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Right after pushing out a full human baby you feel like you can do anything. You are praised, admired, and doted upon—you feel like royalty (and you should!). And royalty deserves very large, very delicious cookies.

At 4am on the day Wren was born, just two hours after he had been transported from inside my body to the outside world, Jonji and I figured we should order a snack before trying to get some sleep. Wren was all cozy and wrapped up on my chest, nursing away quietly and methodically; we couldn’t stop staring at his sweet squishy face, his perfect miniature fingers and toes. Jonji called room service and ended up ordering a smoothie and the “Royal Cookie.” I wasn’t so into the idea of eating anything too sweet at that moment, but after I took one bite of the cookie I kept going back for more until, suddenly, it was all gone. It was chewy, hefty, and full of satisfying chunks of coconut, chocolate, and macadamia nuts; almost like a granola bar, but better. Later that day, after we’d gotten a little sleep, we ordered another one and it was just as good as the first. My sister, Bailey, gave birth to her third child last year at the same birthing center and I recommended the Royal Cookie. She texted me the next day, “Trying to assess how many of those royal cookies are acceptable each day. Two? Three? Four?” She’s also told me recently that it might be worth having a fourth child just to get more of those cookies. Sure, that might sound insane, but that’s just how tasty these cookies are.

In the quiet of caring for a newborn, I realized I had to recreate Sutter’s Royal Cookies for the blog. The only question was when I would have the time. Here we are, seventeen months later, and I finally found time to reverse-engineer the recipe, shoot it, and post it. It took several iterations and a lot of giant frozen balls of cookie dough in the freezer to get it right, but I think I finally cracked it. My starting point was a recipe that echos the famous cookies from Levain Bakery, which are notorious for being very chunky. My cookies are very generously portioned, chock-full of chocolate, coconut, and macnuts—they are not light on fat or calories, but they are worth every bite. They’re a bit gooey, a little chewy, and very satisfying. I might go as far as to say they’re fit for a queen.

This is not an every day cookie kind of recipe—see my Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies for that. These Queens’ Cookies are a true treat. If you’ve just done something that requires herculean mental and physical strength, these are the cookies for you. (Bonus points if you make them for someone who just had a baby; I guarantee they will be well-received.) But they’re also for anyone who just wants to eat something exceptional on an ordinary day.

Note: This recipe makes nine giant cookies, but if you want you can make eighteen normal-sized cookies. The Royal Cookie at Sutter Birthing Center was essentially a meal, so I wanted to make mine hefty as well. If you don’t want to eat a meal in cookie form (who even are you), feel free to use a ¼-cup capacity cookie scoop to form eighteen cookies. Start checking them for doneness around the 18 minute mark; they’ll likely take 18-20 minutes to bake.

Queens’ Cookies

Makes 9 big cookies or 18 regular cookies / method adapted from a recipe on Serious Eats

1 stick (113g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
200g (1 packed cup) brown sugar
50g (¼ cup) granulated sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 scant tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 large eggs, cold

285g (2 ¼ cups) all-purpose flour
300g chocolate chips (about 1 ½ cups; I use semisweet)
70g (generous ¾ cup) unsweetened shredded coconut
70g (¾ cup) unsweetened coconut flakes
150g (1 generous cup) raw macadamia nuts

Add 1 stick softened butter, 200g brown sugar, 50g granulated sugar, 1 tbsp vanilla extract, 2 scant tsp kosher salt, 1 ½ tsp baking powder, and 1 tsp baking soda to the bowl of a KitchenAid mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Cream together for 6-8 minutes on medium speed, until very light and fluffy. With the mixer on low, crack one egg at a time into the bowl and switch to medium speed to let the egg emulsify before adding the next one. Beat until homogenous, then turn the mixer off and pour in all the flour. Mix until the flour is almost all incorporated, then pour in 300g chocolate chips, 70g unsweetened shredded coconut, 70g unsweetened coconut flakes, and 150g raw macadamia nuts and mix until just combined. The dough will be quite buttery and a bit sticky.

Using a ¼ cup capacity ice cream scoop, scoop two balls of dough and mash them together into a big rough ball of dough until you have nine even ½ cup-sized portions. Form them into smooth balls, then flatten the tops slightly until you have more of a squat cylinder shape. Place on a small baking tray or plate lined with parchment paper, cover lightly with plastic wrap or foil, and pop into the fridge for 8-24 hours (you can also freeze them on the tray at this point and move them to a storage bag once they’re frozen). The chill time in the fridge will allow everything to hydrate and settle, ensuring a chewier cookie. You can bake the balls immediately if you want, but they will be crunchy around the edges and spread a bit more than the chilled ones.

When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.

Place no more than five balls of dough on each tray, with plenty of space around each one. Bake for about 22 minutes if baking immediately, 25-27 minutes for chilled cookies, and 32-35 minutes for frozen cookies.* After 15 minutes, remove the trays from the oven, bang them hard on the back of a chair once or twice to spread them a bit (but not too hard—we don’t want them to be super flat), then return to the oven to finish baking. If you’re baking ¼-cup sized balls, bake for about 18 minutes. When done, the tops will be golden brown and dry but when lightly pressed still feel quite soft. Let the cookies cool on the trays for about 15 minutes, then remove to cool fully on a wire rack. Enjoy!

Pro tip: if you have day-old cookies, feel free to wrap one or two in foil and warm in a 350°F oven for about 10-15 minutes so the chocolate gets nice and gooey again. Alternatively, leave a couple of cookies out in the sun for 20 minutes for a similar effect.

*If you want to get technical (which I love to do), you want the internal temperature of the cookie to be around 160°F when done.