Jun. 28, 2021
Cooking In Season
Salad Meals to Beat the Heat
In this recipe round up, I have gathered my best and most delicious summer salad meal recipes in one post, for days when it’s too hot to cook!
April 9, 2011
Almost Like Muffin Tops
A super delicious snacking cookie, especially for the muffin top lovers out there. These cookies, soft and cakey on the inside, crusty on the outside, coconutty and chocolately and nubbly with oats, are remiscent of muffin tops. Not a typical cookie, but very popular!
We spent almost a whole afternoon trying to come up with a name for these unusually yummy cookies. While my friend and I tossed out ideas, as in “Not Just a Sugar Rush Cookie” and “Substantial Snack Cookies”, the cookies were vanishing in huge numbers down the hatches of my children and their friends.
“You know,” I said as I watched the 17th cookie disappear off the rack, “these are almost like muffin tops.”
My friend smiled. “That’s right! And the muffin top is the best part!”
I am a fan of the whole entire muffin. But I know many people who would rather just eat the muffin top. Crusty and sweet rather than soft and pale, the top does definitely have its benefits. It is craggy, browned, full of flavour and textural contrast.
This recipe is for anyone who wants a super delicious snacking cookie, but it is most especially for the muffin top lovers out there. These big cookies, soft and cakey on the inside, crusty on the outside, coconutty and chocolately and nubbly with oats, are even better than muffin tops.
They feel substantial rather than overly sweet, and the recipe makes at least a week’s supply of lunchbox snacks. It is not a typical cookie – but I think that’s the reason they were disappearing so fast.
Muffin Top Cookies
These big cookies are soft and cakey on the inside, crusty on the outside, coconutty and chocolately and nubbly with oats. A family lunchbox favourite! This recipe doubles or halves easily. These cookies freeze very well.
Ingredients
70 g (2/3 cup) dried unsweetened shredded coconut
2 large ripe bananas
315 g (2-1/4 cups) all-purpose flour
5 g (1 tsp) baking soda
3 g (1/2 tsp) baking powder
3 g (1/2 tsp) salt
227 g (1 cup) butter, at room temperature
200 g (1 cup) white granulated sugar
132 g (2/3 cup) light brown sugar (yellow sugar)
2 large eggs
10 ml (2 tsp) vanilla extract
200 g (2 cups) quick-cooking rolled oats
340 g (2 cups) chocolate chips
Instructions
- Toast the coconut. Heat a pan over medium-low heat; add the coconut and toast, stirring constantly, abot 2 minutes, until coconut is lightly toasted. Do not step away - watch it carefully. Coconut burns easily! Transfer coconut to a plate to cool.
- Peel the bananas and place in a bowl. Use a fork to mash the bananas to a puree.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- In a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or in a large mixing bowl with a wooden spoon), beat togther the butter, granulated sugar and light brown sugar until smooth and fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs and vanilla and mix again. Add the mashed banana and mix well. Don't worry if the mixture looks like it is separating.
- Add the flour mixture and beat on low until just combined.
- Add the toasted coconut, the oats and the chocolate chips. Mix gently until everything is evenly combined.
- Set dough aside for at least 30 minutes, and up to 4 hours, to allow the coconut and oats to hydrate properly. If resting for more than 1 hour, keep the dough covered in the fridge.
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 F. Cover four cookie sheets with parchment paper. using a 2-oz (30 ml) cookie scoop OR a soup spoon, scoop cookie mounds on to the trays, spacing them about 3 cm apart. You will have 3-1/2 to 4 dozen cookies.
- Lightly flatten the tops of the cookies. Bake one tray at a time in the oven for about 15 minutes, rotating the tray at the 10 minute mark.
- Remove from oven and let cool on the tray for 2 minutes before transfering cookies to a cooling rack.
- Store cookies in an airtight container for up to 5 days. They will soften by the second day. These cookies freeze very well.
These look incredible!! I’m going to make them tonight and enjoy one with my morning coffee (at work) tomorrow!
these look good. I am always looking for something different to use up my banana’s and the kids love chocolate chips! On my baking list for tomorrow.
I wondered if I could get away wtih less sugar in these cookies? 1 and 2/3 cups seems a lot but maybe thats what makes them taste good?
Hi Grace, you could definitely put less sugar in there. The cookies will be less crisp on the edges and possibly a bit drier.
Regarding the sugar amount, this recipe makes 4 dozen large cookies, each the size of half a large muffin, so 1-2/3 cup seems more reasonable in that context. I like my treats treat-like, but if you like them less sweet then definitely adjust the sugar to suit.
Another adjustment, instead of or in addition to reducing the sugar, is to eliminate the chocolate chips or use chopped bittersweet chocolate.
I used all the batter in a 9×13 to make cookie bars with…try try try!
Ooooh! The cookies bars sounds like a fabulous idea! I will try that!
Delicious! One of the best cookies I’ve made in a long time. They are disappearing fast. Will be making them again soon!
I’ve been trying to print a cookie recipe, just the recipe and method but can’t make it print properly. Some cooking websites have a “print recipe” area to click on and then the recipe appears in a printing friendly form. Have you considered putting that on your website? There are many of your recipes I’d love to have in my binder for future enjoyment but I’ll have to write them out I guess. Maybe I’m missed this button somewhere on the website.
Hi Gail, I do have a print recipe feature, but it is easy to miss. Right at the top of the site, next to the social media icons, is a little printer icon. if you click that, it should open a printer-friendly copy. Some of my recipes haven’t been updated with that feature yet, but I will make sure this cookie recipe is!