Monday, August 15, 2011

Trophies, Triathlon Folks, and Macadamia Coconut Chocolate Bar Cookies

Hot weather in DC has left the concept of tropical ingredients floating around in brain. That’s why I made these macadamia coconut chocolate bar cookies.

Tell me, how can this setup NOT inspire you to make cookies?

Alright, maybe it would inspire some of you to just eat the component ingredients straight. So, to be honest, I actually turned this into cookies because I needed something to share with some awesome folks at the Luray International Triathlon on Saturday, where a few hundred people swam a mile, biked 27 miles, and then ran a 10k just for fun. Namely, folks like Tim, Lauren, and Emily, who unfortunately got lost in the crowd at the finish and missed out. Don’t worry, Emily, I took the rest home and put them in the refrigerator for your enjoyment later.

I took something else home from that race, too.

Third place in the Athena category! Came with a nice engraved wine glass.

Now this probably raises the question? What is the Athena category? Why is there a big “A” written on the back of my leg, instead of just my age, the standard marking at a triathlon?

Some races sponsor categories for the, well, larger men (Clydesdale) and women (Athena). The threshold for women is 150 lbs, which isn’t that much for those of us topping 5’6” while sporting swimming, cycling, and running muscles. I just barely qualify, but I entered nonetheless. Evidently, some women are reluctant enter because they are ashamed to disclose their weight.

Come on, ladies. There are no secrets in a tri suit anyway. Go ahead. Enter. I mean, you even get to be referred to as a “Goddess of Wisdom” for the day.

Just don’t mind me when I see the “A” on your leg and do everything I can do run past you on every hill. It happens. But maybe, just maybe, I’ll share some cookies with you afterwards.

Macadamia Coconut Chocolate Bar Cookies - Ingredients

1 cup macadamia nut butter (can be made by running 10 ounces of macadamia nuts through a food processor)

½ cup sugar

½ cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 ¼ cup flour

¾ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

3 ounces macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped

5 ounces unsweetened coconut, divided

9 ounces bittersweet chocolate (Scharffen Berger 70% cocoa)

Beat sugars, macadamia nut butter and egg in large bowl. Stir in flour, baking soda, baking powder, and macadamia nuts. Reserve one third of the dough.

Press the remaining 2/3 of the dough into a 13”x9” pan lined with parchment paper and bake at 350° F for 10 minutes. Then get to work making the chocolate coconut filling.

Run 3 ounces of coconut through a food processor to make coconut butter, just like Heather does. This will take about 15 minutes, but be sure to get the coconut to a buttery consistency. Add the chocolate, process until smooth, and then manually stir in the remaining coconut.

Pour the chocolate coconut filling onto the first layer.

Then crumble the remaining dough on top of the filling.

Bake for an additional 15 minutes. Allow to cool, then cut into squares

Nice, aren’t they? Especially nice after 3+ hours of racing.

What kind of cookies do you think you’d want after an international-distance triathlon?

13 comments:

  1. Congratulations, wine-glass winner!

    I would probably want some puke cookies, because that's how sick I'd be after trying to crush everyone in my age group. It would of course be the swimming that would do me in!

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  2. Wooo well done!!

    You certainly deserved those cookies then heeh! They look amazingly good!...after a triathlon I think Id probably want something similar..or a really chewy milk choc chip cookie..or peanut butter..ahh too many choices!

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  3. Congrats on finishing 3rd! That's so exciting! :)

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  4. Nice job on hitting the podium Victoria! That glass is freaking awesome.

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  5. Awesome job! Not suprising though, you are such an awesome athlete. Those coconut chocolate bars look like the bomb.com. Obviously because you made them.

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  6. Congrats on 3rd place! I need to do the same races as you because I clearly would be motivated to finish faster if I knew there were cookies (or other chocolate treats) waiting at the finish!

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  7. Congrats on your hardware! Impressive finish for your 1st Olympic! Hated that I missed out on those cookies.

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  8. Congrats on the third place win! No better way to celebrate than by making a yummy dessert, that's for sure!
    :)

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  9. Congratulations on 3rd place! I really find your attitude toward the Athena category to be quite inspiring and down to Earth! You said it right, there is no hiding in a Tri suit!
    I baked something like these a few weeks ago but without coconut, I want to give your recipe a try!

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  10. You are a genius baker and you won a prize in your race category. I want to be like you. Those cookies are a fantastic combo. Never done an international distance triathlon (or any triathlon) but generally any combo including peanut butter and chocolate makes me very happy. And frosting. Congrats! I have no idea why women wouldn't want to enter that....especially women like you who are clearly all muscle! There are no secrets in a tri suit....oh that's just so true.

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  11. Absolutely! Here's to being proud of our bodies and their awesome strengths and muscles! Well, that is, for those of us with muscles. Which embarrassingly isn't me, because I can only do women's style push-ups. Man, I need to change that...

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  12. Congrats!!! I might have to try these sans coconut!

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