Coconut cookies with lemon and stuffed with coconut white chocolate
A cream cheese cookie dough with toasted coconut, fresh lemon, roasted cashews, and stuffed with coconut white chocolate. This is a soft cookie filled with bright summer flavor.
Why I Love This Recipe
Flavor-coconut, white, chocolate, and lemon come together in this yummy summer cookie. It’s bright, creamy, and filled with coconut in every bite.
Texture-The addition of cream cheese in this recipe gives the cookie a soft baked texture. It is a cookie that bakes up tall, has a denser crumb, and is very soft. Using a cream cheese cookie dough base is perfect for adding chewy toasted coconut and roasted cashews to the dough.
Easy to Make-these are incredibly easy to put together and can be baked right after mixing up. This cookie also has a simple stuffing option, chopped coconut white chocolate. They will look very fancy with very minimal effort required to make them.
Ingredients You Need
-Butter- softened at room temperature for easier mixing into dough.
-Egg-room temperature as well, this will help the egg mix into the dough easier and not chill your butter.
-Brown & Granulated Sugar
-Toasted Coconut- I found a bag of toasted coconut at my local grocer. You can make toasted coconut in the oven by baking sweetened shredded coconut for 10-15 minutes at 350*F.
-Flour
-Baking Soda & baking powder
-Salt- every cookie recipe needs a little salt to bring out the flavor of the cookie.
-Cornstarch-this helps the texture of the cookie stay soft
-Coconut Extract-this will give a deeper coconut flavor to the cookies. You can easily use vanilla extract as a substitute.
-White Chocolate Chips
-Roasted Cashews-roasting the cashews brings out more flavor and gives the cashews a nice crunchy texture. I bought roasted cashews for this recipe but you can easily roast cashews in a pan over medium heat, stirring until they are golden brown and fragrant.
-Coconut White Chocolate- I used 2 bars of the Lindt brand white chocolate. I highly recommend since the coconut flavor is pronounced inside a quality white chocolate. If you cannot find this, any bar of high-quality white chocolate will do.
-Lemons- I use the zest of 2 lemons and the juice of one for this recipe. It doesn’t give it a very strong lemon flavor but highlights the coconut and brightens up the flavor from being too sweet. White chocolate can be very sweet, almost too sweet in my opinion, so the lemon zest and juice help to balance the sweetness in the recipe.
Let’s Make Cookies!
These cookies are very quick to mix and because chopped chocolate is the filling, they are incredibly easy to stuff as well! You can bake these right away after mixing the dough or you can refrigerate them up to overnight. I understand not everyone has the time (or patience!) to let the dough rest, but I recommend it if you can.
**I have posted video on me stuffing these cookies on: Instagram , Facebook , and Pinterest , if you want a visual aide on how I prepared the white chocolate for this recipe**
If baking right away, begin by preheating your oven to 375*F.
In a mixer, I added room temperature softened butter and cream cheese and mixed on medium high with paddle attachment until light and creamy. I then added both sugars and continued mixing for a few more minutes.
A room temperature egg, coconut extract, zest of 2 lemons, juice of 1 lemon, and salt were then added and mixed on medium speed for a few more minutes. I made sure to scrape the bowl down several times while this was mixing.
Next, I prepared the chocolate bars for filling and dough, and the cashews. I chopped up the bars with a sharp knife into roughly half inch chunks. One bar of chocolate will go into the dough and the other will be used to fill the cookies. The white chocolate for stuffing is entirely optional, if you don’t want to stuff the coconut cookies you can add all the chopped chocolate to the dough and call it a day! I also gave a rough chop to the roasted cashews and set aside for later.
I like to sift my dry ingredients on top of the butter mixture, then turn the mixer on low to slowly stir the mixture until it comes together in a smooth dough.
Once the dough is formed, turn off the mixer and add in the toasted coconut, white chocolate chips, roasted cashews, and one bar of chopped coconut white chocolate. Continue to mix on low just until incorporated.
Using a 3-ounce cookie scoop, portion out 16 scoops of dough. I place 8 portions of dough per baking sheet. These cookies don’t spread very much so no need to spread them out too far, just don’t let them touch.
I stuff the cookies with 3-4 pieces of white chocolate that is stacked on top of each other. I use my thumb to make a small well in the center, place the white chocolate in the middle of the center, pinch the dough closed, then roll it around to smooth out the edges.
I bake the cookies, one baking tray at a time, for 8-10 minutes in a 375*F oven. I know they are ready when the edges are slightly golden. The cream cheese in the cookie dough keeps this cookie much paler when it bakes so the tops will be slightly golden rather than golden brown. The coconut in this recipe is also susceptible to burning on the bottom of the cookie so make sure to not overbake these.
I allow the cookies to cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet then transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling. These are best enjoyed warm or at room temperature to enjoy the melty goodness of the white chocolate stuffed inside.
These coconut cookies have a pleasant chewiness from the coconut and cashews and the lemon brightens up the sweet and creamy white chocolate. The filling of coconut white chocolate completes this wonderful cookie to celebrate the flavors of summer.
If you try this recipe and love it as much as I do, please tag, follow, and like @sunshinetxcookies on Instagram and Facebook. New posts every Thursday so be sure to follow me for more delicious cookie recipes. Happy Baking!
Coconut Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 stick butter unsalted, room temperature
- 4 ounces cream cheese room temperature
- 1 egg room temperature
- ⅔ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 lemon juiced
- 2 lemons zested
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tspn baking soda
- ½ tspn baking powder
- 1 tspn cornstarch
- 1½ cups toasted coconut
- ½ cup roasted cashews chopped
- 2 bars Lindt coconut white chocolate chopped into ½ inch pieces
- ½ cup white chocolate chips optional
- 1 tspn coconut extract can use vanilla extract as substitute
- ½ tspn salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375*F and get 2 baking trays ready with parchment paper.
- Cream butter, cream cheese and both sugars on high for 3-5 minutes.
- Add egg, coconut extract, juice of one lemon, and lemon zest from 2 lemons to the bowl. Mix together and scrape down the bowl well to make sure everything is mixed evenly.
- Sift the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and soda, and salt into the bowl. Mix well on low until just incorporated.
- Add toasted coconut, chopped cashews, white chocolate chips and 1 bar of the chopped coconut white chocolate. Mix on low until just mixed in.
- Using a 3 ounce scoop, portion out 8 scoops per baking sheet.
- Bake one tray at a time for 8-10 minutes or when the cookies have lightly browned edges. The coconut in these cookies can burn quickly on the bottom so be careful not to overbake.
- Transfer cookies to a rack to cool and enjoy!
- **You can also stuff the center of the cookies with coconut white chocolate before baking.
- **It is possible to refrigerate this dough for an hour or up to overnight prior to baking.
