Almond Joy Cookies

For those of you who do not know me, I am an extreme chocoholic! This is a trait that is inherited on my maternal side and the gene is dominant and runs quite strongly in our family! All of the females have inherited it and occasionally there has been a male known to love chocolate as much as we do!

One of my favorite candy bars is Almond Joy. I love the flavor combination of coconut and chocolate. In fact, last year when I visited Italy, my favorite gelato flavors were ciocolata and coconut! I saw a similar recipe on Pinterest, but decided to try cutting some of the amounts of ingredients to cut points value.

These cookies are somewhat similar to a chocolate chip cookie recipe, but use all white sugar instead of using half brown sugar. This recipe made 52 large cookies. You could make them half the size and cut the points by half as well, but then you may have more cookies than you know what to do with and you may be dealing with quite a bit of irresistible temptation. I suggest when making these cookies to have a party, pass them out to neighbors, give them as gifts, etc. They are delicious!

Makes 48-52 cookies ( 4 points + each)

• 1 c. butter, softened
• 1-1/2 c. granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2-1/4 c. flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 12 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 c. flaked, sweetened coconut
• 1 c. peeled, slivered almonds

Preheat oven to 350.
Beat butter and sugar until combined. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat well. 
Combine flour, baking soda and salt. Add to butter mixture. Add chocolate chips, coconut and almonds, mixing until a thick dough forms. ( do not overmix)

Using a cookie scoop ( about 2 T.) drop dough onto cookie sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden. These cookies will firm upon standing, so do not overbake.