Coconut Crack Cookies | Soft and Chewy

The combination of butter, cream cheese and coconut should be illegal. Before baking, beware: these coconut cookies are totally addictive and will forever damage your self-control.

I have a thing with coconut. It’s one of my favorite foods, and my brain goes all crazy when I have it along with sugar. It’s like a huge spike of happiness followed by the most amazing satisfaction. My feelings with butter and cream cheese are very similar, so one day I thought: why not bake something with those ingredients?

Better yet, why not bake something with coconut, butter, cream cheese and then ADD SUGAR to it? To make everything just perfect, why not make it bite size, so I could eat it like freaking popcorn?

I’m my worst enemy.

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How to make coconut cookies

One-bowl coconut crack cookies. This recipe is as simple (and addictive) as it sounds.

What do you need to check before beginning this recipe: that your butter and cream cheese are at room temperature, or they won’t combine as easily as they should with the other ingredients.

You can mix all ingredients by hand, or you can use a food processor to make it quicker.

If you want them taller, refrigerate dough for one hour before baking. If you want them to spread more, just bake it right away. I don’t see any difference in flavor doing so, so it’s your choice!

If you want your cookies to be soft and chewy, don’t over bake them! Take them out of your oven when the edges look just golden. If you prefer a harder, crispy cookie, bake them until their top is lightly golden. I always choose the first option.

Homemade coconut extract

Throughout my life, I found some great store-bought coconut extracts as I found some terrible ones, that made my recipe taste just… oddly wrong. Has that also happened to you?

After discovering how simple it is to make homemade coconut extract, I never bought it again. All you need is coconut and some distilled alcohol: rum works great for this one, but you can use vodka as well. For coconut, you can use it both fresh or dried shredded coconut, the alcohol will work fine with any of them.

Place 1/2 cup coconut and 1/2 cup of rum or vodka into a jar, close it with its lid and store in your cabinet (or any dark spot) and leave it maturing for at least one week. Give it one good shake a day to speed up the process.

Once you think it is coconutty enough, strain the extract and discard the shredded coconut. I store my extract in a closed jar in the fridge.

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Ingredients Substitutions

Talking about ingredients, this is an eggless coconut cookie recipe, so if you were looking for the best ever coconut cookie recipe with no eggs, you just found it.

These coconut cookies are made without brown sugar: I tried using it, but got better results with plain granulated/caster sugar. You can, however, substitute granulated/caster sugar for the same amount of brown sugar, if you prefer. You can also try to substitute granulated sugar for coconut sugar – this one I never tried.

I skipped the baking powder (you don’t need this here), and also the coconut oil: butter just makes these cookies taste better, and gives a better texture to it. If you opt to substitute butter for coconut oil, do so at your own risk. When I tried, I used the same amount and got crispier and not as tasteful cookies – but it works.

Storing and Freezing your Coconut Crack Cookies

After your cookies are cooled, store (what’s left) them into an air-tight jar (as far from your eyes as possible). They keep (for more than one day if you hide the jar from yourself) up from 1 to 2 weeks if stored right.

Can you freeze your cookies? Yes you can, but if so, I think it’s best to freeze the dough shaped than to do it with already baked cookies. Shape the dough into balls, and place them on a baking sheet. Freeze for about 1 hour before transferring the balls to an air-thigh bag/container. Store in your freezer for 3 to 4 months. You may have to bake for 2 to 3 minutes longer than unfrozen dough.

My coconut crack cookies are chewy and very, very buttery. The texture that shredded coconut gives to this cookie is just amazing, and if you opted to add a bit of coconut extract, this extra coconut punch makes the flavors even dreamier. Now, what are you still doing here?

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If you’re into cookies, but not as much into coconut, try my quick chocolate chip cookies and get an amazing and eggless classic! Or maybe you’re a chocolate fanatic: these fudgy double chocolate cookies were made for you.

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