Maida Heatter's Coconut Washboards
Submitted by lsb on June 29, 2004 at 9:11 am

Description
Maida Heatter's Coconut Washboards

Summary
Yield: 0 File under: Cookies Brownies Bars

Instructions
This cookie recipe comes from Maida Heatter's Great Book of Cookies. She describes them as extra large, plain, semisoft, and nostalgic.

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. double-acting baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
1/4 lb. (1 stick) butter
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 egg
2 Tbsp. water
3 1/2 ounces shredded coconut

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside. In the large bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter. Beat in the vanilla. Add the brown sugar and beat to mix. Add the egg and the water and beat to mix well (the mixture will appear curdled). On low speed gradually add the sifted dry ingredient, scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula and beating only until incorporated. Stir in the coconut.

Cut a piece of wax paper to fit a cookie sheet. Using a heaping teaspoon of dough for each cookie, place them close to each other on the wax paper, forming 24 mounds.

Slide a cookie sheet under the wax paper and transfer the mounds of dough to the freezer or refirgerator to chill until they are firm enough to be handled. If they are in the freezer, watch them closely -- they should not be frozen solid.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment or aluminum foil. Have some flour handy for flouring your hands and a fork.

Flour your hands. Pick up a mound of the dough and roll it between your palms into a sausage shape about 3 inches long. Place it on the lined cookie sheet. Continue shaping the remaining mounds and placing them on the cookie sheets 3 inches apart.

Flour the fingertips of one hand and, with your fingetips, flaten each roll of dough until it is only 1/4 inch thick, 3 1/2 inches long, and 2 inches wide.

Now, to form the traditional ridges that give these cookies their name, dip a fork into the flour and press the back of the tines onto the cookies, forming deep indentations. Since the cookies are so large, it will be necessary to press the fork onto each cookie four times, one for each quarter of the cookie surface. The ridges should be parallel and should go lengthwise with the shape of the cookie.

Bake the cookies for about 12 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown all over -- do not underbake.

Let the cookies stand for a few seconds and then transfer them to racks to cool.