Coconut Snowball Cookies and Friday Faves

(Dear reader, please rewind one month and put this little sing-song to a very popular Holiday jingle in your head as you read…) “It’s finally beginning to look a lot like wiiiiinnn-ter, eeeeverywhere I gooooo…”

After an entirely lame-o winter last year, I was so geared up for some serious white fluff to fall from the heavens this year. I’m happy to report Winter 2012-13 is serving up some doozey storms, like 3 that delivered over 1-2 feet at each shot. I might be one of the few and far between who is giving props to the weather man.

There isn’t much I like more than lighting the fire, sitting in my living room and watching my front yard get absolutely buried in snow, like you can’t leave your house type of snow. Live you may never see your car again snow. Like don’t let the chihuahua out, we may never be able to find her snow. Since I live on the benches of the mountain and on a get-your-glute-burn-on steep kind of hill, its not so far fetched when old man winter cooperates.

But this year I’ve missed each one of them because I was here…

and here…

and here.

While it snowed, and snowed and snowed at home. And I lamented to my husband every time.

Okay. Maybe it wasn’t soooo bad winter wasn’t eeeeverywhere I went.

And today I’m sitting in my living room, the fireplace is lit and I’m working away and watching it snow. Big, deep, drifts of snow. Ah, yes.

To revel in my enchantment of Utah’s best snow on earth, I’m going to make these babies again this weekend. Coconut Snowball Cookies (dipped in white chocolate, yo!) inspired by my youth’s crush on Farr Ice Cream Coconut Snowballs drizzled in hot fudge, available only at Christmas time and a treat I totally missed out on this year.

I guess I’ll live and the warm memories will make my snow shoveling a lot easier.

4.04 from 87 votes

Coconut Snowball Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup 2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons coconut extract
2 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 ounces white chocolate bar chopped, or white chocolate chips
3 cups shredded sweetened coconut

Instructions

In large bowl, mix butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add coconut extract and mix.
In separate bowl, mix flour and salt together. Add to butter/sugar mixture and mix just to combine.
Prepare baking sheet with parchment paper. With 2-inch cookie scoop, shape dough balls, flatten dough in palm of your hand to bring dough together and then reshape into ball.
Place on baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Refrigerate formed cookies for 30 minutes prior to baking.
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Bake for 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool on cooling rack.
Fill small saucepan 1/4 of the way with water and top with small glass or metal bowl; choose bowl that will sit above the water level. Bring water to low boil over medium-high heat and add white chocolate and melt, stirring often with a wooden spoon or spatula.
Remove chocolate from heat and roll cookies one at a time in chocolate, and then roll in coconut, coating well. Or, dip tops of cookies in white chocolate and sprinkle with coconut. If melted chocolate begins to harden, heat over saucepan again for 1 or 2 minutes until melted. Allow cookies to dry on cooling rack for at least 20 minutes or until chocolate has hardened. Store in an airtight container for 3-4 days.

To help me along, a few of my Friday Faves. Happy 2013 everyone.

1. 30 awesome calendars for 2013 from my new website obsession. The hardest part is deciding which one?

2. For the holidays we added to our cast iron pan collection, but thanks to those babies needing special care I’m usually an arm’s length away from using them, leaving that duty to my husband who has threatened to hang up his cleaning hat if I don’t get on the stick and learn. Hopefully this guide will help.

3. A relatively recent add to my RSS, this recipe of Lauren’s reminds me of a dinner with our sweet friends the first time we visited them in NYC. I mean Brooklyn. Heaven forbid, don’t get the two mixed up.

4. With all the hard work you put into your blog, there are some secrets to make it get noticed. Cassie will be spilling the beans in her upcoming series on how to put your blog at the top of the Google rankings.

5. Wondering how to do…well, anything and everything? You’ll probably find the answer right here. (via Amanda)

6. As part of my New Years goals, I’m reconnecting with friends, old and new. Translation: More dinner parties. This should help with style points.

7. A 9-minute workout? Sign me up.

8. Want some great tips on how to take succulent, drool-worthy photographs of food? Even at night? Get Taylor’s secrets.

9. I’ve been craving Paula’s recipe since she made it for us at Mixed Conference. I made it last night and have happily satiated my desires. Oh lordie, I’m glazed in garlic and bacon. Pure heaven.

10. Tweet of the Week: “extra cheese” should be the average amount of cheese on everything. @Will___Ferrell (via @dinnerwithjulie)

Happy weekending everyone. Get out and enjoy the snow. Or whatever. Just GET OUT!

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