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Dessert

Cocoanut Cookies

A cookie made with butter, sugar, egg, milk, flour, coconut, and leavening agents.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the dough

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

  2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

  3. Beat in the egg and milk until well combined.

  4. In another bowl, mix the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until just combined.

  6. Fold in the shredded coconut.

Bake

  1. Drop spoonfuls of dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

  2. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the edges are lightly golden.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Milk + coconuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,648 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Butter + coconuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cookies together as they bake.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the creamed mixture trap air for a light texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the cookies and helps them brown at the edges.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds structure and richness.
Baking soda
Reacts with acidic ingredients to produce gas that helps the cookies rise.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the dough, supporting the rise and stabilizing the texture.

The step that matters

Stirring in the dry ingredients. Once flour is added, overmixing develops gluten, which makes cookies tough. Stir only until the flour is just combined.

Swap the coconut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, sugar, milk, flour, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutthe original
  4. Figfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, sugar, milk, flour, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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