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Baking

Cocoanut Cookies

Cocoanut cookies are made with flour, cocoanut, sugar, butter, eggs, milk, and baking powder, then baked until crisp.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cocoanut Cookies

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the dough

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together until thick and white.

  2. Beat in the eggs one at a time.

  3. Add the cocoanut and milk, then mix in the flour and baking powder.

  4. Roll out the dough, adding more flour if necessary.

Shape and bake

  1. Stamp into rounds or other shapes.

  2. Bake for 20 minutes or until crisp.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with the sugar to trap air and give the cookies a tender, rich texture.
Eggs
Add moisture and structure, binding the dough together as they are beaten in.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven so the cookies rise slightly and become lighter.
All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that holds the dough together and sets during baking.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the dough and, creamed with butter, helps give a light, crisp texture.
Cocoanut
Adds coconut flavour and moisture, and contributes to the cookies' texture.

The step that matters

Roll out the dough, adding more flour if necessary. Extra flour makes the dough stiffer and easier to handle, but too much dries the cookies and makes them tough. Add it gradually so the dough stays soft enough to cut cleanly.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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