There is a notable, sad absence of recipes that involve coconut on this site and it’s like totally my husband’s fault. The boy thinks he doesn’t like coconut and every time I mention something that involves it he says “maybe you can make something chocolate instead?” But he’s wrong, no really, he is. I believe that he does like coconut, he just doesn’t like that shredded, hard to chew stuff people stick to the outside of otherwise-tasty frosting. It’s not the flavor that bugs him. And so I set out to prove him wrong by making these cookies, where the coconut is toasted and then ground and you get all of the flavor but not of the annoyingly papery texture. Alex was adamantly opposed, so I promised to either dip or fill them with chocolate or raspberry or even better, filled with raspberry and dipped in chocolate and do you know what happened?

None of this was necessary. Because I WAS RIGHT! He loves these cookies and he does love coconut when it’s not gagging and leathery and did I mention I WAS RIGHT? Because, well, I probably have one or three or a dozen times this week. I’m really fun and mature like that.

This isn’t to say that you couldn’t make these into sandwich cookies or even cuter, linzer-style hearts if you have two size heart cookie cutters and want a little belly of jam to show through on the top cookie. You could dip a corner of the cookie in melted white or dark chocolate, or both. I even thought about adding lime zest to go with the tropical theme, as lime and coconut were made to be together. But promise me that before you do anything to them, you will try them as they are. Because they’re amazing: crispy, buttery, nutty, fragrant and perfectly salted, just the right amount to bring all the flavors into perfect harmony.

Chocolate! Like I was going to leave you chocolate fanatics hanging — it is Valentine’s Day week after all. I created an index of all of the chocolate-heavy recipes on this site. Of course, were I to have put together every recipe with any amount of chocolate on this site, well, I may as well have duplicated the entire archives. Instead, I focused on confections where chocolate is the main attraction, or the kinds of things the chocoholic in your life dreams about. [Chocolate Index]

One year ago: Seven Yolk Pasta