Almond Joyfuls

I had wanted to play around with a coconut and almond flavored recipe for a while, since I still had a lot of toasted coconut saved up from the Coconut Chick Cupcakes I made last April (don't worry, it was stored in an airtight container!).  And they really do taste like Almond Joy candy bars!

Basically all I did was take the Coconut Macaroons recipe from The Cookie & Biscuit Bible and change up a few minor things, like using toasted coconut instead of unsweetened coconut flakes, and substituting almond extract for vanilla.

Oh, and adding the chocolate, of course.

Almond Joyfuls

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• pinch of salt
• 2 and 1/2 cups toasted coconut flakes
• 3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 3/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 8 ounces milk chocolate chips

Method

Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl and stir in the coconut.

Add the condensed milk and almond extract, and stir to combine into a thick batter.

Using a cookie scoop, drop batter onto parchment lined cookie sheets and bake for about 18-20 minutes on 350 degrees.  Watch carefully, because a minute too long means burned cookies!  (I learned this the hard way with my first tray.)  Then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Put chocolate chips into a zipper-top bag and microwave on high in 20 to 30 second intervals, squeezing the bag to mix in between.  Don't go too much past a minute or so - mixing with your fingers will do a lot to help the melting process.

Arrange the cooled cookies on wax paper.  Snip off one corner of the bag and drizzle chocolate over each cookie.  Let set before packing in an airtight container.

Alternately, you can melt the chocolate chips in a small mixing bowl and spoon them over each cookie for more of a petit fours look.