Gluten Free Coconut Cookies Recipe - 4 Ways

Quick and simple.  Easy and delicious.  Using up leftovers!

You've seen the Irish Coffee Blondies and the Coconut Brownies.  Here's what to do if you have any leftovers.

SPH Gluten Free Coconut Cookies
1 box Betty Crocker Yellow Cake mix
2 sticks butter, softened
1 egg
not quite 1 cup shredded, tinted coconut
1 teaspoon vanilla or coconut extract (to taste)
Leftover vanilla frosting/glaze
Leftover mocha frosting/glaze

Preheat oven to 350.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Add cake mix to a mixer bowl, and combine with butter til it resembles coarse crumbs.  Beat in egg.  Stir in coconut.  Drop by teaspoonsful (I use a cookie scooper) onto cookie sheets and bake for about 12 minutes. Allow to cool completely.  And warning - they SPREAD, so be extra careful how closely you place these.  Just sayin'.

So now the really fun and creative part - the four ways to fancy up these cookies:

1. You can leave them plain.  The leftover food color from the tint, plus the coconut, plus the extract of your choice will make these really good cookies.  And they will seem oh-so-fancy to whoever happens to lay eyes on them.
2. You can glaze them once, with either the vanilla or the mocha.  That's the cookie on the bottom right.  It was glazed with the vanilla.  See how the glaze sets up differently than regular frosting on a cooled cookie (the white one in the upper left)?  Put a small teaspoonful of frosting on while the cookies are still warm.  Let it get soft, then spread GENTLY.  A small offset spatula or the back of a spoon are your best choices for tools to get this job done.
3. Frost'em.  Let'em cool, then spread them with frosting.
4. Double glazed.  That's the one with the brown zigzags.  You can frost or glaze, then  drizzle with the mocha glaze.  Be sure the mocha is pretty thin so it drizzles well.  Also - another great tip:  be sure when you drizzle that you start a little ways off the cookie.  That way, you won't end up with those big blops.  And yes, that's a technical term...

This is a basic recipe that you can tweak how you want.  Use up whatever goodies you have leftover, like chocolate chips, chopped nuts, different flavors of extract or throw in some Jell-o.  If these aren't green enough for you, add some more food coloring.  After they are frosted or glazed, you could sprinkle them with more coconut or leftover colored sugars, too.  Let your imagination and your leftovers be your guide!

Enjoy!