Coconut Easter Cookies
Hi! I’m here to brighten your Tuesday with these super bright and cute Easter cookies!
I just love Easter desserts and candies because they are always so colorful! Most holidays have particular colors that represent them (i.e. Christmas has red and green, Halloween has orange and black, Valentine’s Day has reds and pinks etc.), but for Easter it’s like every color—yay!
I”m kind of obsessed with these cookies because I think they’re really unique. Instead of using frosting to color and decorate the cookies, the cookies themselves are dyed different colors! And, instead of a plain sugar cookie, these are coconut cookies.
Uh, yeah, I’m on a bit of a coconut thing, lately. I think it’s because I’m wishing to be somewhere tropical on a fun Spring Break vacation. Ahhh a girl can dream!
So how do these festive cookies taste? They have a shortbread-like texture (and that buttery flavor!), with a subtle coconut flavor. They’re lightly sweetened, so they’re perfect withs some tea. Or, serve them with a scoop of coconut ice cream for a super yummy dessert. They’re really good, and I definitely made audible “mmm’s” after every bite of the first one.
I made these into cute bunnies, flowers, and eggs to celebrate Easter, but obviously you can use any cookie cutters (or colors) you want. I had some leftovers of each of the colors—not enough to make into a full cookie—so I mashed them together to form multicolored Easter egg cookies! This kind of might be a fun thing to do for all of them, but I didn’t think of it until the very end.
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 stick unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp coconut extract
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 cup unsweetened, finely shredded coconut
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- pinch of salt
- gel food coloring
Instructions
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar for about 5 minutes. Add in the coconut extract and milk and mix to combine. Add in the coconut, flour and salt and mix to combine.
- Divide the dough into 4 equal balls. Knead a different color into each dough ball then form each into a disc and wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- One at a time, roll each disc out between two pieces of plastic wrap to about 1/4"-thick. Use cookie cutter to cut out into shapes and place on a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat. Place the baking sheet(s) into the freezer for at least 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Bake the cookies for 13-14 minutes then cool for a couple minutes before moving to a wore rack to cool further.
Notes
recipe adapted from here
These are sooo cute! I want to make them to bring into work for everyone. Are you able to substitute almond or coconut milk and/or coconut flour??
Rachael replied: — April 16th, 2014 @ 11:07 am
You could definitely substitute the milk, but I wouldn't sub the flour. You could substitute whole wheat flour, but coconut flour is too different in texture (maybe you could substitute like 1/3 of it for coconut flour? I'm not sure)