Japanese Sweet Potato Chocolate Chip Cookies with Coconut

 This is what I like about baking and cooking– trying different kinds of whole foods to blend together in making something really awesome.  I like experimenting with techniques, too, and changing things around to find a variety in the way I want to eat these great foods.  What I like savory, chances are, I’m going to like the same thing in a sweet version.  Foods this versatile, a vegetable like the Japanese sweet potato, can set me in full motion in the kitchen, enjoying every minute of it.  It’s never boring here, it’s adventurous.  Kitchen work is play.

 Japanese sweet potatoes have red skins with a white interior.

 They are yellowish when cooked.  Place in the microwave to cook and steam through for a moist flesh.  For this recipe, you will need 1 cup.

 For dry ingredients, sift 1 1/4 cups King Arthur  bread flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.  Set aside.

 Grind in a coffee grinder or in a small food processor raw cane sugar– Demerara sugar– to equal 1 cup.  It resembles a type of flour when ground.  It will aid in the cookie texture as well as condense spice flavors.  It’s a team player, a working ingredient.

 Beat (very ground) Demerara sugar with 1 stick unsalted butter.

 Beat in 1 large egg.

 Add 2 tablespoons peanut butter, 1 tablespoon honey, 2 teaspoons ground allspice, and 2 tablespoons bourbon-flavored vanilla extract.  Add 1/2 cup unsifted bread flour, now.

 Stir in 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips.

 Cover the batter this way so it won’t dry out:  Plastic wrap directly on the batter, then a sheet of wrap over the bowl.  Refrigerate for 15 minutes.  Doing this, they will not spread around the edges too much when being baked; they will keep a good form of plumpness throughout baking period.

 Toast 3/4 cups coconut in the oven preheating at 350° for the cookies.  Watch carefully so it does not over-color.  Allow to cool before stirring into cookie batter.

 Now stir it together, everything added at last.  Enjoy the process.

 Grease a cookie sheet, placing 6 at a time to bake until golden.

 They should look like this in the way of coloring, exactly like this.  Keep them on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before transferring the cookies to a cooling rack.  These will taste even better tomorrow.  

 mash it and make it