These Coconut Shortbread Cookies are so easy to make. Just 6 ingredients and a little bit of your time, you’ll have some buttery and delicious coconut cookies to enjoy. You’ll be wondering why you haven’t made these sooner.
If shortbread cookies were animals, they would be my spirit animals, as in my patronus would be a shortbread cookie kind of thing. I love them in all shapes, forms, and flavors – like these matcha shortbread cookies, and these strawberry shortbread cookies or these stained glass shortbread cookies.
And then there’s coconut, it holds a special place in my heart. I associate coconut with memories from my childhood growing up in Vietnam, and my absolute favorite place in the world, Hawaii. So putting shortbread and coconut together seem natural to me. These cookies are so easy to make, you won’t be sorry you try unless you can’t resist the urge to eat them all in one sitting.
How to make Coconut Shortbread Cookies
- All of my shortbread recipes are very simple to make and follow a similar formula. To flavor the cookies, I mix the flavoring ingredient with the flour and bit of salt. In this case, it’s shredded coconut.
- Softened butter is then creamed with sugar and vanilla before the flour mixture is added to make a dough. If you experience sandy dough, it could be that the butter was still cold, or not beaten long enough. In this case, continue to mix until it’s no longer sandy.
- The dough then needs to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour to firm up before rolling and cutting. Once you form the cookies, you’ll want to freeze them for another 30 minutes to an hour before baking to keep their shape.
Can I freeze coconut shortbread?
Freezing shortbread cookies is part of the process to ensure they keep their shape in the oven. If you want to make ahead, to prepare for the Christmas rush for example, freeze the unbaked cookies just after you roll and cut the dough. Store them in air tight containers. If you need to layer them up, put parchment paper in between each layers. You can bake straight from frozen when ready. This way you are always serving freshly baked coconut cookies!
How would you serve these coconut shortbread cookies?
- For the little ones, serve them with with milk or hot chocolate.
- For the adults, they’re great with coffee and tea.
- For over the top dessert, crumble them up and sprinkle them over ice cream.
- Or simply dipped them in melted chocolate.
So many of choices my friends, whichever way you decide, you won’t go wrong, I promise!
More Coconut Recipes
If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment, rate it and don’t forget to tag me @wildwildwhisk on Instagram. I’d love to see what’s cooking up in your kitchen. Cheers!
📖 Recipe card
Coconut Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour ((133 g))
- ½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut ((40 g))
- ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt ((< 1 g))
- 4 oz unsalted butter ((room temperature, 113 g))
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar ((65 g))
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract ((3 g))
- Extra sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
- Add flour, salt, and shredded coconut into a small mixing bowl, mix well to distribute thoroughly. Set aside.
- Add sugar, softened butter and vanilla extract to the stand mixer bowl and beat with the paddle attachment at medium low speed until combined. Increase speed to medium and beat until fluffy, about 30 seconds to 1 minute.
- Reduce mixer to low speed, and slowly add the flour mixture. Gradually increase mixer speed to medium and mix until dough comes together. It should start pulling away from the side of the mixing bowl.
- Turn dough out onto a lightly floured board or counter top, and shape into a disk or rectangle. Wrap well with plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
- Roll dough to between ¼”-½” thick and cut out cookies with desired cookie cutter. Re-roll the scrap dough and cut out more cookies until finished. A 2” cookie cutter will make a dozen cookies.
- Place the cookies in a container in layers, with parchment paper in between, and freeze for 30 minutes to 1 hour. If your freezer is large enough to accommodate a baking sheet, arrange the cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet and freeze.
- Preheat oven to 350°F while the cookies are resting in the freezer.
- When the oven is ready, place cookies on a parchment line baking sheet an inch or two apart if frozen in a container, sprinkle granulated sugar over the top of cookies generously and bake for 15 minutes. Rotate pan half way through baking.
- Remove from the oven, let rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- You can roll the dough into a log to make it easier to cut. This way, just refrigerate, slice and bake.
- Take these cookies to the next level by dipping them in melted chocolate and sprinkle them with sweetened shredded coconut.
Nutrition
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Carla
Amazing cookies….I’ve made them three times and shared the recipe with friends. Best shortbread ever. Last time I dipped one corner of each cookie in dark chocolate..OMG…to die for!!!
Trang Doan
So happy to hear you like these Carla! The dark chocolate dip is a great idea.
Tanya
Love these cookies!!
I did a log then slice and bake! Easier!
Trang Doan
Genius about the slice and bake! I agree it is so much easier, thanks for letting us know and happy baking!
Anthony
Made these and they taste and look fabulous! Highly recommend!
Trang Doan
Thank you Anthony!
Paula
Hello, Trang! I also had an issue with the dough not coming together, in the sense that it never really started pulling away from the sides of the bowl, even after about 6-7 minutes on medium speed. Should I have gone longer? Increased/decreased the speed? How long on the stand-mixer would it normally take at that stage (post-flour, medium speed)? I was afraid of overworking it, so I stopped, added another 30g of flour to sort of combat the “moist”, kneaded it by hand, then shaped it to refrigerate, and it seemed ok texture wise. However, I think the extra flour might have thrown off the sugar balance a little bit, which was perfect before. Would appreciate any feedback, thanks in advance!
Trang Doan
Hi Paula, sorry you ran into issue with this recipe. When the dough comes together, it doesn’t meant that it needs to come away from the bowl. Depending on the butter temperature, the dough may look dryer or moister when you mix it, for example, in the summer, butter tends to melt easier and the dough may look more moist, and in the winter, butter tends to be colder even at room temperature so sometimes you may get a sandy look to the dough. But I would not recommending adding more flour or changing the recipe in any ways. If the dough seems too moist, I would just scoop it out onto plastic wrap and shape it inside the wrap and refrigerate to allow it to harden. If it seems too dry, I would knead it by hand to let the heat from your hand melt the butter and help the dough come together. Hope this helps.
Sophie
Thank you, for sharing your recipe! A really wonderful shortbread cookie with the perfect amount sweetness. I used Monkfruit as a sugar substitute and added 1/4 teaspoon each of ground cinnamon, and ginger. Also added 1/4 C of chopped pecans . I sprinkled the Monkfruit on the cookie after it was baked and it was like magic .
Five star cooke!
Meredith K.
The dough never came together and I had to throw it all away. What a disappointment.
Trang Doan
Sorry to hear this recipe didn’t work out for you. A lot of time when making shortbread in the winter, due to the colder temperature the dough does take some times to come together because the butter is so cold. You may knead it longer or bring it together by hand. Or if you added too much dry ingredients due to a mismeasurement, this could happen. If you ever decide to try again, I’d be happy to help troubleshoot. Thanks for trying!
Lannie
Hello, can you make these into a sheet and cut into wedges? Same ingredient amount?
Trang Doan
Sure you can cut them into whatever shape you’d like.
Jane
I made these cookies exactly with one exception. I added 2 small packages of chopped macadamia nuts. I rolled and cut them out and baked. They were so good! Not super sweet. So, I made a simple thin icing with powdered sugar, milk and vanilla and drizzled over the tops after they cooled for a few minutes. Delicious!!
Trang Doan
The addition of macadamia nuts is genius! So glad you enjoyed them 🙂
Dawn Tharme
Lovely cookies. Gd recipe.
Katherine
yum!
Jane
12 cookies? For real? Not sure this will make the rotation for the Christmas trays 🙁
Trang
Hi Jane, this recipe can be doubled/tripled very easily to make more cookies as needed. I love these cookies, I hope you try them, let me know if you need any help.
Crystal
Is there anyway to make these sugar-free (possibly by using Dates)?
Trang
My aunt would sometimes bake my recipes using sugar alternatives like Splenda and stevia. I’ve personally never tested them so I don’t know whether they affect the taste or texture. As for dates, it will definitely affect both taste and texture. If you like dates, I think go for it and try it out. But for these coconut shortbread cookies, you may want to use a sugar alternative instead of dates to preserve to coconut taste. Come back and let me know if you try it!
Maxine J Housden
Fabulous recipe and delicious buttery cookies, turned out as you said. I used the gram weight for the recipe as I don’t have any cup measures here in the UK.
Thank you
Maxine
Trang
Thank you Maxine, so glad you enjoyed them!
Marie
Ditto to the last comment. Love shortbread, love coconut and both with a coffee would be sensational right now
Kenneth Orloff
two of my favorites, shortbread and coconut, with coffee.