Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookies

If you grew up grabbing handfuls from a Famous Amos bag, this is the homemade upgrade. Same flavor profile, bigger and chewier in scale, and the addition of coconut flakes makes them taste like a candy-bar-cookie hybrid.

The dough leans on a butter-and-shortening combo, three-quarters pound of each. Butter brings flavor, shortening gives lift and stability, and together they keep these cookies tall and tender instead of flat. Light and dark sugars do similar dual-duty: brown sugar for chewiness and depth, white sugar for crisp edges.

The mix-in ratio is what makes them stand out. Twelve ounces of chocolate chips, six ounces of broken pecans, and a full seven ounces of flaked coconut means almost half the cookie is texture, not dough. Each bite has at least two of the three add-ins.

Two-inch balls are intentionally large. They spread into chunky, bakery-style rounds with golden edges and soft centers. Pull them at exactly 15 minutes when the centers still look just barely set, they finish setting on the cooling rack.

Pro Tips

• Pack the brown sugar firmly into the cup, loose brown sugar gives flatter, drier cookies.
• Toast the pecans at 350°F (175°C) for 6 to 8 minutes before chopping for deeper, more aromatic nutty flavor.
• Chill the dough for 30 minutes before scooping if you want thicker, more uniform cookies. The recipe works without chilling, but the cold dough holds shape better.
• Cool on paper towels per the recipe (rather than wire racks) to absorb a little extra butter from the bottoms and keep the centers chewy longer.

Variations

• Swap pecans for toasted walnuts or macadamia nuts for a different nutty profile.
• Use half semi-sweet and half dark chocolate chips for a less sweet, more chocolate-forward version.
• Add a teaspoon of espresso powder to the dough to deepen the chocolate flavor without adding coffee notes.