about this project of mine is that it sometimes necessitates making recipes at completely inappropriate times. If I waited until I had the perfect occasion to make every dish in The Book, this project would take decades! So sometimes I just make things, even if they aren't particularly appropriate for the occasion. Take these cookies, for example. I made them because they were on the list generated by the random number generator, and I make a couple recipes off that list every week. It wasn't until after I made them that I realized that these cones, paired with some homemade ice cream, would have made a lovely dessert at a dinner party. But I had no dinner party planned. And since I had pneumonia when I made these, I wasn't about to throw one. In fact, even my special gentleman was away. So the majority of these very elegant cookies got eaten by me, in my pajamas, sitting on the sofa. Don't get me wrong, they were good -- I was happy to eat them! It just seemed like a bit of a waste, going through the work to shape them so elegantly only to eat them at home alone. After eating half the batch I decided they were too pretty not to share. So I froze a few of them for my special gentleman and he ate them when he returned from Korea. He ate them in his pajamas, sitting on the sofa! So they never lived to see the elegant dinner that they would have fit beautifully into, but at least my special gentleman and I enjoyed them quite a bit!