Coconut-Lavender Chocolate Cookies

“I started making these chewy cookies when I was a child (a recipe given to my mother long ago), but adapted it after harvesting our first field of lavender at our Villa Texas Lavender Farm (www.villatexas.com) alongside the Pedernales River south of Fredericksburg, Texas.”---Darlene Marwitz
[Yields approximately 18 cookies.]

1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons cocoa
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons dried culinary quality Provence lavender buds
[Provence lavender is what I cook with since that is what I grow and am most familiar with. Finely chop the lavender in a spice grinder to create a rough powder for use in this recipe.]
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons all purpose flour (sifting not needed if gently spooned into a cup and leveled with back of knife; then add 3 level tablespoons)
1/2 cup shredded or flaked coconut

Preheat oven to 350 ° F. Line baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Use electric mixer to cream together sugar, cocoa, and butter until light and fluffy (scraping sides down as needed); add egg and vanilla and mix well. In a separate bowl combine salt, baking soda, ground lavender powder and flour, and stir well with a spoon before incrementally adding to the mixing bowl; blend slowly with mixer after each addition. Remove bowl from mixer and scrape beater and sides of bowl with a spatula; add coconut and stir well to distribute the coconut.

Drop by rounded teaspoons (less than golf ball size) about four inches apart on baking sheet and bake for about 11 minutes. Cookies should be slightly puffy when removed from oven; allow to cool for about 10 minutes so that cookies naturally “flatten” before removing them from the baking sheet. Cookies have a chewy interior texture and keep well for several days in an airtight container.