Another Re-Constructed Family Cookie: Coconut-Lime Milk Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies

After making a family holiday cookie favorite with a twist this weekend by adding chocolate and molasses to Tassie’s Tarts to create Mini Chocolate Pecan Tarts, I decided to turn the tables on another holiday cookie tradition: the thumbprint cookie.

Our family usually makes thumbprint cookie dough with finely chopped chocolate in the dough, and fills the little thumbprint indents with a butter ganache – in other words, melted chocolate and butter. As delicious as that sounds (and is), I wanted to do something different. Obviously, I was going to keep the chocolate involved, specifically, a lot of creamy, Calleabaut milk chocolate.

But what else to add? Wherever would I find inspiration? Fortunately, Hannah over at Wayfaring Chocolate had just recently posted a review of a lime-coconut milk chocolate bar that sounded absolutely delightful, and is, of course, not available in the U.S. While the Australians may be able to get their hands on bars from The Curious Chocolatier, I can make a cookie that’s almost as good, and I did.

Coconut-Lime Milk Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies (as inspired by (oh it hurts to type this) Martha Stewart)

16 tablespoons butter, softened

½ cup sugar

2 egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 ½ tablespoons lime juice

Zest from 2 limes

2 ½ cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

6 ounces flaked, unsweetened coconut, divided

12 ounces milk chocolate, melted and cooled

Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, then add the yolks, vanilla, salt, lime juice, and delightfully tart lime zest.

Beat in flour and salt on low speed until combined, then chill the dough for an hour. Shape the dough into ¾” diameter balls, chill again for 5-10 minutes (until firm).

Distribute formed balls of dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and make indentations in each ball, taking care to create a full ring of dough around the edges to help contain the filling.

Bake the cookies at 325° F for 11-12 minutes, and let sit on a cooling rack.

Now on to make the filling. I needed to have coconut and chocolate in this filling to complete the concept, so I decided to make a filling that was JUST coconut and chocolate. I started out by using 4 ounces of flaked, unsweetened coconut to make coconut butter using advice from Heather at Heather Eats Almond Butter. First, I added this portion of the coconut to my food processor.

Then I let the food processor run until all the flaked coconut had been scattered along the sides. I repeated this several times, and after 10 minutes, was beginning to wonder if I’d ever get more than 25% coconut butter out of this, but kept my faith in Heather’s recipe. Finally, I was almost there.

After continuing to smooth the coconut butter a bit more, I added the melted but cooled milk chocolate, and ran this through the food processor until well mixed.

Then I manually stirred in the remaining 2 ounces of flaked, unsweetened coconut, and had a very tasty filling on my hands.

You could eat this stuff straight, especially while the chocolate is still liquid. I might have done such a thing with a portion of this. But I used most of it to fill the cookie indentations, and finish out the cookie-making process.

The flavors melded together quite well, and I’m so happy I saw Hannah’s review of The Curious Chocolatier’s milk chocolate with lime and coconut bar, since I’d have never put these all together on my own. The overall texture also makes this cookie easy to eat (as if I ever have a hard time eating cookies that involve chocolate), as the cookie and filling are also both soft. I certainly think this take on the thumbprint cookie is a keeper. We’ll see what my mom, dad, brother, and sister-in-law say when their portions of the batch arrive.

Do you like chocolate and citrus together? What is your favorite chocolate and citrus combination?