Chocolate Coconut Cookies

I've started making these cookies and adding coconut. Last time I made a mistake and forgot the baking soda, and instead of being horrendous (some of you will remember the time that I forgot the flour in the brownies, not so good) they turned out very much like Oreos, but even better because they have coconut in them. The Karo syrup is in there because I cut out some butter from the original recipe and that sometimes makes cookies turn out hard, and I've read that Karo syrup is supposed to help keep reduced fat cookies chewy. So, in this recipe I think the syrup is completely optional, but I haven't tested it yet, I think if you omit it, the cookies might turn out a tiny bit crisper. I only used it because I had some on hand after all the holiday baking, but I wouldn't go out and buy some just for this. Also (more science), if you add 1 teaspoon of baking powder as in the original recipe, the cookies will spread out more, have puffy, softer edges, and can be less crisp, although I think the overall crispness of cookies is more correlated with how thin you cut the cookies and how long you bake them. Anyone up for a controlled experiment with me?

Crisp Chocolate Coconut Cookies

1 cup butter
2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp light Karo syrup (optional)
3/4 cup Hershey's special dark cocoa powder (any cocoa powder will work, but I really like this kind)
1 cup unsweetened coconut, cut into smaller pieces
2 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt

Cream together butter and sugar and add the eggs and vanilla. Add the cocoa powder and coconut and the flour. It is pretty hard to get the last 1/2 cup or more of flour worked in, so go easy on your mixer. I ended up just kneading it in with my hands, trying to be fast to not melt the butter too much. Chill the dough for a few minutes in the fridge, so it won't be too sticky. Then roll it into logs about 2 inches (or bigger) in diameter, this is easiest if you do it right on sheets of plastic wrap, and freeze the logs until you are ready to use it. Cut slices from the logs about 1/3 inch wide, place slices on a greased cookie sheet and bake in a 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes, depending how crispy you like it. Scoop off and let cool on wire racks.

I also like these cookies because they photograph really well. Most of the things I make, for some reason, always seem to blend right in with every surface in my kitchen. 

Fruity Yogurt: or some ideas for using the sweetened condensed milk you opened by mistake

A few days ago I needed some milk for a recipe, and didn't have any regular milk, so I went to my trusty pantry and opened a can of what I though was evaporated milk, so that I could dilute it to make it regular milk, but as soon as I opened it, I realized my mistake, it was sweetened condensed milk. So I dumped it into a jar and put it in the fridge and found a can of evaporated milk and went on to do my thing.
I had to think for a few days to figure out what to do, it would be such a shame to waste sweetened condensed milk, something I hardly ever buy. I though of making dulce de leche, but I'm afraid of explosions, and I don't know exactly what to do with dulce de leche. I remembered this thing we had from an asian bakery/cafe that was sort of like a slurpee, but it had chunks of mango with shaved ice and sweetened condensed milk drizzled over it, it was very yummy, but there were not any mangoes at the grocery store. And then this recipe that looks like Almond Joy candy bars caught my eye as well as this other candy, called brigadeiros, from Brazil, but both of them seem way to sweet for me to handle right now. I will probably still make the almond joy things sometime, but do them the same as I did my macaroons, with unsweetened coconut. And then I saw this recipe for vietnamese yogurt, and it is the solution to (almost) all of my problems. Lovemuffun and Pricklypear both eat a lot of yogurt, and I am always fighting with the Lovemuffin because he eats his with a ton of jam, the jam that I made all by myself, and then there is never enough jam or yogurt for me, which frusterates me. So, here's what I did:

Fruity Yogurt
1 Large tub of plain yogurt with no added weirdness (no gelatin or corn starch for thickening)
1 Bag of frozen fruit of your choice
Some sweetened condensed milk, to taste (I used about 1/4 of the can)

Drain the yogurt over a sieve lined with cloth or just a paper towel. Let it drain for several hours till the yogurt is nice and thick, like greek style yogurt. It is nice to have it thick because the fruit will add more fluid and this is an easy way to keep it from turning into drinking yogurt. Unless you want drinking yogurt, that is okay with me, this is a very flexible recipe. Thaw the frozen fruit while the yogurt is draining, then blend the fruit up a little, so that it is chunky, not too fluid. Add the fruit to the drained yogurt, and add sweetened condensed milk to taste. You could, of course, just sweeten your yogurt with sugar, but where is the fun in that? Also, I think that would make it runnier, because of the way sugar pulls the juice out of fruit.
This large batch will last us about 3 days and I like it so much more than the pre-fruited and sweetened yogurt at the store. You can make it the level of sweetness you desire, and you can be sure that there is real fruit in there, not just artificial colors and flavors. So far I have used blackberries and a fruit medly containing strawberries, blueberries and blackberries, and I still have plenty of sweetened condensed milk. Up next is peaches.