Coconut-Orange Thumb Print Cookies

Buster's friend's Note:

Adding this to my holiday cookie trays. Adapted from a recipe in The Seattle Times provided by Lynne Rossetto Kasper. Something wonderful about orange at Christmas. Coconut is always so festive too. The article noted this dough really benefits from resting overnight in the refrigerator so start the day before. Over working this dough seems to make tough cookies - think I'll be using cake flour. Prep time does not include overnight dough chilling.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 10 mins
• Prep Time: 45 mins
• Cook Time: 25 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 4 dozen

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup coconut , shredded sweetened, heaping
• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter , at room temperature
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar , packed
• ½ orange , grated zest
• 2 cups orange juice , reduced to 1/3 cup, and cooled
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1. The day before baking, cook the orange juice down to syrupy consistency. Allow to cool to room temperature.
2. Sift the flour, salt, baking powder. Whisk the flour mix and coconut in a bowl.
3. In a large mixing bowl with a standing mixer or using a hand held mixer, beat together the butter, two sugars and the orange zest at medium speed for four minutes, or until pale and fluffy. Do not over mix.
4. At medium speed, beat in the cooled orange syrup. When the batter is smooth, beat in the whole egg, then the yolk and vanilla.
5. Use a spatula to fold in the dry ingredients just until blended. Don't over mix — the dough will toughen if over mixed.
6. Gently gather dough into a ball, wrap with Saran wrap and chill overnight.
7. The next day preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cover a large cookie sheet with parchment paper. With a teaspoon, drop the cool cookie dough onto the sheet, separating the cookies by about 2 inches. Use your thumb to indent the center of each one.
8. Bake 8 to 12 minutes in the middle of the oven, or until the cookies start to brown at the edges and are cooked through. Bake the cookies in several batches and cool them on a rack.