Light and crispy coconut cookies, perfect for holidays or even as a daily snack.
I remember making these crispy coconut cookies every single year during Diwali with my mom in my younger days. And ever since I got married and moved out, I have not really been keeping up with the tradition of making our family favorite cookies. At least not until last year when I decided to make a batch of these lovely crispy coconut cookies again.
Crispy Coconut Cookies
This recipe is a fairly new one as I did not have my mom’s recipe with me at that time. And I must say, the cookies turned out really well despite making them for the first time. The cookies were deliciously light and crispy and the aroma of coconut that filled my kitchen as the cookies were baking was a beautiful reminiscence of my days baking and preparing for Diwali with my parents and siblings.
How to Make Crispy Coconut Cookies
Ingredients
- Plain flour
- Desiccated coconut
- Castor sugar
- Butter
- Egg + Egg white for brushing the top of the cookies
- Vanilla essence
Mixing the cookie dough
- In a medium-sized bowl, beat butter and sugar until creamy.
- Add the egg and continue beating until there are no more traces of the egg visible.
- Next is the vanilla essence. Mix well.
- Add in the flour and desiccated coconut. Mix until the dough comes together.
- Divide the dough into smaller sections and roll each section in between 2 parchment sheets. Use rolling pin guides or dowel rods to help to ensure the consistent thickness of the cookie.
- Cut the cookie dough using a round cutter. Place the cookies onto a lined baking tray. The cookies do not spread or rise during baking, hence they need to be spaced out too much.
- Brush the top of each cookie with some egg white and sprinkle white sprinkles on.
- Bake the cookies at 175 degrees Celsius for 8 to 10 minutes, until the sides start turning golden brown.
- Remove cookies from the oven and cool them completely before storing them in an airtight container.
Crispy Coconut Cookies
Notes
Difference between desiccated coconut, grated coconut and coconut flakes
- Desiccated coconut is the white coconut flesh in grated form. This term is typically used to described grated coconut in dry form. It is literally dehydrated grated coconut and is often a lot lighter in weight than freshly grated coconut.
- Grated coconut, on the other hand, is typically in a fresh form and has high moisture content. This recipe calls for the use of unsweetened desiccated coconut.
- You might also come across the term coconut flakes. These often come in long, thin strips and are sometimes sweetened. Though these are essentially dried coconut, they are not as dry as desiccated coconut.
Can you use freshly grated coconut instead of desiccated coconut?
- I used dry, unsweetened desiccated coconut for this recipe. The coconut was dry and therefore, the amount of butter and egg in the recipe was just nice to produce a soft dough that came together well without sticking to the bowl.
- You can also use freshly grated coconut, and if you do, you would need to watch out for the moisture level in the dough as freshly grated coconut definitely has a lot more liquid in it and the dough might end up being too sticky to roll out. I have personally not tried making these cookies with freshly grated coconut so I cannot say for sure on the ingredients measure.
Best way to shape the cookies
- These crispy coconut cookies are cut out cookies. I used a small round cutter to cut them out. The cookies were not too thick, about ⅛ of an inch. To ensure the thickness was consistent, I used 2 dowel rods as a guide on both sides of my dough when rolling it.
- And I have to admit, cutting out perfectly round the cookies was not an easy task. The cookies will not turn out in smooth round cut-outs and that is simply because of the coconut in the dough. And so you will have to press any stray coconut strands to the sides of the cutout dough to tidy them up.
- If all this is too much trouble, you can always scoop the dough with a spoon, shape them into round balls and press them with the back of a glass dipped in flour for round coconut cookies. This way, there is no need to worry about the coconut strands jutting out of the dough.
Decorating the cookies
- And for the cookies deco, I used white chocolate sprinkles. To ensure these sprinkles stayed of the cookies, I brushed the top of each cookie lightly with egg white. And then I sprinkled the sprinkles on. That way, I knew the sprinkles would not fall off when I lift them from the baking trays into a wire rack and my cookie jar.
- If you do not want to use white chocolate sprinkles to decorate the tops, desiccated coconut is another good choice. The cookies are great when left plain too.
Baking time & cookies storage
- Given that the cookies were made in bite sizes, the baking time for them was not long. It took approximately 8 to 10 minutes for each tray to bake. If you wish to make larger cookies, you would need to increase the time accordingly.
- To ensure the cookies remain crispy, it is best that they are not made too large. This will ensure the cookie is baked well inside and out for a light and crispy texture.
- As for storing the cookies, since these cookies are meant to be crispy, it is very important that they are kept in an airtight jar to retain the crispy texture. These cookies last well, for a good 2 weeks.
Crispy Coconut Cookies Recipe
Here is the full printable version of my crispy coconut cookies recipe:
Crispy Coconut Cookies
Light and crispy coconut cookies, perfect for holidays or even as a daily snack.
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Ingredients
- 250 g plain flour
- 110 g desiccated coconut
- 110 g castor sugar
- 200 g butter
- 1 egg
- ¼ tsp vanilla essence
- egg white to brush the cookies
Instructions
- Pre heat oven to 175°Celsius. Prepare baking trays lined with parchment paper.
- Sieve flour and set aside.
- In a clean bowl, cream butter, and sugar until creamy. Add the egg and continue beating until it is well incorporated.
- Next, add vanilla essence and beat for about 15 seconds, followed by the sifted flour and desiccated coconut.
- Mix until all the ingredients are well incorporated, and the dough comes together, soft.
- Roll the dough on a clean work surface to about ⅛ of an inch thickness and use a cookie cutter to cut the cookies out.
- Place the cut cookies onto the prepared baking trays and brush the top of each cookie with egg white. Top each cookie with some white chocolate sprinkles in the center.
- Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes until they turn golden brown.
- Once baked, let them cool slightly on the baking tray before transferring them onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- Place cooled cookies in an airtight container. The cookies can last up to 3 to 4 weeks if stored properly.
Notes
- Baking time and oven temperature may vary. I would suggest that you follow the baking temperature you normally use to bake cookies. Please also note that the cooking time will ultimately depend on the thickness of your cookies as well as the size. The baking time and temperature provided in this recipe are based on my oven setting.
Nutrition
Calories: 3561.5kcal | Carbohydrates: 327.4g | Protein: 40.6g | Fat: 239.8g | Saturated Fat: 167.4g | Cholesterol: 593.7mg | Sodium: 1537.4mg | Potassium: 973.5mg | Fiber: 24.7g | Sugar: 119g | Vitamin A: 5235.6IU | Vitamin C: 1.6mg | Calcium: 138.7mg | Iron: 16mg
And that’s pretty much my crispy coconut cookies for you.
Crispy Coconut Cookies
Here are my other recipes you might want to check out:
- Coconut Loaf Cake with Lemon Glaze Topping
- Coconut Candy Recipe – A Quick and Easy Treat
- Cherry Coconut Cookies – Easy Christmas Cookie Idea
- Coconut Candy – A Homemade Treat
Happy baking 🙂
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