Pineapple Cookies

You probably thought (or hoped) this Cooky Blog was gone for good after two whole months went by without a post.  Things got a little busy for a while and cookie-baking ceased… until now! The people (really just Ryan) requested more cookies! But before another batch hits the oven, I have a couple of recipes to mention from way back in March that never made it up on the site- the first of which is for these delightful Pineapple Cookies. 

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Pineapple Cookies

1 cup shortening

1 ½ cups sugar

1 egg

1 can (8 ¾ oz) crushed pineapple, with juice

3 ½ cups flour

1 tsp soda

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp nutmeg

½ cup chopped nuts

Mix shortening, sugar, and egg; stir in the pineapple. Stir together the dry ingredients and incorporate into the dough. Mix in the nuts. Chill at least one hour. Preheat the oven to 400̊F. Drop rounded teaspoonfuls of dough 2 inches apart on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until no imprint remains when lightly touched. Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

Pineapple Coconut Cookies

Make Pineapple Cookies, but omit nutmeg and add 1 cup flaked coconut.

Pineapple Raisin Cookies

Add 1 cup of raisins to the standard Pineapple Cookies recipe.

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So, the story behind these cookies is that once upon a time (probably about 12 years ago), I wanted to use up some coconut that had been hanging around in the cupboard for ages. For some reason, I picked this recipe even though it only calls for one cup of coconut… not really very helpful in using up coconut. Hmmm. (Insert Amy laughing at me right here.) Anyway, I ended up using two cups of coconut because, when adding ingredients, I dumped in the entirety of a 20 oz. can of crushed pineapple, accidentally necessitating a doubling of the recipe. (Insert Amy laughing at me again.)  I tend to make just one batch when trying out a recipe for the first time- and it would be very sad indeed to end up with 10 dozen of a gross kind of cookie. But don’t worry, these are awesome!  

I got wise and used slightly less than half of the 20 oz. can this time!

The first time I made these cookies, I only tried the Pineapple Coconut variety- but this time, I tried them all! This included Pineapple Cookies with nuts, Pineapple Cookies without nuts, Pineapple Raisin Cookies with nuts, Pineapple Raisin Cookies without nuts, Pineapple Coconut Cookies with nuts, and Pineapple Coconut Cookies without nuts. As with many other recipes, I couldn’t really tell the nuts were there, so in the future, I might just leave them out to avoid the confusion that comes from trying to keep six varieties of the same basic cookie separated.

I might consider re-naming these Pineapple Cookies to Pineapple Cake-ies; they are so moist and doughy, they remind me more of tiny cakes than cookies.  My favorites were the Pineapple Coconut Cookies, followed by the Pineapple Raisin ones. The standard Pineapple Cookies weren’t bad; they were just missing the YUM factor that the coconut adds.

Standard, Raisin, and Coconut Pineapple Cookies in the early spring sunshine.

Another tip for these cookies: eat them quickly. The longer you keep them around, the soggier they get! It’s easier to eat them fast enough if you make just one recipe. :)

Carly

This cookie recipe was found on page 9 of Betty Crocker's Cooky Book.