Toasted Coconut Sugar Cookies

Say hello to summer in cookie form with toasted coconut sugar cookies! These sweet, buttery sugar cookies are full of tropical flavor with that soft, chewy texture everyone loves. Plus, they're incredibly simple to make for even the beginner baker. You won't find a more perfect summer cookie.

Why You'll Love This Recipe

With summer here, you need a delicious but easy and portable dessert for all your backyard barbecuing needs -- something that can hold up to the hottest temperatures without refrigeration. No fussy preparation is required, and serving is as simple as grab and go for a casual evening.

Enter these toasted coconut sugar cookies! Not only do these little treats check all the aforementioned boxes, but they're also bakery-style sugar cookies as opposed to those puffier, more cake-like sugar cookies used for extra fancy decorating. And let's be honest. That's the best kind of sugar cookie.

Bakery-style sugar cookies have a tender, chewy bite with a crinkly top and buttery, moist base. Those more decorative sugar cookies tend to have a drier, almost crumbly texture. Plus, the toasted coconut adds even more chewiness. If you're all about a chewy texture, these cookies were made for you.

Bonus: If you love these tropical coconut cookies, be sure to also check out my macadamia nut-coconut chocolate chip cookies and butterscotch-coconut-bourbon cookies!

Ingredients

And those are all the ingredients you need. As you can see, everything should be easy to find in the grocery store, which is yet another reason to love this recipe.

For the coconut, I used sweetened coconut. I just love flavor you get from the sweetened variety, and it's more commonly used in baking. That said, you could also substitute it with unsweetened coconut. While unsweetened coconut is a bit drier and chewier, it will work.

Step-by-Step Instructions

How to Toast Coconut

I like to toast coconut on the stove in a skillet, and the process couldn't be simpler.

Step 1: We toss a bunch of coconut into a nonstick skillet and cook over medium heat (photo 1). Every so often, we give the skillet a shake to keep the coconut from burning.

After several minutes, our coconut will brown like so (photo 2) and turn fragrant. Now we're ready to move on to the rest of our cookie recipe.

How to Prepare Cookie Dough

The rest of this recipe is similar to making your typical drop cookies. Unless you're a cookie rookie, this process should feel familiar.

Step 2: We start by stirring together our flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and setting that aside (photo 3).

Step 3: In a large mixing bowl, we add softened butter and sugar and beat until it's light and fluffy like so (photo 4).

Step 4: From here, we add in vanilla extract and coconut extract for an extra dose of tropical flavor as well as freshly squeezed lemon juice. We then beat in our eggs one at a time (photo 5). We want to add in our eggs one at a time to prevent overbeating, so don't just throw them in all at once, thinking it doesn't matter.

Step 6: Now we stir in a little of our flour mixture at a time (photo 6) and repeat the process until we incorporate all of the dry ingredients (photo 7).

Step 7: Once the flour is all incorporated, we add our toasted coconut (photo 8 and 9), and we're ready to refrigerate our dough.

Step 8: After refrigerating, we shape our dough into golf ball-size dough balls by rolling them in our hands and then place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.

Step 9: After baking, we place the cookies on a wire rack to cool, but do yourself a favor and treat yourself to a coconut sugar cookie while it's still warm.

Tip: For an extra decadent touch, sprinkle some homemade vanilla sugar right when they come out of the oven! You'll love the extra vanilla flavor with the toasted coconut.

And if you'd like to check out more summery cookies, you'll also adore these limoncello Italian wedding cookies.

Recipe FAQs

Expert Tips

• When measuring your flour and sugar, don't scoop the cup into bag. That packs in too much of our ingredient. Instead, spoon into the measuring cup and use a knife to level off any excess.
• Make sure your eggs are room temperature before beating. Room-temperature eggs incorporate much better than cold eggs. Simply allow them to sit for 30 minutes in room temperature. If you forget, place them in warm -- not hot -- water for 10 minutes.
• The lemon juice adds a nice brightness, but it also activates the baking soda, so don't skip this ingredient, thinking it's just for an extra flavor boost.
• For beating the cookie dough, I use my Kitchenaid mixer to handle this step. Three to four minutes of beating the sugar and butter on speed four works well for me. A hand mixer also works -- just make sure you give this step a few minutes of beating to incorporate enough air into the mixture.

Perfect Pairing

Beer and cookies are one of my favorite pairings, and I love an imperial stout with these toasted coconut sugar cookies. The inherent sweetness from the high alcohol content makes it perfect for all sorts of desserts, and coconut is a delicious match to that roasted malt.

For wine, an oaked chardonnay is a fun match. Oak barrels often impart a coconut flavor, and the buttery chardonnay fits perfectly with our cookie dough base. A riesling is another delicious option.

And, of course, if you want to really play up the coconut flavor, you can't go wrong with tropical cocktails. My coconut margarita and coconut-watermelon mojito are obvious choices.

When you need the perfect summer treat, I hope you try these toasted coconut sugar cookies. You'll love that tropical flavor packed into one delicious treat.

Cheers!

Can't Get Enough Cookies?

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📖 Recipe

Toasted Coconut Sugar Cookies

Say hello to summer in cookie form! These sweet, buttery toasted coconut sugar cookies are full of tropical flavor with that soft, chewy texture everyone loves. You won't find a more perfect summer cookie.

5 from 53 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Desserts

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 9 minutes minutes

Total Time: 29 minutes minutes

Servings: 20 cookies

Calories: 350kcal

Author: Amanda McGrory-Dixon

Equipment

• ▢
  Stand or hand mixer
• ▢
  Mixing bowl
• ▢
  Large baking sheet
• ▢
  Parchment paper
• ▢
  Wire racks

Ingredients

• ▢ 1 ⅓ cups sweetened shredded coconut
• ▢ 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
• ▢ 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ▢ 1 teaspoon salt
• ▢ ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ▢ 1 cup salted butter softened
• ▢ 1 ½ cups granulated white sugar
• ▢ 2 large eggs
• ▢ 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• ▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ▢ 1 teaspoon coconut extract
• ▢ Additional granulated sugar or turbinado sugar for dusting optional

Instructions

• In a small skillet over medium heat, toast the coconut until it begins to brown and turn fragrant. Stir every so often to prevent burning. Set aside.
• Stir together flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder in a small bowl. Set aside.
• Cream together the softened butter with sugar until light and fluffy.
• Scrape the creamed butter off the side of the bowl. Add one egg with the lemon juice and extracts. Beat just until combined. Repeat with the second egg. Once both eggs are combined, scrape the dough off the side of the bowl again.
• Add a spoonful or two of the flour mixture at a time and stir until incorporated. Repeat until all the flour mixture is combined into the dough. Stir in toasted coconut.
• Chill the cookie dough in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
• Heat oven to 375 degrees. On a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, form the dough into approximately golf ball-size dough balls.
• Bake for nine minutes. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for a couple minutes and then move to a wire rack to cool completely. If desired, dust with additional granulated sugar or turbinado sugar while still warm. Store in an airtight container. Enjoy!

Notes

• When measuring your flour and sugar, don't scoop the cup into bag. That packs in too much of our ingredient. Instead, spoon into the measuring cup and use a knife to level off any excess.
• Make sure your eggs are room temperature before beating. Room-temperature eggs incorporate much better than cold eggs. Simply allow them to sit for 30 minutes in room temperature. If you forget, place them in warm -- not hot -- water for 10 minutes.
• The lemon juice adds a nice brightness, but it also activates the baking soda, so don't skip this ingredient, thinking it's just for an extra flavor boost.
• For beating the cookie dough, I use my Kitchenaid mixer for this step. Three to four minutes of beating the sugar and butter on speed four works well for me. A hand mixer also works -- just make sure you give this step a few minutes of beating to incorporate enough air into the mixture.
• Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 350kcal | Carbohydrates: 39g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 21g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 35mg | Sodium: 183mg | Sugar: 25g

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