Soft, moist and buttery vegan coconut cookies packed with coconut flavor and texture! Super easy recipe ready in less than 30 minutes!
These vegan coconut cookies have all the coconut flavor you could dream of! Coconut flavor, coconut texture, coconut bliss.
They’re soft and chewy, fabulously moist and so easy to make you can throw together a batch of these with barely any notice at all.
An easy 15 minutes to prep these cookies and just 12 minutes to bake them, so you can have a tray of warm and delicious cookies in your kitchen in less than 30 minutes.
And if you love all things coconut then try our vegan coconut cake, vegan coconut cream pie and vegan coconut pancakes.
How To Make Vegan Coconut Cookies
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Add vegan butter and white granulated sugar to the bowl of your stand mixer and cream them together until smooth.
- Add vanilla extract and coconut extract and mix in.
- Add all purpose flour, baking soda, salt and dessicated coconut to a bowl and mix together.
- Add all the dry ingredients in with the wet and mix together with a spoon.
- Add soy milk and mix into a thick cookie dough that can be easily rolled into balls.
- Roll the cookie dough into balls (aim for 20 cookies) and place them evenly on a parchment lined baking tray.
- Bake for 12 minutes at 350°F. The edges will be firm and set but they will still be very soft in the middle.
- Let them firm up and cool directly on the tray.
Ingredient Notes
Coconut extract – The only ingredient you might not readily have on hand is coconut extract. This isn’t the most common ingredient but when I saw some at the baking store I had to get it.
You can buy coconut extract from Amazon too, if that’s easiest for you. Alternatively, you can leave it out and replace it with vanilla extract. I think coconut extract is a great addition to these cookies and really helps that coconut flavor to pop, but it’s not crucial.
We’re already adding in 1 and ⅓ cups of actual dessicated coconut to these! So the coconut flavor and texture is there, even if the flavor isn’t as strong without coconut extract.
Dessicated coconut – is the best coconut to use in these cookies because it’s finely shredded but still provides all that coconut flavor and texture. Dessicated coconut is also known as ‘finely shredded coconut’.
Granulated white sugar – we used regular granulated white sugar for these cookies but I think you could use coconut sugar too. I do love the flavor of coconut sugar, but the color is dark so it would affect the color of these cookies.
Soy Milk – I used a little soy milk for the non-dairy milk part of this recipe, but of course you could switch this for coconut milk.
Storing and Freezing
Store them in a sealed container at room temperature where they will stay fresh for up to a week.
They are also freezer friendly for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge.
More Vegan Cookies
- Vegan Pumpkin Cookies
- Vegan Thumbprint Cookies
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vegan Chocolate Cookies
- Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
- Vegan Vanilla Wafers
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Coconut Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup Vegan Butter (112g)
- 1 cup White Granulated Sugar (200g)
- ½ tsp Vanilla Extract
- ½ tsp Coconut Extract
- 1 ¼ cups All Purpose Flour (156g)
- ½ tsp Baking Soda
- ¼ tsp Salt
- 1 ⅓ cups Dessicated Coconut (106g) Finely Shredded Coconut*
- 4 Tbsp Soy Milk or other non-dairy milk*
Instructions
- Add the vegan butter and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer and cream together. Add in the vanilla and coconut extract and mix in.
- Add the flour, baking soda, salt and desssicated coconut to a bowl and mix together and then add all of the dry ingredients in with the butter and sugar mix and mix together by hand (don’t use the electric mixer for this part) until crumbly.
- Add in soy milk and mix together into a thick cookie dough that can easily be rolled into balls.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
- Roll the cookie dough into balls and place onto a parchment lined baking tray. Aim for 20 cookies.
- Bake for 12 minutes. The edges will be firm and set but they will still be very soft in the middle. This is fine, they will firm up as they cool.
Video
Notes
- Dessicated coconut – is also called finely shredded coconut.
- Soy milk – Depending on the brand of vegan butter you use, it could be that you need a little more or less soy milk so play it by ear, don’t add all of it in at once, start with 2 or 3 Tbsp and then add more until you get to a consistency where you can roll the cookie dough into balls. I used 4 Tbsp but you may need more if you use a hard vegan butter (less water content) or possibly less if you’re using a vegan buttery spread that has a higher water content than the one I used.
- If your cookies don’t spread. These cookies usually spread beautifully on their own but in the event that they don’t, just flatten them gently with a fork as soon as they come out of the oven still warm and soft.
- Storing: Store them in a sealed container at room temperature where they will stay fresh for up to a week.
- Freezing: They are also freezer friendly for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge.
Just made these, they are truly yummy. I have replaced the all purpose flour with wholemeal flour, the vegan butter with roughly equal amount of sunflower oil and omitted the sugar completely, instead I substituted it with two heaped tablespoons of good quality greek honey. They are crisp on the outside but still soft on the inside, not too sweet but still great for my cravings. Love them, thank you for the recipe!
Awesome! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Sounds great, Katerina – I will give your option a go!
Did you manage to find coconut extract??
I want to bake these, as I love coconut, but I tend to prefer a crunchy cookie over a soft chewy one (like your amazing peanut butter cookies) – if I want these to be more crunchy, would I just increase the cooking time, or is there something else I need to change with the ingredients?
Yes just bake a couple extra minutes for more crunchiness. 🙂
Alison,
I made these last night, but I replaced one tablespoon of soy milk with lime juice and added the zest of one lime. They were delicious. I am definitely making these again and adding macadamias the next time.
Amanda
Awesome! Thanks for sharing Amanda! 🙂
Thanks for another wonderful recipe! Baked them to give away but it’s going to take a lot of self control not to finish the lot myself!! A veganised version of one of my old childhood favourites. Yay!
Thanks Holly! So glad you enjoyed the recipe! 🙂
I’m not vegan so don’t keep vegan butter on hand. Wondering if I can sub veg shortening like crisco?
Hi Sharon, I have no experience with shortening. Vegan butter is basically dairy free margarine so usually easy to get.
Excellent recipe, very easy to make with minimal ingredients, thank you!
Thanks for the awesome rating Steph! 🙂
I made these using coconut oil instead of butter/ marg and they turned out perfect. They were a total hit! Next time I’m going to try adding in choc chips. I don’t know if it’ll work but hey – what’s the worst that can happen? If they’re not presentable I’ll just have to eat them all myself! Oh no!! 😉
So happy to hear that! Thanks for the awesome review. I think chocolate chips would be awesome too! 🙂
Cacao nibs are what I used to keep these dairy free, and they are AMAZING!
Awesome! Thanks for sharing.
Made these twice. I live in a country where the sugar is not granulated as finely compared to US, Canada, etc so when I made them (left out coconut extract + the tiniest bit overbaked) they were yummy, with a caramelized sugar crust – but I wanted to try the original! A few months later I was in the States so I brought some sugar back with me and I just got around to making them again (added the coconut extract and kept a close eye on them this time). Different but SO delicious! I made 19 cookies from the recipe and with 4 people in the house I noticed they all disappeared the evening I made them. Staple recipe!!!
Fantastic, so happy to hear they were good both times! Thanks so much for sharing and the awesome review. xo
I LOVE Coconut and these coconut cookies are fantastic:) 🙂 🙂
Wish I could give this 6 stars! Made these on a whim yesterday while being grumpy and tired, and my Goodness they are awesome! My non-vegan parents loved them (my mum said “ooooh! These taste like macarons!!”), and my “junk food vegan” brother did, too. 24 hours later, most of them are gone. Shall be making again very soon.
Yay! So happy to hear! Thanks for the wonderful review. 🙂
This is my new favorite cookie! I ran out of butter so used a little coconut oil to make up for it and they turned out perfectly. Thanks for sharing your recipe
Fantastic! So happy you enjoyed them, thanks for sharing Liz. 🙂
Love these! Made a batch for my non-vegan family and they were all eaten in 2 days. Made another batch for a gathering with my friends (also non-vegan) and again, they all disappeared! Making these for Christmas day with my extended family but l know that I’ll have to make two batches because they have been a hit with everyone who has tried them so far!! Great recipe 🙂
Wonderful! It’s lovely to hear that. Thanks a million Sandra! 🙂
Thank you . I made crust less coconut pie for my sister-in-law. She says she wanted crust. So I’m
compromising and making these. I’m vegetarian and she isn’t. This is a perfect solution for her-me-and
Christmas gift cookies.
Hi June! Awesome! Hope they are a huge success. 🙂
I did this and the batter tastes great! I was wondering though why my cookie did not spread?
great cookies
Yay! Thanks for sharing Iza! 🙂
Hi Alison,
Do you think coconut oil would work as well as vegan butter?
It might, you could also use homemade vegan butter which has coconut oil as its base. 🙂
Can I use date paste instead of white sugar?
I wouldn’t think so.
My cookies did not spread, why is that. I used coconut flour and all the other ingredients. Could the flour make it not spread?
Hi Sakinah, did you use coconut flour instead of all purpose flour? We didn’t use coconut flour in this recipe so can’t speak to what effects that may have had. However, in my experience, if cookies don’t spread, it’s usually because the cookie dough was too cold when it went into the oven. If you cream the vegan butter/sugar for a bit longer that usually helps. You can also just press them down with a fork or the bottom of a glass before they bake.