Gluten Free Coconut Cookies

Soft homemade gluten free coconut cookies with a soft chewy texture and crispy edge.  Drizzle dark chocolate over the cookies to take them to the next level!

Coconut is one of my favorite foods in this world. I enjoy every single part of it. I like to drink the milk and whip the cream. I add dried coconut to granolas and trail mix and coconut butter to luscious desserts. I sauté my vegetables in coconut oil and even use the oil for homemade deodorant! I have found over the years that either you love coconut or you don’t… Thankfully, my two and a half year old takes after me in his love for the fruit. Since he was allergic to dairy and nuts as a baby, we put him on fortified coconut milk when he was weaned. He has the best skin of any of my kids! Haha

The uses of coconut are diverse, beneficial, and fun. Today, I’m going to show you how to make my all-time favorite coconut cookie. These cookies resemble a sugar cookie, with a soft chewy texture and crispy edge, but their coconutty flavor sets them apart. Three different sources of the coconut fruit are used in this recipe: coconut milk, coconut flour, and ground coconut. They hit your palette with just the right amount of salty and sweet and as a bonus, they are gluten free! Drizzle some dark chocolate on top when they come out of oven and you might just turn the most ardent skeptic into a coconut loving friend.

How to Make Homemade Gluten Free Coconut Cookies

In a large mixing bowl, whip your butter until fluffy and add 2 cups of sugar. These cookies are on the “sugar cookie sweet” side, so if you prefer your cookies to be less sweet, reduce the sugar to 1 ½ cups. Mix the butter and sugar for about 1 minute on medium-high speed before adding the egg. Mix for one minute more.

In large bowl, combine your coconut flour, favorite gluten free flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. These are the brands of coconut flour and gluten free flour that I like to use, but any will do. I have also made these cookies with straight up rice flour, but the rise wasn’t was high on the cookie when they came out of the oven.

Next comes ground coconut! I buy unsweetened shredded coconut in a bag and ground it finer with my blender. The texture of ground coconut works really well here. Be careful not to grind the coconut so much that you extract the liquid and make coconut butter….tasty, but not what we want 😉 Add the ground coconut to the bowl.

With all of my gluten free baking, I like to add tapioca flour. It’s a wonderful thickener for pies, pastries, cake and cookies and works well with other flours by helping to create a crisp crust and chewy texture in baking. You will need to add 4 Tablespoons of tapioca flour to our bowl of dry ingredients.

In a measuring cup, combine the coconut milk and pure vanilla. With the mixer running on low, alternatively add the flour mixture and milk mixture until they are all gone.

As soon as the dough is mixed together, drop spoonful onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes or just when the edges start to golden.

The cookies will puff up in the oven but relax back down after they cool. Allow the cookies to sit on the cookie sheet for several minutes before removing them to cooling racks.

If you’re like me and think coconut and chocolate were made for each other, go ahead and drizzle some dark chocolate on top before serving. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

Simple, super yummy, and yet another great recipe from that beloved fruit. Add a glass of cold milk (coconut, if you want!) and allow your eyes to roll back in your head.

Thank you, coconut!

Enjoy 🙂

More Gluten Free Recipes

• Gluten Free Sugar Cookie Recipe
• Homemade Chili Seasoning
• The Best Healthy Granola Bar Recipe

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