My mother loved coconut, and these were her favorite cookies. If cream cheese and coconut isn’t enough yumminess for you, add a cup of M&M mini baking chips for variety.
1/3 C. butter
1 3-oz. pkg. cream cheese (full fat), softened
3/4 C. sugar
1 egg yolk
2 tsp. almond extract
2 tsp. Triple Sec, other liqueur, or rum flavoring
1 1/4 C. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
14-oz. pkg. of coconut, divided
Cream the butter, cream cheese, sugar, egg yolk, and flavorings. Mix in the flour and baking powder, and then 3 C. of the coconut. Chill dough at least an hour (or, it will keep for a few days in the fridge).
Preheat oven to 325º. Shape dough into 1” balls and roll them in remaining coconut, pressing it in. Bake on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper for 15 minutes, or until barely starting to brown. Cool on the sheet for a minute, and carefully remove to a wire rack.
Kitchen Hint: use good quality, moist coconut for this, and use full-fat cream cheese or the cookies won’t hold together right. If you don’t find bags of the mini M&M baking chips in the baking aisle, look for tubes of them at the check-out counter.