Coconut Cookies
A cream cheese cookie dough with toasted coconut, lemon, roasted cashews, and stuffed with coconut white chocolate. A soft cookie with bright lemon and coconut flavors.
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.
Notes
Cream cheese adds a wonderful soft baked texture to this cookie, it is very reminiscent to a tiny cake. The flavor of the cream cheese does not come through in the cookie dough which makes it the perfect canvas for toasted coconut and lemon flavors to shine. The addition of cashews provide a nice chewy texture and the white chocolate is creamy, decadent, and makes a quick and easy filling. These coconut cookies will stay fresh for up to a week stored in a tightly closed container.