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Coconut Sugar Cookies Recipe

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These amazing chewy Coconut Sugar Cookies are made without refined sugar. What’s more, they are crisp on the edges with wonderfully chewy centers.

Coconut Sugar Cookie Stack

About These Coconut Sugar Cookies

These wonderful chewy Coconut Sugar Cookies are an adaption of my Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies. Those are some of the best cookies I have ever made and many of you who have already made a batch, agree.

Crisp edges with perfectly chewy centers are the stuff my cookie dreams are made of. And this new version has the same qualities.

The original recipe uses a mix of white and brown sugar. However, I wanted to see if I could eliminate refined sugar and use only coconut sugar in this recipe. Well, the cookies came out amazing with a deep, rich caramel and molasses-like flavor notes.

Coconut Sugar Cookies with Chocolate

What is Coconut Sugar?

Coconut sugar, also called coconut palm sugar, is made from the buds of the coconut palm tree. The flower buds are ‘tapped’ and the emerging liquid, the sap, gets processed into coconut sugar.

Coconut sugar has a rich caramel-like taste that adds another layer of flavor depth to the cookies. When we still lived in Canada, Konrad took some of these to work and one co-worker exclaimed those were the BEST cookies he had ever tasted!

I believe that the use of coconut oil and cornstarch are key for the crisp edges and chewy-center goodness. In addition, I added chunks of dark chocolate to some (because I love it so much), but they are also great without.

I also tried replacing all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour but the results didn’t impress me very much. Whole grain flour seems to work better with recipes with stronger flavors like my spelt flour double chocolate cookies.

Baked Coconut Sugar Cookies

How to Make Coconut Sugar Cookies

The process of making these cookies is quite similar to making other cookies, except that it contains coconut oil rather than butter and coconut sugar instead of white or brown sugar.

To begin making them, you start with beating in a bowl the coconut oil with the coconut sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Then, you add the dry ingredients including the all-purpose flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt to the wet mixture, and mix it just until combined.

For this, you could use an electric mixer if you like, but a wooden spoon or whisk would work just fine as well. If you find that the cookie dough is a little too thin, you can feel free to add another tablespoon or two of flour to reach the desired consistency. Then, you can fold some dark chocolate chunks into the dough if you would like a chocolate chip cookie rather than a plain cookie. Of course you can also use other add-ins like nuts, sprinkles, dried fruit, and more to switch up the flavor if these coconut sugar cookies.

Then, to shape the cookies, you can scoop them with a tablespoon or use a similar-sized cookie scoop, before placing them on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. If desired, you can press a few chocolate chunks in the tops of each cookie to make them look extra attractive. Then, they just need to bake for 8 to 10 minutes before allowing them to cool and storing them in an airtight container until you are ready to serve them.

How to Store the Cookies

After the cookies have cooled, you can store them in an airtight container on the counter for up to a week. Freeze them airtight to keep fresh for longer (1-3 months).

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Chewy Coconut Sugar Cookies

These amazing chewy Coconut Sugar Cookies are made without refined sugar. They are crisp on the edges with wonderfully chewy centers. YUM!

Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword Coconut Sugar Cookies
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Servings 20 cookies
Author LeelaLicious

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup virgin coconut oil soft or melted
  • 1 cup coconut sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons more, if needed
  • 2 tbsp cornstarch
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 3/4 - 1 cup dark chocolate chunks optional

Instructions

  1. Cream together softened coconut oil, coconut sugar, egg, and vanilla extract with your mixer until light and fluffy (1-2 minutes).
  2. Add flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt and mix in until just combined. If the dough seems too thin and oily, add 1-2 more tablespoons of flour. If desired, fold in 3/4 cup chocolate chunks by hand.
  3. Form about 20 tablespoon-sized dough balls. If using chocolate chunks, press 2-3 more chunks into the top of each dough ball. Cover with plastic wrap and chill the dough balls for at least 1-2 hours (I usually put them in the fridge overnight).
  4. Preheat oven to 350 F and place chilled dough balls 2 inches apart on a lined baking sheet (when using coconut oil unlined sheets often result in too dark cookie bottoms).
  5. Bake for 8-10 minutes until the edges are just set. Centers can still look slightly uncooked.
  6. Cool cookies on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes, then move to wire rack to cool fully. Store airtight.

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    Recipe Rating




  1. Sarah

    Mine tasted great but they don’t look like yours. They stayed ball shaped. Any suggestions? I did everything you said even refrigerated the balls before baking. Thanks.

    Reply

    • Jennifer @ Leelalicious

      Could it be that you used slightly too much coconut flour? If you accidentally added too much, it may have absorbed excess moisture in the dough inhibiting the cookie dough balls’ ability to spread out.

      Reply

  2. Jenn

    I rather liked these!! Even my very picky 4 years old ate them. I did do half coconut flour, half flour since that’s all I had on hand. Yummy!

    Reply

  4. Bec

    I didn’t have any coconut oil, so used butter instead. Very tasty! My kids loved them. They went well with my cuppa tonight. My next thought is to have one with some vanilla ice cream…a little naughty! Thanks so much for the recipe 🙂

    Reply

  5. Cindy

    I made these with some oat flour and regular flour, as it was all I had on hand. I used mini chocolate chips and they turned out perfect! Great for my kiddo. I wish I could post a picture because I was impressed by myself on this one.

    Reply

  6. Sara

    I made them for my birthday party and they they were a hit was looking for a good coconut sugar recipy thank you!!

    Reply

  7. Christine Van Hoose

    The edges are crispy and delicious but the centers came out floury. I skipped the refrigerating step. I guess that makes them moister? Also, I don’t have cornstarch so I substituted with arrowroot and wonder if my conversion was wrong (2 tbsps). Floury not chewy but still edible and not too bad since I added a little extra coconut oil and dark morsels. Regina or anyone, please tell me why refrigerate the dough. Thanks.

    Reply

    • Regina

      Do you mean they tasted like uncooked flour in the center or that they were kind of mealy? I wonder if they were too undercooked still in the center. Refrigeration usually helps to get thicker cookies that don’t spread as much in the oven. This is what makes the crispy edges chewy center possible. But it could also be that you are more sensitive to the flavor of arrowroot?

      Reply

  8. Pam

    Hi Regina,
    I made your cookies and I love them. I would love to make them with oat flour or rolled oats. I was wondering if you have ever made them like that? Unfortunately I made 3 batches of oatmeal cookies, following other Pinterest recipes, with oat flour and had to throw all 3 of them out because they came out like a sponge cake. I’m so upset because I used expensive ingredients. I’m sure I did something wrong, even though I followed their recipes exactly.

    If you are still checking this sight, I’d love to know your thoughts on your cookies with the oat flour..
    Thanks,
    Pam

    Reply

    • Regina

      Hi Pam, I am not sure about replacing oat flour. I haven’t tried making cookies with it before. I am thinking it wouldn’t work in a 1 to 1 conversion because of the missing gluten in oat flour.

      Reply

  9. September

    Hello Regina! Thank you for the recipe! I am a beginner at baking. I followed your recipe but my cookies all turned out cakey and dry……They still tasted good but did not have the chewy texture that I was looking for. Would you please give me some advice on what might have gone wrong?

    Thank you very much!

    Reply

    • Regina

      Hi could it be that you used too much flour? This can cause a cakey texture. Flour should be measured by spooning it into the measuring cup. Overbaking could be the other issue. The cookies should be just barely set when you take them from the oven. That will give them the chewy centers.

      Reply

  11. jacquee | i sugar coat it!

    I’ll have all the dark chocolate ones please and thank you!! Yes, coconut sugar makes for an amazing tasting cookie, heck anything for that matter! Love the crinkly look of these – reminds me of ginger-molasses cookies.

    Reply
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