Last week, my husband suddenly craved oatmeal coconut cookies. He picked up a pack at the store, but I put it back. If he didn't like them, I'd be the one finishing them. Plus, I prefer to avoid store-bought baked goods for health reasons and never want to miss a chance to bake.
Jump to:
As soon as we got home, I pulled out my 1001 Cookie Recipes book from Readers Digest and started hunting for a oatmeal coconut cookie recipe. That book had many cookie recipes featuring coconut as the main ingredient, and I settled on one that was simple to bake, used less butter than the others, and included oats.
In my early baking days, I would have specifically searched for oatmeal cookie recipes without eggs. But now, with a solid understanding of egg substitutions, I simply look for appealing recipes and decide on the best egg substitute based on the ingredients.
For this recipe, the original was already eggless, so I didn't need to think about an egg substitute. I made a minor change by using honey instead of light corn syrup. I figured corn syrup might not be a common pantry ingredient, whereas honey is more likely to be on hand.
If you want to bake these as vegan cookies, you can use corn syrup, maple syrup, or agave nectar and vegan butter substitute or oil.
These oatmeal coconut cookies was a super-duper hit with my husband and kids. It was a crispy cookie but did soften a bit after a day or two.
Readers Feedback
Bhaavi says:
Thanks for sharing this recipe. This is the second time i am going to make these. I substituted whole wheat with APF, used unsweetened coconut flakes, and also used ½ cup of molasses instead of sugar. sweetness was just perfect for me and kids.
Thanks again!
Nicole Says:
Just made these! I halved the recipe and they came out delicious but they definitely did not spread at all. It doesn’t matter though because they are so good. I’m glad the recipe said to smoosh them with a fork or else I wouldn’t have thought to do that. They are pretty perfect. The coconut adds just the right flavor and I was looking for a recipe that used it cause I had some lying around. Thanks so much for this cookie recipe! Will definitely be making them again!
I have a separate page for eggless oatmeal cookies if you are looking for more ideas to bake cookies using oats.
If you tried this Oatmeal Coconut Cookies recipe, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below!
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Recipe
Oatmeal Coconut Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup All-Purpose Flour
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- ⅛ teaspoon Salt
- 1 cup Coconut Shredded, I used sweetened.
- 1 cup Quick Cooking Oats I used large flake
- ½ cup Butter
- ¾ cup Granulated Sugar
- 2 tablespoons Honey
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F for 15 minutes. Butter two cookie sheets.
- In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Stir in the coconut and oats.
- Melt the butter with the sugar and honey in a small saucepan over medium heat. Remove it from the stove and let it cool for 2 minutes.
- Pour the melted butter mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well with a spatula.
- Roll into balls the size of walnuts and place 1 inch apart on the baking sheet and flatten it slightly with a fork.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown. If using 2 cookie sheets, shift racks halfway through the baking to ensure even browning. Mine turned golden brown after 13 minutes itself. I think it's because of the dark coated cookie sheet.
- Let the cookies cool on the sheets until they firm slightly. Then using a spatula carefully lift the cookies and transfer it to a cooling rack to cool completely.
My Notes
- I used one extra large cookie sheet I recently purchased from Walmart. It was a dark coated non stick pan. Usually cookies baked on such dark coated sheets turn brown very quickly, so I lined it with parchment paper.
- The recipe did not mention whether to use sweetened or unsweetened coconut. I had the sweetened one, so I used it. I think if I had used the unsweetened variety the sweetness of the cookies would have been perfect for us.
- Light corn syrup was mentioned in the recipe. I had that in hand, but I anticipated that some of you might ask what can be substituted for it. So I used honey. I think either omitting this or reducing the quantity of sugar to ½ cup will also work if you want less sweeter cookies.
- These coconut cookies spread a lot, so be sure to leave enough space while placing the dough on the baking sheets.
Faseela says
yummy cookies dear
Megha says
Hi Madhura,
Thanks for the wonderful cookie recipe which I would love to prepare for my 16months old son who just loves oats cookies.I live in U.K and would like to give a try at home with all basic stuffs available.Please could you kindly let me know how much is one cup measurement in gms/mls. I would be very grateful if I can hear from you asap as I am planning to prepare them tomorrow.
Thank you in advance!
Best wishes,
Megha
Madhuram says
You're welcome Megha. Check these links for all the conversions, it is in detail:
https://www.egglesscooking.com/baking-101/baking-measurements/
Carol says
Hi, thank you for this recipe! I didn't know how big a walnut was so I made them too small and therefore crispy, but at least I know what to do next time. Luckily I love crispy cookies and they taste wonderful. I took your advice on lowering the sugar amount and the sweetness is perfect!
Madhuram says
You're welcome Carol. About a tablespoon of dough for each cookie should be fine. Do rate the recipe when you get a moment.
sara says
hi madhuram
i frequently browse your site as i don't eat eggs but like to bake for my family...am going to try this recipe but thought i'd mention that cooking honey is not recommended by ayurveda, the ancient indian healing science, as it become toxic when heated above a certain temperature. i guess maple syrup might be a good substitute as far as sweetness ans texture are concerned, and its not as expensive in canada as it is here in spain!
thanks,
sara
Madhuram says
You are right Sara. I too have read that in a Ayurveda book, but I see a lot of Western recipes which require the honey to be heated.
Kay says
easy to make and a hit with all family and friends! delicious!!! thanx
Madhuram says
You're welcome Kay.
Sara says
Substituted organic coconut oil for the butter and added 1/4 cup of unsweetened chocolate powder. Cooking time was a bit shorter, and absolutely delicious. Thanks for the recipe!!
Madhuram says
You're welcome Sara.
BlueMist says
I was searching for coconut cookies recipe and came across yours. Just wanted to ask the sugar , butter and honey syrup is enough too make the cookie dough. Because I did not see that you mentioned water anywhere.
Yes, the original recipe did not call for any water.
Preetha Karthik says
Hi Madhuram,
This cookies are my Husband's favorite. I have been doing this Cookie for the past 6 months, every week.
Thanks a lot for a wonderful recipe.
For a change I added 1/2 cup banana puree this time and also grinded the oats coarsley. It was very good. Just wanted to share this with you and in my Blog. Thank you 😛
Thank you very much for trying the recipe Preetha. I'm so happy that its a hit in your house.
SR says
Thanks for your inputs. will try that next time. Can we substitute apple sauce for butter as I thought that was a lot of butter in them, even if I made it for my kids.
You could substitute applesauce but the cookies will not be crisp. I have done it for chocolate chip cookies and the texture was more like flat cakes/muffins. You may try non-hydrogenated margarine spreads instead.
SR says
Hi Madhuram,
I wanted to try these out for a long time now, since my friend mentioned about them and the ones she had made were just too good. However mine turned out pretty hard. Not so hard that one can't bite into them but crunchy like a rusk. Wonder what went wrong? My dough was dry even though I stuck to your exact proportions, so i added li'l bit of milk to make it moist enough to roll and flatten. baked for 17 mins. Can you help? They taste great nevertheless... I am a big fan of all your recipes as I cannot eat eggs and these recipes are a blessing to me..
Thanks for your compliments SR. I'm guessing that the baking time was more for your oven. Each oven has its own mind and I find that mine usually bakes quicker than the time mentioned in the original recipe. Moreover cookies continue to bake even out of the oven for another 3-5 minutes. That's why we don't remove it from the cookie sheet immediately. We let it cool and then transfer it to the wire rack. So I think you should have taken it around the 14th-15th minute itself. The next time you bake cookies why don't you test bake 2-3 cookies first and seeing how it comes out and then you can bake the rest. Unlike muffins and cakes where the batter has to be put inside the oven once it is prepared so that it will rise properly, cookies don't have that constraint. Remember we can freeze cookie dough and bake it after months also. So I would suggest test baking for cookies.
Yojana says
Hi Madhu
I just baked these cokies.. I reduced the sugar to 1/2 cup and they are perfect for our taste. The color of my cookies is light but they are brown at the bottom. Also I made balls and pressed them slightly not much, so my cookies are not flat as in the pic here but they a dome shape and are thick. do you think I should press them well before baking ?
Once again thanks for all your recipes and detailed instructions. You rock 😎
Yojana, thanks again. I guess you could have flattened it a little more and spaced them well apart to get thinner cookies but not end up sticking together.
saima says
Hi Madhuram,
I was just browsing for recipes when I came across yours. Which is not only easy, but absolutely delicious! I am allergic to gluten, so I substituted the flour with Brown Rice, Tapioca, and Potato flour, but still kept it one cup. Thanks so much for sharing this great recipe!
You're welcome Saima. You should also try the gluten free chocolate chip cookies, it is absolutely delicious and no different from the usual chocolate chip cookies. Just make sure to use finely ground cornmeal. https://www.egglesscooking.com/gluten-free-cookies-chocolate-chip/
Raksha says
hey, thanks for ur eggless choclate cake recipe.its was my daughter's 10th b'day. she just loves choclates. so....i tried ur eggless chocolate. my daughter was so delighted to eat it she said mom its yummy...................all her friends were not ready to believe that it's a homemade cake. thank u so much...................can u send me some chocolate recipe (only chocolate) like market made chocolates i.e dairy milk, 5 star etc.... thanks again
Thank you very much Raksha. I'm happy to know that your daughter liked the cake. As of now I have not tried my hands on chocolate making but when I try I will be definitely posting it in the blog here. You can subscribe for my email feeds, so that you will receive my posts as and when I post it in the blog.
http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=Egglesscookingcom
Sharmilee says
I want to try this one...is it suitable for a baby baker like me...:) Or is it complicated to get the texture?
Heather says
These were wonderful, I only had buckwheat honey so I used that. I find the buckwheast honey very strong but a great ingredient in these cookies!
I'm glad you liked these cookies, Heather.
Rajeshwari says
Hi Madhuram
These cookies came out delicious.. instead of shredded coconut i used dessicated coconut powder..honey gave the cookies very nice flavour..now your coconut macaroons are next in my baking list 🙂
Thanks Rajeshwari.
Catherine says
I tried this recipe with some of the modifications you suggested to reduce the sweetness for those of us using sweetened coconut. The first time, I cut out the 2 tablespoons of honey and the resulting cookie dough was not moist enough, difficult to roll into balls and when I baked them, they didn't spread at all! My sweet husband ate them anyway, but I insisted on redoing it (at 11pm). So the second time, I kept the honey but cut back on sugar to half a cup and the result was much much better (looked almost like your photo!) I think the honey is necessary to get the right batter consistency so for anyone else who is trying to cut down on sweetness, leave the honey in and just make changes in the amount of sugar used.
Thank you very much Catherine for trying the recipe the second time too and for recording your feedback here about the honey. It will be helpful to so many of us who want to try the recipe.
Rajeshwari says
These cookies look yummy..am going to try them soon...I baked your wonderful apple and raisins muffins and they turned out very delicious...thanks for ur recipes...
Rajeshwari, you're most welcome.
Happy Cook says
That just looks so beautiful and yummy
Yamini says
Hi Madhuram,
gotto give it to you - you always upload amazing recipes with nice photos! i find this to be an excellent post - the process is very simple, and the caloric value of the cookies is balanced by the addition of oats. my dad likes oats, so im going to make this for him 😀
Thanks Yamini.