Vintage Coconut Cookies Recipe

These vintage coconut cookies with a splash of coconut rum taste like a Caribbean vacation — with your grandmother. They are the perfect old-school addition to any festive cookie platter, but with a bit of a modern, boozy twist.

According to Ksenia Prints of At the Immigrant's Table, coconut cookies have been around the U.S. for much longer than anyone can remember. When home baking became commonplace in the 1950s, these soft, sweet, and chewy cookies experienced a revival, and they've been popular ever since. But we wanted to take a classic and make it better. We subbed the artificial rum extract for coconut rum, and toasted the shredded coconut to give it a nutty edge. Rolled in coconut and baked to a tender interior and a crispy, crunchy coating, we gave these coconut cookies the texture of a bakery cookie with a vintage spirit. 

Though they are inspired by nostalgic recipes, these sweet morsels are impressive and sophisticated, and likely to disappear quickly. For an extra special flavor that's tropical and old-fashioned at the same time, you might need a batch or two of these vintage-style coconut cookies. 

To make these cookies, you'll need unsweetened shredded coconut, all-purpose flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, unsalted butter, light brown sugar, granulated sugar, a large egg, vanilla extract, and your favorite coconut rum. 

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Toast the coconut in a dry skillet until golden, about 4 minutes.

Transfer it to a baking sheet to cool completely.

Whisk the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a medium bowl.

Cream the butter and both sugars for 3 minutes until light and fluffy.

Mix in the egg, vanilla, and rum until just combined.

Add the dry ingredients and 1 ½ cups toasted coconut, mixing until just combined.

Scoop 1 ½ tablespoon portions onto the prepared baking sheets and flatten each cookie slightly.

Roll each cookie in the reserved coconut, coating them all sides, and arrange them on the baking sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart.

Chill for 30 minutes.

Bake one sheet at a time for 13-15 minutes until golden brown at edges.

Cool on the pan for 15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

Serve the coconut cookies.

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As with most traditional cookie recipes, there are plenty of creative adaptations you can make to these cookies to further develop and improve their flavors and textures. First off, taking inspiration from the classic pina colada combo of pineapple and coconut, and to give the cookies a bit of '70s flair, we suggest making an indent in the cookie and adding a maraschino cherry before baking to give the cookie even more of a retro twist. Another ingredient you can add in the middle of the indent is crushed pineapple, drained of liquid to so you don't make the cookie soggy.

To give the cookies a more rustic appearance, don't flatten them before baking, and leave them as a ball. Another idea is to skip the step of toasting the coconut to keep the flavor more neutral. And of course, adding chocolate chips or even chopped dark chocolate chunks would make these cookies infinitely better, just like most desserts in the world. Coconut and chocolate go especially well together, and you can play around with the liquor you add to change up the flavor and complement it.

It seems like Americans are not the only ones who thought about celebrating coconut in cookie form, as the world is full of coconut cookie variations. One of the most well-known iterations is macaroons – not to be confused with macarons – which are balls of shredded coconut and egg or condensed milk that are either baked as they are or dipped in chocolate. There is also a similar German variation of this cookie, called Kokosmakronen.

Italian ricciarelli cookies, which are usually made out of almonds and powdered sugar, sometimes incorporate coconut for added texture. In Malaysian and Indonesian culture, coconut cookies get a boost from coconut milk and palm sugar, while in India, eggless nariyal cookies made with coconut are also common. In Australia, they enjoy lamingtons, a cross between a cookie and a cake, which have two layers of pastry sandwiched with jam and rolled in coconut.

Moroccan Jews make coconut cookies called mimouna for the last day of Passover, and other coconut cookie variations exist across Libya, Tunisia, and other Middle Eastern countries. There are plenty of other coconut cookie variations around, demonstrating that coconut in small, sweet treat form just makes sense. 

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