These Pandan Cookies are made in a thumbprint style with a buttery shortbread cookie base, rolled in coconut flakes and filled with a dollop of creamy pandan jam. The tropical flavors add a wonderful twist in this classic thumbprint cookie recipe.
Table of Contents
What is pandan?
Pandan, also known as screwpine leaf, is a herbaceous tropical plant grown in Southeast Asia. Its leaves are used extensively in Asian cooking.
It is a common flavoring as compared to vanilla in the West and has been referred to as the vanilla of Southeast Asia. It has a distinct floral and slightly grassy fragrance, and pairs perfectly with coconut.
Why you’ll love this recipe
- Simple and short ingredient list – the shortbread base for these pandan cookies requires just 5 ingredients, with a total of just 9 ingredients including the egg wash, coconut and pandan jam.
- Buttery – just like classic shortbread cookies, these cookies are melt-in-your-mouth delicious.
- Scalable and interchangeable – you can easily scale up or down for a larger or smaller batch of cookies, and swap out different jams for different flavors too. See these guava cookies!
Ingredients and substitutions
As always, you’ll find the complete list of ingredients and quantities in the recipe card at the end of this post. Below are some notes and substitution tips for each ingredient:
- Butter – unsalted butter is used in the shortbread base for these pandan cookies. I don’t recommend using salted butter here since the recipe calls for only a small amount of salt and salted butter will be too salty.
- Flour – all-purpose flour will work in this recipe. If you use cake flour or add a little cornstarch to the all-purpose flour, the cookies will have even more of a melt-in-your-mouth texture.
- Sugar – regular granulated sugar is all you need.
- Salt – just a tiny bit of kosher salt is used to enhance the flavor.
- Vanilla extract – only use pure vanilla extract for the best flavor.
- Egg – one egg is used for the egg wash.
- Cream – just one tablespoon of cream is needed for the egg wash. You could also use milk or water here as well depending on what you have on hand.
- Coconut flakes – use plenty of unsweetened coconut flakes to roll the cookies in for extra coconut flavor. If you have larger coconut chips, you could chop them up in the food processor. You could use sweetened coconut as well but the cookies will be sweeter.
- Pandan jam – this is essentially a pandan coconut curd. I picked it up at a local Malaysian restaurant we frequent. You can get it online, or try your local Asian grocery stores.
Tools you’ll need
- A stand mixer or electric hand mixer will be handy to help you make the shortbread dough.
- A food processor only if you need to chop the coconut into smaller flakes.
How to make pandan cookies
The following instructions, step-by-step photos, and tips are here to help you visualize how to make the recipe. You can always skip straight to the printable recipe card at the end of this post.
First, make the shortbread dough by beating together softened butter, sugar, and vanilla extract. Then add the flour and salt and mix until the dough forms. Refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes.
When the dough is ready, take it out of the fridge and divide into 1 oz portions. Roll into balls. Dip the dough balls in egg wash and immediately roll in coconut flakes to cover completely.
Place the dough balls on a parchment lined baking sheet about 2” apart. Use the back of a teaspoon to press an indentation into each dough ball. Fill each indentation with just 1 teaspoon of pandan jam and bake until golden brown.
More baker’s tips
- Don’t use your thumb – for a neater and more uniform thumbprint indentation, use the back of a teaspoon instead of your thumb.
- Flour the back of the teaspoon – before using the teaspoon to press the indentation in the cookie dough, dip it in flour to prevent sticking.
- If the dough cracks while you’re making the indentation, it’s not a big deal, you can use your fingers to squeeze the dough back together.
- Add enough jam – you want to use enough jam to maximize the pandan flavor. Since this pandan jam is a pretty thick curd, I used 1 teaspoon for each cookie. I didn’t have an issue with it spilling over the indentation during baking but if you substitute a different jam, you may run into this problem.
Storage
These pandan cookies will last 3-5 days in an airtight container at room temperature.
If you want to make these ahead of time to add them to your freezer stash, I recommend freezing the cookie dough just before adding the jam. When ready to bake, simply add your jam to the indentation and bake the cookies directly from frozen.
FAQs
Whenever I make thumbprint style cookies, I fill them before baking to allow the jam to fuse with the cookies as they bake.
Absolutely! You can fill these with different jams, curds, and thick sauces. Try dulce de leche, or lemon curd.
I use unsweetened coconut in this recipe because I think coconut already has a natural sweetness to it. But you can certainly use sweetened shredded coconut instead. That would make your cookies a little bit sweeter but no less delicious.
More tropical cookies
- Macadamia Snowball Cookies
- Tropical Rugelach
- Island Banana Cookies
- Big Island Coffee Cookies
- Mango Oatmeal Cookies
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📖 Recipe card
Pandan Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
For the cookie dough
- 8 oz unsalted butter (room temperature, 2 sticks, 226 g)
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar (133 g)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 ⅓ cup all-purpose flour (314 g)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
For egg wash and topping
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon cream (substitute milk or water)
- 2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
- ½ cup pandan jam
Instructions
- Beat softened butter with sugar and vanilla in the stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until fluffy.
- Mix the flour and salt in a small mixing bowl thoroughly with a whisk. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix on low speed until the dough comes together.
- Dump the dough out onto a lightly floured board and shape into a disk. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour.
- When the dough is ready, take it out of the fridge, divide into 1 oz portions and roll into balls. This will make about 24.
- Beat an egg with a tablespoon of cream, milk, or water, to make egg wash. Add coconut flakes to a plate or a shallow bowl.
- Dip each dough ball in egg wash and then roll in coconut flake. Place them on a parchment lined baking sheet, about 2” apart.
- Press down on each dough ball using the back of a teaspoon to make the “thumbprint” indentation. Dip the teaspoon in flour each time to prevent dough from sticking.
- Fill each indentation with 1 teaspoon of pandan jam.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. You can keep the cookies in the refrigerator while the oven preheats.
- Bake cookies for 15-20 minutes until coconut flakes are golden brown, one baking sheet at a time.
- Let cookies cool on a wire rack completely before serving.
Notes
- Don’t use your thumb – for a neater and more uniform thumbprint indentation, use the back of a teaspoon instead of your thumb.
- Flour the back of the teaspoon – before using the teaspoon to press the indentation in the cookie dough, dip it in flour to prevent sticking.
- If the dough cracks while you’re making the indentation, it’s not a big deal, you can use your fingers to squeeze the dough back together.
- Add enough jam – you want to use enough jam to maximize the pandan flavor. Since this pandan jam is a pretty thick curd, I used 1 teaspoon for each cookie. I didn’t have an issue with it spilling over the indentation during baking but if you substitute a different jam, you may run into this problem.
Nutrition
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Is there a specific brand of the pandan custard we should be looking for? Most of the ones i’ve seen dont present as well as the one in your pictures.
Michael, this is the one I used Srikaya Pandan Jam.
These look so beautiful – I love that colour. I’ve used pandan leaves in savoury cooking but never knew it could be turned into something as lovely as this.
Yes! It’s popular in both savory and sweet dishes but you know me I prefer sweets. 😀
looks absolutely delicious.