Chocolate Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookies

This is one of my favourite cookie recipes, one which I have made several times over the last 4 or 5 years.  I love it. It has the rich, dense taste of a double chocolate cookie with the added flavour and texture of sweetened coconut. If you don't believe me, just try them and you'll see how good they are. They're simple, too. 

Ingredients:
(Adapted from The New England Table by Lora Brody)

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs 
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp almond extract / essence
• 2/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 cups (6oz bag) sweetened flaked coconut
• 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 2-4 cookie sheets and leave on the counter, ready. (I use 4 cookie sheets so I can let the cookies cool on the pans while the next load is in the oven.)
• Whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, bks, salt, and set aside
• Cream the butter and sugar, and gradually beat in the eggs, vanilla, almond extract, and cocoa powder. Beat in the dry mixture gradually as well.
• Stir in the coconut, and then the chocolate chips.
• Drop the batter in heaping spoonfuls onto the greased cookie sheets, far enough apart to allow for spreading.
• Bake 8-12 minutes, until done to your likeness. I just leave them in until they are just barely done, because I like them rich and chewy. Check that they have spread out a bit, but are still shiny on the top. Be careful not to overbake them, because they will and lose their richness as they dry out.

These cookies freeze beautifully, but while I usually prefer to eat my cookies frozen rather than warm, I recommend leaving these out 5 or 10 minutes to thaw and soften before you dig into them so they're really nice and chewy.

Enjoy!