Vegan Coconut Cookies (3 WAYS!)

They are melt-in-the-mouth buttery treats for Christmas or any other occasion. To make these crispy vegan coconut cookies, you only need seven staple pantry ingredients and five minutes to mix the dough. We show you three ways to enjoy them: 1) plain and simple, 2) topped with toasted coconut, or 3) dipped in chocolate.

If you want more vegan cookie recipes, try our snowball cookies, lemon cookies with blueberry jam, thumbprint cookies, walnut crescent cookies, or the best shortbread cookies.

What to expect from this recipe?

How to make these vegan coconut cookies 3 different ways?

1. The base cookie recipe is a buttery but crispy shortbread coconut cookie. The best way to enjoy them is if you bake them thin. If you make it without topping or decoration, the shredded coconut mixed in the dough will only give you a subtle coconut flavor.
2. However, we recommend covering the cut-out cookies with even more shredded coconut for coconut lovers. The cookies will have a lovely toasted coconut taste if you do that.
3. Dip them or drizzle them with melted dark chocolate if you want some decadent Christmas cookies. They are heavenly. Coconut and chocolate taste perfect together.

Ingredients

To make this recipe, you need seven staple pantry ingredients. I used two simple gluten-free flours so that anyone could enjoy this recipe. Several coconut cookie recipes use almond flour, but I also wanted to make it nut-free. So what do you need to make them?

• Desiccated coconut → Fine, shredded, dry, unsweetened
• White rice flour
• Buckwheat flour
• Corn starch → I only tested this recipe with corn and tapioca starch
• Cane sugar → You can use other dry sugars like coconut sugar, brown sugar, or white sugar. We haven’t tested this recipe with a liquid sweetener like maple syrup.
• Dairy-free butter
• Salt
• Optional: vanilla extract or coconut extract

🛒 You can find detailed measurements for all ingredients in the printable version of the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

Instructions

Simple vegan coconut cookies in 5 minutes

1. Add all dry and wet ingredients (coconut, white rice flour, buckwheat flour, starch, sugar, salt, and butter) to a food processor and mix until it reaches a crumb-like texture.

2. Take a large bowl and add the dough from the food processor. Knead it with your hands for 2 minutes to form a ball. If the ball is dry and crumbles after 2-3 minutes, add 1-3 teaspoons of water, one teaspoon at a time. The dough should not stick to your fingers.
3. Grab your rolling mat and lightly flour it. Roll the cookie dough thin, about 4 mm (approx. ¼-inch). 
4. We choose a round cookie cutter, but you can get more creative and use any themed ones. Cut out as many cookies as you can.
5. Bake them on parchment paper in a baking tray for 10-12 minutes. Baking time may depend on your oven, so check them around 8-10 minutes. If it starts to brown, then it is too far gone. 
6. Place them on a cooling rack with the parchment paper below. Bake the next batch.

Toasted coconut cookies

1. Take a shallow bowl and add a ¼ or ½ cup of shredded coconut.
2. Take the cut-out cookies and place them in one by one.
3. Gently pat them and flip and pat them again. You will have a lovely toasted coconut finish if you bake cookies like that. (see below picture)

Chocolate coconut cookies

Melting chocolate

There are many ways to melt chocolate. I usually opt for my handy double-boiler melting pot*. It is super easy to use, and you can warm the chocolate evenly compared to the microwave, where you can get the edges super hot while the middle may remain unmelted.

1. Use chocolate chips or break/cut a chocolate bar into smaller pieces.
2. Boil water in a kettle. Add the water to a saucepan and keep it boiling on the stovetop.
3. I place the double-boiler melting pot on top and add the chocolate pieces.
4. When the chocolate starts melting, stir it with a spatula several times. It is ready when you have entirely melted the chocolate.

Decorating the cookies

It would be best if you waited for the cookies to cool down before decorating them with chocolate for two reasons: 1) they firm up once they are cooled, and 2) hot melted chocolate and hot cookies will not stick together.

• DIP IT! – We dipped these basic coconut cookies in melted chocolate halfway and then placed them on a cooling rack.
• DRIZZLE IT! – Leave the toasted coconut cookies on the parchment paper. Take a spoon and drizzle the melted chocolate on top of them. If the chocolate is too thick to drizzle, add 1-2 teaspoons of coconut oil to it and mix thoroughly. See the below photo for reference.

QUICK TIP: Please note that depending on the chocolate you use, and how thick you cover your cookies, the waiting time can be from a couple of hours to overnight for the chocolate to dry and become firm again.

Top tips

• Flour your surface – I like using rice flour to dust my rolling mat. Rice flour seems to have a non-stick grainy consistency, making working with any dough easier. The dough rolls all over it, literally.
• Use a saran wrap or cling foil – I also use a wrap on the top to avoid sticking the dough to the rolling pin. Besides cookies, I use this method to roll out a pie crust or a pizza crust.
• Parchment paper instead of a baking sheet – I recommend using parchment paper instead of a baking sheet, especially if you make multiple batches. You can take out the parchment paper from the baking tray and bake the next round while the first round can cool down on its own. They will likely break if you try to move them while they are hot off a baking sheet. 
• Place them close – As there is no baking powder, baking soda, or any other type of leavening, they will not rise significantly. You can place them relatively close to each other.
• When are they ready? – If they start to brown on the edges, you are too late. Cookies with rice flour are likely not to get brown compared to cookies with all-purpose flour. 

FAQs and substitutions

How long will the cookies last?

You can leave them at room temperature for 1-2 days without covering them, and they will be just as good as new. You can store them in an airtight container for up to two weeks. I never kept them longer, so let me know if you do.

Can you substitute any flour or starch?

I have only tested it with tapioca starch and cornstarch and saw no difference. Read our tapioca flour substitutes article for more starch options. As for the flour, you can use oat flour or millet flour instead of buckwheat, although the flour combination in the recipe card is the one I recommend.

Allergen info

This Vegan Coconut Cookies recipe is dairy-free and egg-free.

• Vegan – All suggested ingredients are supposed to be vegan.
• Nut-free – Companies often use coconut oil to make vegan butter. You should use a nut-free brand. All other ingredients are supposed to be nut-free, but check packaging info for cross-contamination.
• WFPB-friendly (whole foods plant-based) – Vegan butter is not compliant since it has processed oil. We haven’t tested this recipe with nut butter.
• Gluten-free – All proposed ingredients are supposed to be gluten-free, but always check the packaging for cross-contamination info, especially for cornstarch and flour.
• Soy-free – Companies frequently use soy to make vegan butter. So select soy-free products. All other ingredients are supposed to be soy-free.

More vegan cookie recipes

For more vegan dessert recipes, browse through our recipe collection or check out these delicious cookies:

UPDATED: This recipe was originally posted in October 2021. More tips and details were added, and it was republished in October 2022.