3 trees

3 trees, a photo by blueflicker on Flickr.

Iron

In midlife I am richer in sight than at twenty
Realising that pretty soon I will be closing the circle
Or come out the other side of the woods, if you want to call it that.
And in that grey dusk, in that soft gloaming
I will remember my father
His one great strength amidst the frailties.
Integrity. The iron honesty of farmfolk and mountainfolk
If I leave nothing else behind but that
I will have bequeathed the world a world.

A version of Alice Medrich's coconut sticks

Coconut sticks, a photo by blueflicker on Flickr.

The original recipe (see this) looks fantastic and makes wonderful cookies. However I made quite a few changes to the original recipe to suit the ingredients I had on hand. The result was a cookie with holes, much more rustic-looking, but I dare say just as yummy.

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup thawed grated coconut, pressing out a bit of the liquid
• 6 tbsp cold salted butter plus extra for the cookie sheet(s)

Prepare: Cookie sheets, greased with salted butter. You can also line the sheets with parchment paper but I’ve come to prefer the hit of salty butter when baking cookies. Or, a 5-x-9-inch loaf pan lined on the bottom and sides with foil would also work.

First, I combined the flour, sugar and coconut in a large mixing bowl and stirred to blend. Then I cut the butter into small pieces and rubbed the pieces into the flour mixture until all the dry ingredients were damp. The dough started to resemble a big tacky ball, not the coarse meal you would get if you follow the original recipe. Next I dumped the mixture onto the cookie sheet I’d prepared earlier and formed a block about 4 or 5 inches x 10 inches, covered it with parchment paper, and stuck it in the fridge.

Six hours later (two hours is the minimum you want for the mixture to firm up, overnight is even better) I preheated the oven to 350°F and positioned two racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. I took the loaf out of the fridge, unwrapped it and cut even slices about a quarter of an inch thick, using the knife to transfer each slice to the greased cookie sheets, with the slices about an inch apart.

Into the oven they went for 15 - 18 minutes, and to make sure they baked evenly I flipped the cookies halfway through the baking time and also rotated the sheets from top to bottom and from front to back.

When the cookies were nice and golden I took them out and transferred to racks to cool.