Mom's Coconut Kisses

I love coconut but my family members are avowed coconut haters so I don't usually bake or cook with it. I had a craving and decided on this recipe when I saw that it makes only 24 cookies, has a short ingredient list and a simple mixing method.

However, it also calls for fresh coconut; Rose Levy Beranbaum warns, "Don't even think about substituting here!", and I didn't....at first....but I must admit that while I was drilling holes into the nut, and then draining, roasting, hammering, peeling and shredding it, I thought about it several times : )

The resulting snowy white strands of freshly shredded coconut were then mixed with sweetened condensed milk, cornstarch, vanilla and lemon juice, dropped by the spoonful and baked. The coconut watered out so the mixture was quite soupy towards the end. I squeezed the excess liquid out as I shaped the cookies and they were fine.

The result was the most luscious, moist, chewy, sweet - but not too sweet - coconut cookie I have ever tasted. And those avowed coconut haters?......they loved them too!