Chewy Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies + Tropical Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil

The winner of the Tropical Traditions giveaway is "Ha-v-v"!! She says about her plans for the coconut oil: "I plan to use the coconut oil for one thing is those chocolate chip cookies first!!!!!!! I cannot wait to try them. I have actually been researching coconut oil for a carrier oil and a natural sunscreen ingredient. The research has shown me some wonderful things, coconut oils properties are something I want to incorporate into our foods, homemade salves etc." 

Congratulations! I'm so excited for you :D. Please email me at cookingactress@yahoo.com to claim your prize.

And thank you to everyone who entered!

(Thank you everyone for all your support and well wishes for the premiere this weekend, I absolutely loved the movie and we won the People's Choice Award!!)

Today is a very exciting day! Tropical Traditions is sponsoring my first ever giveaway (scroll past the recipe)(giveaway closed)-AND they were sweet enough to provide me with a jar of their Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil. OMG (I think I overuse OMG, sorry!)-if you haven't heard about the awesomeness of coconut oil yet, look into it. I have a friend who uses it (in place of butter or shortening) in every recipe she bakes, she puts it in her hair, to cleanse/moisturize her face (which I tried-it's awesome, and smells amazinggg-even though Michael refuses to kiss me because I "smell coconut-y"), and for a bunch of other stuff! There's a lot of great information on all the links in this post, and you can also just google to find out more about the wonders of coconut oil :). 

For this post, I threw around the idea of developing my own recipe, but first I went into my stockpile of must-make-recipes and found this chocolate chip cookie! They looked so chewy and gooey and-gasp-they don't have any butter! Just coconut oil! And, there's only brown sugar, no white sugar. I was extremely intrigued.
I was also a little surprised when I received my jar of coconut oil and it was a solid-not a liquid! Turns out, in temperatures under 76 degrees F, it solidifies. But there are super easy instructions on the jar label (just sit it in some warm/hot water until it liquefies). I didn't liquefy the entire thing for these cookies, just enough for me to pour out into a 1/2 cup amount.

The cookie dough is delicious. I had to wrestle it away from Michael. You can definitely taste the coconut more in the dough than in the finished cookie. I made the decision to rest my cookie dough in the refrigerator for awhile before baking. This was a result of two things: 1) Everyone says the longer you rest cookie dough, the better the cookies are 2) I made the dough at nighttime and the light for pictures was non-existent, so I figured I'd wait to make the cookies until daytime.

I don't know if it was the resting, or the recipe, or some combination of the two (that's my guess) but these were the perfect, quintessential chocolate chip cookies! Perfectly chewy and gooey on the inside, and crisp and beautiful on the outside! I did not miss the butter at all-I honestly could not tell the difference between these and cookies made with butter, except for the very very faint hint of coconut you can taste if you really concentrate (I obviously concentrate very hard whilst eating cookies, since it should be a transcendental experience of the palate...some people have wine, I have cookies. :P). I think the coconut oil makes them just a little sweeter, too, which probably contributes to the lack of white sugar in the recipe. And-you can feel a little less guilty about these! Yay!

I don't even have words for how delicious that picture is-and let me tell you, it barely does these cookies justice. If I had children, and had to make a bunch of cookies for them and their friends, these would be my go-to. For sure. (Assuming those children do not have gluten allergies...but...well...you know what I'm saying!)

I could go on about how amazing coconut oil is, and how many things I'm looking forward to doing, cooking, and baking with it (oatmeal cookies with coconut oil sound PHENOMENAL), but you guys would be here all day. So! Carry on my wayward readers, there will be a giveaway when you are done :P.

Chewy Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies

From Cheeky Kitchen

Makes about 20. Depending on size.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup liquid coconut oil (Tropical Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil is amazing!)
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tbsp. vanilla
• 1 3/4 cup flour (I used all-purpose. Feel free to experiment with other flours and see how they turn out)
• 8 oz. mini chocolate chips
• 8 oz. regular chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet)

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare cookie sheet(s) with parchment paper or silpat. 
• In a large bowl beat together coconut oil, eggs, and brown sugar (using either a hand mixer or a stand).
• Add salt, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla, and flour-mix well.
• Mix in chocolate chips.
• Let dough rest, covoered, in the refrigerator for 8-72 hours.
• Roll dough into large balls (I used an ice cream scoop, should equal around  3 tbsp. of dough). Place about 6 dough balls per cookie sheet.
• Bake 8-11 minutes, until cookies are browning around edges.
• Remove and allow to cool (slightly. Then eat a few fresh and warm from the oven).

GIVEAWAY! (CLOSED)

Tropical Traditions is also hosting a giveaway for Cooking Actress readers!! They will be providing a free quart of Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil as the prize and ship directly to one lucky winner. Giveaway closes April 23rd @ 12 AM EST. After the contest is over, I will send the winner an email (so please make sure you provide an email address or some other way to get in touch with you), and obtain shipping information (we do not share this information with anyone). The winner will have 3 days to respond or another winner will be chosen. The winner will be chosen via a random number generator. Open to U.S. & Canada. 

How to enter: (REQUIRED FOR ENTRY IN THIS GIVEAWAY) Subscribe to Tropical Traditions' newsletter here-http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/subscribe_for_special_sales.cfm and leave me a comment, letting me know you did so. Maybe also let me know-how would you use your coconut oil? :)

Additional entries: (you will receive one additional entry for each of the following--so if you leave a comment for all of them, you can have up to a total of 7 entries/chances to win! MAKE SURE TO LEAVE A SEPARATE COMMENT FOR EACH ENTRY)

• "Like" The Cooking Actress on Facebook-leave a comment on this post to let me know you did so.
• Follow The Cooking Actress on Pinterest-and leave a separate comment letting me know 
• Follow The Cooking Actress by email (look to the right of this post to find it)-leave another comment
• Follow Tropical Traditions on Twitter  @troptraditions and @ttspecialdeals-leave me another comment
• “Like” Tropical Traditions on Facebook (do not leave them any "I was sent by" posts)-leave another comment to tell me
• Follow Tropical Traditions on Pinterest-and once again, leave a comment here to tell me.

Disclaimer: Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose.  Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product. My opinions, as always, are all my own.