Eggless Coconut Cookies

Bakery style eggless coconut cookies with less than 7 ingredients that are perfect as a tea time snack!

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We’re all familiar with those neighbourhood bakeries which you walk past as a strong aroma of freshly baked cookies wafts through, urging you to stop, and luring you in with the promise of sweet indulgence. For me the memory is almost synonymous with the taste of coconut cookies – easily amongst my favourite bakery treats.

I decided to recreate the same at home and ended up on a beautiful nostalgic journey when the smell and flavour of the coconut drifted through the entire house. The cookies itself turned out exactly how I remember them some years back – crispy exteriors, soft middle and a balanced coconuty and mildly sweet flavour.

When I first took a batch to my sisters house, she was convinced that they came out of a packet since they tasted exactly like the ones she often brought from a store.

Given how delicious these are, it’s almost impossible to believe that the recipe is as simple as it is and requires only 6 ingredients –

• flour
• desiccated coconut
• baking powder
• butter
• sugar
• milk

But like in any recipe where the ingredients are fewer, the importance of each ingredient is essential to understand in order to get the right result

Flour – since coconut itself cannot provide structure, refined flour is important to use and it is probably not the best idea to replace it with whole-wheat or other flours with a weaker protein structure. 

Coconut – dried, desiccated coconut or what is sometimes referred to as coconut flour or coconut powder has been used in the recipe and fresh coconut will not be a good replacement unless you’re willing to do a trial and see what other changes are required. Coconut flakes won’t work in this recipe since they’re too large and won’t incorporate into the dough the same way to really bring out the coconut flavour. For a stronger coconut flavor, use coconut extract if you like.

Butter – I used salted butter because I like that it breaks the uni-dimensional sweetness and balances out the flavours. You can also use unsalted butter if you prefer. Just add a small pinch of salt separately while mixing the dough. It’s very important to use softened butter (not cold, not hard, not melted) but butter that has been on the counter-top and is of spreadable consistency.

Melted butter will make the cookies chewy instead of giving it the signature crispy exterior-soft and crumbly interior. You could also use ghee in place of butter in this recipe.

Sugar – regular powdered sugar (not icing/confectioners sugar) works best in this eggless coconut cookies recipe. Which means that you need to grind regular granulated sugar before using. You can’t use castor sugar in this recipe since it won’t fully dissolve in the butter and will affect the taste and texture of the cookies.

Dough

The dough is pretty simple to put together and doesn’t need resting/chilling tome unlike other cookie doughs. It spreads a little but doesn’t flatten. If your dough feels crumbly and isn’t binding add 1-2 tsp of milk. If it feels just right without it, then don’t add it. I usually need about 2 tsp to get to the right consistency.

I also like to roll the shaped dough in coconut – this helps give it a really nice flavour and look. However you can skip this step if you don’t want to do it. Just ensure to not overbake the cookies as that will not only dry them up but also burn the coconut on the outside and give it a dark color or bitter taste.

Dipping in Chocolate

These coconut cookies are great as-is and don’t require anything additional. However I went ahead and dipped these in chocolate because they look pretty and taste great too.I used a simple couverture chocolate that I melted in the microwave. I then dipped each baked cookie halfway into the still-hot chocolate before placing them on a wire rack so the excess chocolate could drip away and allow the chocolate to dry on the cookie.

Storing

Transfer the cookies to an airtight container after they are baked and cooled and store them at room temperature. Refrigerating will make the cookies go soft and limp. It’s best to eat these cookies within 2-3 days as after that they’ll begin to dry out.

So are you excited to try out these cookies? Let me know in the comments how they turned out for you.

Some other eggless cookie recipes you may like to check out –

• Chocolate chip cookies
• 3-ingredient butter cookies
• Brownie cookies
• Linzer cookies
• Rose pistachio cookies