If you have only one oven then do all of the baking in two separate batches, or if you want you can halve this recipe.
Okay ... First make the toffee bits, then use them in making the cookies.
Toffee Bits:
Ingredients: (makes approximately two cups of crushed toffee bits)
6 tbsp. of Butter
2 tbsp. of coconut oil
1/2 cup of Light Brown Sugar
2/3 cup of White Sugar
1/4 tsp. of salt
2 tbsp. of Light Karo® corn syrup
2 tbsp. of Water
Directions:
Put all of the ingredients into a medium size heavy bottom saucepan.
Bring the mixture to a boil over a medium size burner on medium heat, stirring until all the ingredients are combined and melted.
Continue to cook on low heat, with gentle stirring, until a candy thermometer reaches almost 280 degrees F. Note that the rise of temperature is faster the higher it gets so do not let the toffee darken/burn from inattention and overheating in the saucepan, ergo, get the toffee saucepan off the heat at about 275 degrees F. The heat in the bottom of the saucepan will quickly elevate the toffee temperature the rest of the way to 280 degrees F, so you don't need to check the temperature after moving the saucepan from the burner.
Immediately pour the toffee onto a parchment paper lined 11" x 17" baking sheet, as thinly as you can (don't dump it into a pile, empty the saucepan over most of the surface of the parchment paper), and allow it to cool.
Once it has cooled to room temperature, break up the toffee into large pieces by hand or by hitting it lightly many places with a wooden kitchen mallet.
Put the toffee pieces into a one gallon Ziploc® freezer bag, expel the air and seal it and use a wood kitchen mallet to crush/crumble them into toffee bits.
Now let's proceed with making the cookies ...
Toffee Coconut Thin and Crisp Cookies:
Ingredients: (makes approximately 120, 2 1/2" diameter thin cookies)
4 cups of All Purpose Flour (20 oz.)
1/2 tsp. of Baking Soda
1 tsp. of Sea Salt
2 cups of Butter, softened
1 cup of White Sugar
1 cup of Light Brown Sugar
2 Egg Whites
4 tsp. of Pure Vanilla Extract
4 tsp. of Pure Coconut Extract (You can buy this product via the Internet from www.OliveNation.com or other ingredient suppliers)
2 tbsp. of Water
1 1/2 cups of Shredded Sweetened Coconut (packed)
1 1/2 cups of Toffee Bits
Directions:
Preheat the double ovens to 300 degrees F with two shelves in each oven, putting them 1/3 oven height and 2/3 oven height from the bottom of each oven.
Mix the softened butter and the sugars in the electric mixer on medium speed for three minutes.
Add the vanilla extract and the coconut extract and continue mixing.
Add the egg whites and the water and continue mixing on medium speed.
Put the flour, salt and baking soda into a two quart bowl and whisk them together.
Add the flour mixture 1/2 cup at a time to the mixing bowl while mixing on low to medium low speed.
Mix the cookie dough for three minutes on medium speed.
Add the coconut and the toffee bits and mix for two minutes.
Remove the bowl from the mixer and set the bowl of cookie dough aside.
Prepare four parchment paper covered 11"x17" baking sheets.
Dispense the cookie dough onto each baking sheet with a 1 tbsp. scoop, 3 dough mounds by 5 dough mounds on each sheet, evenly separated from each other and the perimeter of the baking sheet. This will make the first 60 cookies of the 120 total cookies.
Put all four baking sheets into the ovens, two per oven.
Bake for nine minutes.
Rotate the baking sheets, then swap the positions of the baking sheets on the shelves.
Bake for an additional nine minutes.
Remove the baking sheets from the ovens to a heat proof counter and allow the cookies to cool for ten minutes.
Use a thin spatula to transfer the cookies to cooling racks.
Now repeat the dough dispensing and baking for the other 60 cookies.
Allow the cookies to cool to room temperature.
Store the cookies in an airtight container.
If you want, you can rinse/wash the sheets of parchment paper with warm water and let them air dry and use them again later.
Enjoy what you made ... these cookies are superb!