These pandan cookies are pandan-flavored coconut cookies with gula Melaka (palm sugar) topping. They are wonderfully crisp and crumbly with a delightful combination of fragrant pandan, sweet and creamy coconut, and the rich caramel flavored gula Melaka (palm sugar) in irresistible bite-sized cookies.
With their vibrant green hue and delectable taste, these cookies are a perfect blend of exotic Southeast Asian flavors.
I used store-bought pandan extract which comes in a concentrated gel-like consistency to make these aromatic cookies. The gel-like consistency is perfect to ensure the cookie dough does not become too sticky. I would not recommend using homemade pandan extract because homemade extract tends to be runny.
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❤️Why you will love this recipe
- These pandan coconut cookies are simple cookies. Other than the butter, sugar, and flour, the only other ingredients you need are freshly grated coconut, pandan extract, and grated gula Melaka.
- The cookies are eggless, so they make perfect option for vegetarians and those on egg-free diet.
- You don't need fresh pandan leaves to make the cookies. Store bought pandan extract is what you need.
- The green color of the cookies make them very attractive and different for other cookies.
- The cookies make great holiday cookies and are perfect for festive season especially during Eid and Chinese New Year.
- The cookies have a lovely pandan flavor and aroma and are ever so inviting.
Like this delicious pandan and coconut recipe? Here are my other posts you should check out:
- Coconut Candy Recipe (with Fresh Grated Coconut)
- Coconut Rolls with Coconut Glaze
- Cherry Coconut Cookies (Easy Christmas Cookie Idea)
- Pandan Cheesecake (Perfectly Baked and the Creamiest Ever!)
- Pandan Cake (Easiest Pandan Flavored Pound Cake)
- Gula Melaka Syrup (Palm Sugar Syrup) - How to Make
- Pandan Milk Tea (Easy Homemade Bubble Tea Recipe)
- Pandan Milk (Flavorful and Easy)
📋Ingredients
- Butter - I use salted butter in the recipe. If using unsalted butter, add a small pinch of extra salt in the recipe.
- Granulated sugar (caster sugar) - fine sugar works best for this recipe. Coarse sugar will leave the cookies with sugar specks on the surface after baking.
- All purpose flour - best to be sifted before using.
- Grated coconut (fresh & unsweetened) - best to use freshly grated coconut. Otherwise, frozen ones will also work, but make sure the coconut is at room temperature.
- Pandan extract - contributes to the color and pandan flavor in the cookies.
- Salt - enhances the taste. Use fine salt.
- Gula Melaka / palm sugar - chop into fine pieces or grate with a cheese grater.
*Refer to the recipe card below for full list of ingredients and exact quantities. For best results, use a digital kitchen scale where applicable*
🧾Substitution and Variations
- The gula Melaka in this pandan gula Melaka cookies is optional and you can totally exclude it if you wish so. You can leave the cookies plain without any gula Melaka topping. Alternatively, you can replace with dark brown sugar or decorate the with sprinkles or even toasted coconut instead.
- Fresh grated coconut in the cookie dough can be replaced with unsweetened coconut flakes but process them into finely grated form before using. Desiccated coconut (in dry form) will not work for this recipe.
This recipe has not been tested with other substitutions or variations. If you do try, please let me know in the comments section below!
👩🍳How to Make
Mixing the cookie dough
- Add butter, sugar and salt into a large bowl. Beat until they turn creamy. Do not overbeat.
- Add in the pandan extract.
- Beat until the extract is well combined into the creamed mixture. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl.
- Next is the dry ingredients. Add in the flour. Mix well. If using an electric mixer, mix on low speed.
- Add the grated coconut.
- Mix until the dough comes together into a ball.
Shaping and baking the cookies
- Scoop the dough into 1 tablespoon sizes. Form them into round little balls with your hands. Place the pandan cookie dough balls onto a parchment paper lined baking tray or baking sheet.
- Press the balls with a fork, first horizontally.
- And then vertically.
- This should leave a pretty crisscross pattern on the unbaked pandan cookies.
- Spread about ⅛ teaspoon of the grated gula Melaka onto each of the cookies.
- Bake the cookies for 15 minutes at 170 degrees Celsius, until the sides of the cookies start turning golden brown. Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool down on a cooling rack.
🍽️Serving & storage
- Store the baked pandan cookies in an airtight container to retain their crisp and crumbly texture.
- The cookies last for a good two weeks.
💡Expert Tips
- This pandan flavored cookie dough is firm enough to roll and cut with a cookie cutter. And while you can do just that, the grated coconut in the cookie dough will leave the edges of your cookies serrated. This is not very appealing, visually.
- Hence, my preferred way of shaping these pandan coconut cookies is by hand. If you don't like the crisscross pattern fork pattern on the cookies, you can shape the dough into balls and press them lightly with the back of a drinking glass. That will give you nicely rounded, slightly flattened pandan cookies.
- Use a cheese grater to grate the gula Melaka if you find it hard to chop with a knife.
💭FAQs
Pandan is known as screwpine leaves in English. It is a tropical plant grown mostly in the Southeast Asian region and often referred to as vanilla of Southeast Asia. It has long and thin blade-like leaves that are green in color. Young leaves are of a lighter shade and the older ones are a darker green.
Pandan is generally not eaten on its own, but used mostly as a flavoring and also to enhance the smell of food and drinks. It is used in both sweet and savory Asian cooking (dishes and in drinks too).
For flavor enhancement, it is often knotted and added to dishes while cooking and discarded after cooking, leaving only its lovely aroma in the cooked dishes. Pandan is also used as a natural green colorant. This is done by grinding/processing the leaves with some water and then straining it to discard the pulp.
Gula melaka is a type of palm sugar from coconut trees. It is dark brown in color and often comes in solid cylinder blocks.
This sugar is famous in Malaysia and is often an ingredient in many of its traditional sweet treats like this sago pudding, pandan cheesecake and coconut jelly. The name Melaka refers to the Melaka state in Malaysia where this palm sugar originates.
To make pandan extract from fresh pandan leaves, you will need to grind the leaves with water or liquid before straining the pulp out for the extract. While this is doable for cakes, it will not work for cookies, and definitely not these pandan cookies.
Cookie recipes are often without any liquid (other than eggs and extracts) and adding liquid into cookie doughs will result in cookies with cake-like consistency and not cookie consistency.
Hence it is advisable to use store-bought pandan extract (pandan paste) that is concentrated when making these cookies.
This recipe is for crispy and crumbly pandan cookies. With the inclusion of freshly grated coconut, these cookies require a slightly longer baking time of 15 minutes to get them to bake to a crisp texture.
If you want to make chewy cookies, all you need to do is reduce the baking time to 10 minutes. That way, these pandan coconut cookies will bake with lovely crisp edges and soft and chewy centers.
Desiccated coconut is too dry and would require different measurements if used as a substitute for freshly grated coconut, hence it is not advisable for this pandan cookies recipe.
Coconut flakes, on the other hand, can be used in these pandan coconut cookies. I prefer to process them into fine, grated consistency before adding them to the cookie dough. Do note that you should use unsweetened flakes instead of sweetened ones to avoid the cookies from becoming too sweet.
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📖Recipe
Pandan Cookies with Coconut and Gula Melaka
For best results, use the metrics measurements. US customary measurements have not been tested and are only meant for guide.
Ingredients
- 120 g granulated sugar
- 210 g butter (salted)
- 350 g all-purpose flour
- 210 g grated coconut (fresh & unsweetened)
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pandan extract
Garnish
- 30 g gula melaka /palm sugar (finely grated)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 170 ° Celsius.
- Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a medium-sized bowl, beat the butter and sugar until creamy. Suffice if it is creamy, do not overbeat.
- Add the pandan extract and beat again until it is well incorporated into the creamed mixture and the green color from the extract is evenly distributed.
- Add the flour and mix until combined.
- Add the grated coconut and mix again until well combined.
- Scoop the pandan coconut cookie dough into 1 tablespoon sizes.
- Shape them into round balls by hand and place them slightly apart on the prepared baking tray.
- Lightly press the pandan cookie dough balls with a fork horizontally. Lift the fork and press again, this time vertically. This will make a criss-cross pattern on the cookies. Apply only light pressure when pressing with the fork to avoid your pandan cookies from becoming too thin and flat.
- Sprinkle approximately ⅛ grated gula melaka on each cookie.
- Bake the pandan gula melaka cookies for 15 minutes at 170°Celsius for crisp and crumbly pandan cookies. For chewy cookies, reduce the baking time to 10 minutes.
- Let the cookies cool completely on a wire rack before storing them in an airtight container.
Notes
- This pandan flavored cookie dough is firm enough to roll and cut with a cookie cutter. And while you can do just that, the grated coconut in the cookie dough will leave the edges of your cookies serrated. This is not very appealing, visually.
- Hence, my preferred way of shaping these pandan coconut cookies is by hand. If you don't like the crisscross pattern fork pattern on the cookies, you can shape the dough into balls and press them lightly with the back of a drinking glass. That will give you nicely rounded, slightly flattened pandan cookies.
- Use a cheese grater to grate the gula Melaka if you find it hard to chop with a knife.
LH Quek
Hi can i omit the grated coconut ? Because I don’t like the texture of grated coconut.
Priya Maha
Hi,
I have not tried the cookies without the grated coconut. If you omit the coconut, the dough will be too soft to shape.
Hazira
Can i sub desiccated coconut for the fresh coconut?
Mihaela|https://theworldisanoyster.com/
I had no idea these cookies were so easy to make; will bake for sure!