Soft and Chewy Coconut Cookies
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These Coconut Cookies may sound ordinary, but they’re absolutely not. They’re soft and chewy, meaning the texture is spot-on, and the flavor is buttery and of course, they’re filled with coconut. If you’re a coconut fan, you need these cookies in your life!
Bold statement: these coconut cookies are my favorite cookies. I KNOW, what? How can I even say that? Out of all of my dessert recipes, I’m always stating that things are my “favorite”, but these cookies are my favorite.
Ever since giving up chocolate, I’ve been searching for cookies that make my heart sing and that I simply can’t resist. Well friends, these cookies are those cookies!
See, they’re called coconut cookies because they have coconut in them, but they’re not overly coconut-y. They’re soft and chewy–the perfect texture–and they kind of taste like a sugar cookie with a hint of coconut, which is what a sugar cookie should actually be in my opinion.
Now, if you’re looking for a healthier cookie recipe, you may want to check out my almond flour peanut butter cookies — just FYI!
Recipe features
- Reminiscent of my coconut cake and coconut bread (two of my favorites!)
- Incredibly soft and chewy — the perfect cookie texture
- Filled with coconut, though not overly coconut-y
- Can easily be made vegan (see “notes” in recipe card below)
Ingredient notes:
This provides further clarifications and substitutions for some of the ingredients. The full ingredient list is provided below in the recipe card.
- All purpose flour – can sub gluten free all purpose flour
- Shredded coconut – preferably sweetened
- Light brown sugar – cane sugar works too
- Unsalted butter – can sub dairy free butter
- Egg – can sub 1 flax egg (see notes section below)
- Vanilla extract – don’t skimp on this! It adds flavor to the cookies. With that said, I do NOT recommend using coconut extract/flavoring because it gives the cookies a fake coconut flavor, which we don’t want.
How to Make Coconut Cookies
Step 1: Cream butter and sugar. Use a stand or electric mixer to cream the butter and sugar together. Then, add the egg and vanilla and stir to combine.
Step 2: Mix dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, stir the flour, baking soda, salt, and 1/2 cup of the shredded coconut together.
Step 3: Combine. Pour the dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet ingredients, then use a mixer to mix everything together. It may take a minute for things to come together, so be patient! If the dough still seems too dry, add 1 tbsp milk. Then, stir in the remaining shredded coconut by hand.
Step 4: Bake. Spray a large baking sheet with nonstick spray or line it with parchment paper, then use an ice cream scooper to scoop cookie dough out onto the baking sheet. Bake cookies for 11-13 minutes, or until the edges have set. You want them to be slightly underdone in the middle — that’s what makes them so soft and pillow-y!
Leave the cookies on the baking sheet for 2 minutes, then carefully transfer them to a wire rack. Wait 10 minutes for them to cool, then eat up!
FAQs and tips
- One of my favorite things about this recipe is that there’s no need to chill the dough beforehand. Woohoo!
- After the cookies come out of the oven, make sure to wait 2-3 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. Then, wait at least 10 minutes for them to cool before eating!
- Though these are coconut cookies, I don’t recommend using coconut flour. It’s completely different than all purpose flour and the recipe won’t work the same.
- Want to take these up a notch? Add 1/2 cup chocolate chips to the batter!
- Storage: store cookies in a sealed container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Or, you can place cookies in a plastic bag in the freezer for up to 30 days.
- To freeze: wait for cookies to cool, then store then in a sealed freezer-safe bag for up to 3 months.
What kind of coconut should I use?
I tested these cookies multiple times–with unsweetened coconut and sweetened coconut–and found that using sweetened coconut is the way to go. Why? Because it has a more distinct coconut-y flavor, which is ultimately what we’re going for.
Should I toast the coconut?
You can if you want to! I tested these both ways and love these cookies wither way. If you love toasted coconut, go ahead and toast the coconut for a few minutes before in a skillet, then wait for it to cool before adding it to the batter.
Are these cookies super coconut-y?
It depends. If you make them with brown sugar and real butter, then yes, they’re fairly coconut-y. But, if you make the vegan version, they actually taste like sugar cookies with a hint of coconut, in my opinion.
Delicious both ways, but I believe the butter and brown sugar combination brings out the coconut flavor a bit more.
Can I make these gluten free and/or vegan?
Gluten free: To make these gluten free, simply use gluten free all purpose flour. Other than that, I haven’t tested these with any other flours. If you do, please leave a comment and let me know how they turn out!
Vegan: For the vegan version, simply sub 1 flax egg (1 tbsp flaxseed meal + 2.5 tbsp water) in place of the egg, and use dairy-free butter.
More tasty cookie recipes
- Buttercream Walnut Thumbprint Cookies
- No Bake Breakfast Cookies
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Chickpea Cookies
If you made this recipe, be sure to leave a comment and star rating below. Thanks!
Chewy Coconut Cookies
Video
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut , toasted (optional, see notes)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Cream butter and sugar together; then add egg and vanilla and stir to combine.
- In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and 1/2 cup of shredded coconut; then, pour dry ingredients into wet ingredients and use an electric mixer to stir the batter. It may take a few seconds for it to come together, but if the dough still seems too dry, add 1 tbsp milk and that should do the trick. Last, stir in the remaining coconut by hand.
- Spray a large baking sheet with nonstick spray (or use parchment), then use an ice cream scooper to scoop cookie dough onto the baking sheet. Bake cookies for 9-11 minutes, or until the edges are set. Remove from the oven and wait 2-3 minutes before transferring cookies to a cooling rack.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
This was a great recipe to try; however, the cookies spread so much and came out thin and crispy without chilling the dough. I was hoping for a thicker and softer cookie.
These cookies sound delicious and I want to make them this weekend to take to a cookout; my question is this: do you add extra flour for baking at high altitudes ? My recipe that I use for oatmeal cookies has about 3 tbs of flour added to the recipe and another recipe that I use occasionally has me add extra milk.
Hi Anita — This is a great question; unfortunately, I’m not sure how these would work at high altitude. I’d follow this guide and see how they turn out: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/learn/resources/high-altitude-baking
These were delicious! They literally taste like a sugar cookie with coconut. However it wasn’t enough coconut flavor for me. I think next time I will replace the vanilla extract with coconut extract to give the actual cookie a more coconut flavor. I used a cookie scoop instead of an ice cream scoop and got 20 cookies.
So happy you enjoyed them — let me know how you liked them with the coconut extract!
These were lovely! I decided to chill the scooped dough first, as I was making dinner at the time so no place to bake off, and they came out flat as a pancake and underdone. I will try them again without chilling. Incredibly tasty either way! Yummy!!
Thanks for the comment, and good to know about chilling the dough. Glad you still liked them!
Holy moly! Making these tomorrow!
Let me know how they turn out!
These cookies are in my top 5 cookies of all time, possibly – POSSIBLY – outranking Thin Mints.
Excellent soft and chewy texture and great flavor. The shredded coconut is key – adds just a bit of extra chewiness to what is a pretty soft cookie and the flavor integrates nicely with the regular sweet, salty, buttery flavor of the cookies.
Thanks for the positive review, Henry!
These cookies are the perfect balance of melt in your mouth and satiating bite!
To die for!!!!! 🤤🤤🤤🤤
Hello Erin,
I have made those cookies today, I used brown sugar rather than light brown sugar so mine look darker than yours.
However, mine didn’t have the same texture, they didn’t crack. What possibly could be the reason?
Hi! Not 100% sure, but a few things that come to mind: first, dark vs. light brown sugar shouldn’t alter the texture, though dark brown sugar will alter the flavor a bit. For these cookies especially, I think it’s best to use an ice cream scooper to scoop the batter onto the baking sheet, which should allow the cookies to crack on their own. If for some reason they don’t, as soon as you take them out of the oven, slam the baking on the counter top a few times and that should do the trick.
This is too awesome recipe. thank you so much for share with us.