Cookbook Friday: Coconut Meltaways

So, about these cookie trays that my great-aunt Dava [Barbaresi] Catone made for special occasions, I don’t really have any stories about them.  If there were any shotgun weddings that had Dava cursing and baking all night long, I don’t know about them. 

Many of the cookies she made weren’t Italian, including this one with shredded coconut.  Think Russian tea cake if Russia had a timeshare in the tropics.  Instead of powdered sugar, Dava applied an icing that she tinted mint green and then sprinkled more coconut on top.  You’ll have to use your own good judgment on the icing; mint green might not win you any friends these days.

Anyway, Dava’s original recipe calls for oleo (margarine).  The prevailing wisdom at the time was that margarine was better for you than butter.  The prevailing wisdom today is the opposite.  Welcome to the cycle of life.  They’ll be good either way.

Coconut Meltaways

Husbands and toddlers love these cookies.  Chopped macadamia nuts would also be great in the dough or sprinkled on top.

1 cup oleo (or butter)
5 Tbsp. powdered sugar
2 cups flour, sifted
1 cup shredded coconut
1 tsp. vanilla

Icing
2 Tbsp. oleo (or butter)
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
2 or 3 Tbsp. milk
¼ tsp. vanilla
Green food coloring
Chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, cream oleo and sugar.  Stir in flour, coconut, and vanilla until blended. Chill dough 20 minutes or until firm enough to handle.  With your hands, roll dough into 1-inch balls and place an inch apart on cookie sheets.  Bake about 15 minutes (it took a bit longer in my oven), until dough just begins to crack.  Cool.

For the icing, cream together oleo and sugar in a small bowl.  Add milk and vanilla, and mix well.  Add just enough tint to make a mint green color, and stir until you don’t care that the lumps are still there.  Spoon over cookies and sprinkle with shredded coconut or chopped nuts.

Dava [Barbaresi] Catone
New Haven, Connecticut - Hamden, Connecticut
1921 - 1998

Next Recipe: Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Cookies

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Comments

[joey]

My mom was a sensitive, kind and loving person. "Dava's cookies " were a perfect example of this.
Some of the cookies were Italian favorites but most of them were family favorites. The trays were huge and colorful and seasonal. Due to an ingenious mental inventory system that only she possessed, everybody's favorite cookie was represented and there were always enough so you could leave with a few days supply. I can not remember a holiday or family get-together that lacked my mom's cookies

[Dad]

Boy, I remember those big trays of cookies at all the family get- togethers. I forget which ones were my favorites but, then again, I ate them all!

[Tammy]

I actually don't remember these (there were soooo many cookies to choose from). Maybe the mint green scared me away, but now I regret all the years I could have been eating them.