Wednesday, May 7, 2014

(Better Than) Sausalito Cookies

 Like a lot of people, I love Pepperidge Farm cookies; I have a particular fondness for their Sausalito variety.  Also, like a lot of people, I find them a bit pricey for my (sometimes pathetic) budget.  The best ammunition against high prices, I find, is to develop something similar at half the cost.

There are a lot of copycat recipes for Sausalito cookies available on the web.  What makes my recipe the best of the lot is that, before developing this recipe, I actually read the back of the Pepperidge Farm package to see what ingredients had been used.  One stood out – coconut.  In none of the other copycat recipes was coconut used.  I use it in mine.  Just a little bit, but it makes these far more authentic than any other recipe of its kind.  I also noticed a lack of shortening in similar recipes.  The addition of shortening is what gives them a bit of airiness and that wonderful crunch of the originals.  That’s why you need look no further, this recipe is the best.

(Better Than) Sausalito Cookies

1 stick butter, softened
½ cup Crisco
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 extra large egg
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup coconut, chopped fine
1½ cups macadamia nuts
1½ cups milk chocolate chips
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375°F.
In the work bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, Crisco, and sugars until light and fluffy (3-4 minutes). Beat in egg and vanilla; mix well.
In a separate bowl, sift together dry ingredients.  With mixer at the lowest speed, slowly add dry ingredients to the wet mixture, beating just until incorporated.
Stir in coconut, chocolate chips, and macadamia nuts; mix until evenly distributed.
Using a 2 T. cookie scoop, place even-size balls of dough on a parchment or Silpat-lined baking sheet. Bake 12-15 minutes or until lightly golden brown.
Makes about 30 cookies


13 comments:

  1. Fabulous! Great recipe.. and hats off to you for 'reading' the ingredients...coconut.

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  2. These cookies need to be in my cookie jar, they look delicious! Thanks so much for sharing your awesome post with Full Plate Thursday and hope you have a great week!
    Come Back Soon!
    Miz Helen

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  3. I took this an entire step forward to include 2 crucial ingredients that even this recipe leaves out. Let's not get started in on the chocolate choices here though, as we CAN do better. But specifically these 2 are needed for the raw unadulterated dough to translate completely and perfectly over to the Tahoe variety (white chocolate/macadamia). What you need is molasses and tree nut meal. On how much needed, recipe alterations and accommodations, and the like... That is going to remain my secret. Discerning bakers will get the jist of about how much on each additional recipe item and how to make the nut meal. It is important to note that these 2 ingredients are also on the back of the packaging as well as the coconut. Bravo though... As this is the ONLY recipe to nail this sublime treat. Until mine that is. Cheers!

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  4. I post this on fair warning to those considering this recipe. In four days i made two batches of about 35 cookies each. They will not last. These are good...very good

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  5. Glad you like them, Mike. They are good indeed.

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  6. I too read the ingredients and found what gave "Sausalito" cookies their unique taste was coconut. Thank you for this recipe, it's delicious. Funny how no one else who posted a copycat recipe for these cookies never thought to look at the ingredients on the bag! DUH!

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  7. Thank you for including the coconut. That's a huge part of the flavor of these cookies and other recipes kept omitting it.

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  8. Thank you I will try this recipe.. Without the molasses as that's in the brown sugar... It looks and sounds yummy

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  9. As far as ingredients for molasses, that is actually used/listed in place of brown sugar- industrialized making of it at a lower manufacturing cost by adding it to granular sugar rather than purchased already blended into/as "brown" sugar, so the recipe actually is fine without molasses. Its in there.

    The tree nut meal lists the nuts used- Almond, Cashew, Pecan, and Walnut. My guess would be start with equal mix of each, and simply grind into a meal in a grinder, and then use roughly about the same amount as the coconut- 1/4 cup. A close look at a cookie would say its not very visible at all so a good guess would make it a flavor ingredient comparable right on par to the coconut.

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  10. Okay, she says COCONUT was an ingedient but I sure don't see it listed in her recipe. Did I miss it?

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  11. I found the mention of coconut, sorry guess I read too quickly.

    We made this last night and the resulting batter was very dry, crumbly, and difficult to form into balls. We plan to experiment adding more basic batter, ie., without choc chips and macadamia nuts, to make it more formable.

    Have you had this experience. Your article didn't discuss the consistency of the finished batter. Any recommendations you'd suggest?

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  12. Jim, yes, there is mention of the coconut in the text and the list of ingredients, so that is a must. I did not have any issues with the batter being dry and crumbly. Are you beating your butter long enough? I have edited the directions on the recipe to reflect how long it takes to thoroughly cream butter. Hope this helps.

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Thank you so much for commenting, I love every one of them! I am, however, unable to respond to anonymous comments.