Here’s a cookie that is easy to make, takes only a handful of ingredients, vegan and best of all taste delicious! Enjoy with your morning cup of coffee or tea and as a dessert.
These amazing Coconut Oil Shortbread Cookies, are vegan, easy to make and only 6 ingredients including coconut oil. They do not have a strong coconut flavor and taste like a simple shortbread cookie!
This post may contain affiliate links, thanks for supporting this blog.
COCONUT OIL SHORTBREAD COOKIE RECIPE
These coconut oil shortbread cookies are a hit in my household, I love enjoying one with my coffee in the morning and the kids love having them as a dessert with a little chocolate drizzled over.
These are great with or without a topping. If you choose to add a topping; chocolate drizzle, sprinkles, coconut flakes or almonds are wonderful options.
They are vegan and can be made gluten free.
LOOKING FOR MORE COOKIE RECIPES?
We are big sweet fans in our house, I can’t resist a good cookie in front of me. We love to be in the kitchen baking cookies and if I could have a fresh baked batch daily – I would!
- No Bake Oatmeal Cookies
- Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Earth Day Cookies
- Sugar Cookies
- Movie Cookies
- Graham Cracker Cookies
COCONUT OIL SHORTBREAD COOKIE INGREDIENTS & SUBSTITIONS
- Coconut Oil – Room temperature, the coconut oil shouldn’t be liquid but also not too hard so you can easily mix it.
- Vanilla Extract – In my honest opinion don’t ever buy imitation vanilla, only buy pure vanilla extract!
- Sugar – We’ve used both cane sugar and granulated sugar and both turned out great.
- Salt
- Water
- All-purpose flour – My favorite flour company to use is King Arthur Flour.
Can I make these gluten free? This recipe can also be made gluten free by substituting the flour for a gluten free substitute.
HOW TO MAKE COCONUT OIL SHORTBREAD COOKIES:
PREP DOUGH
Add your room temperature coconut oil to a large mixing bowl. With an electric mixer on medium-high, mix coconut oil until it’s smooth and not chunky.
Add your sugar, vanilla extract, salt and water and mix for another 2-3 minutes until combined.
Now with a large spoon, stir in the flour until combined. The dough shouldn’t be soft and soggy but it shouldn’t be dry and crumbling either. Aim for the between, if it’s too dry add a little more water; if it’s too soggy add a little more flour.
Grab a piece of saran wrap or wax paper and sprinkle a little flour so the dough doesn’t stick to the wrap/paper. The dough needs to be formed into a log shape about 2 inches in circumference and then wrapped in the wrap or paper. This can be done with your hands. Wrap tightly and refrigerated for at least 30 minutes.
HOW TO MAKE COCONUT OIL SHORTBREAD COOKIES:
BAKE COOKIES
Preheat the oven to 350° F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
When your dough is hard and ready, take out of fridge and unwrap it. With a sharp knife cut into 1/2 inch pieces and place on baking sheet about 1 inch apart.
Bake in the preheated oven for 18-20 or until the edges are little brown. If you’d like to add sprinkles, almonds or coconut flakes, add them on the last few minutes of baking. Transfer them to a cooling rack and cool completely before serving.
WHAT DOES COCONUT OIL SHORTBREAD COOKIES PAIR WELL WITH?
- A nice cup of coffee, a cup of hot coffee or iced coffee like this Greek Frappe. Raven’s Brew Coffee is by far the best coffee I’d had, and don’t forget I live in the land of coffee.
- How about have it with a cup of tea, a Curry Chicken Sandwich?
HELPFUL KITCHEN TOOLS:
- Mixer – A KitchenAid mixer is a must in my kitchen, it’s very convenient and easy. But if you don’t have the space, budget or ability then a hand mixer works just as great!
- Mixing bowls – I absolutely love these mixing bowls.
- Measuring cups and spoons – these cups are great and affordable.
Coconut Oil Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup coconut oil room temperature
- 1/4 cup cane sugar or granulated sugar
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 Tbsp water
- 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, add your room temperature coconut oil. It should be solid, but not hard. With an electric mixer on medium-high, mix coconut oil until it's smooth and not chunky.
- Add your sugar, vanilla extract, salt and water and mix for another 2-3 minutes until combined.
- Now with a large spoon, stir in the flour until combined.
- The dough shouldn't be soft and soggy but it shouldn't be dry and crumbling either. Aim for the between, if it's too dry add a little more water; if it's too soggy add a little more flour.
- Grab a piece of syran wrap or wax paper and sprinkle a little flour so the dough doesn't stick to the wrap/paper. The dough needs to be formed into a log shape about 2 inches in circumference and then wrapped in the wrap or paper. This can be done with your hands.
- Wrap tightly and refrigerated for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350° F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- When your dough is hard and ready, take out of fridge and unwrap it. With a sharp knife cut into 1/2 inch pieces and place on baking sheet about 1 inch apart.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 18-20 or until the edges are little brown. Transfer them to a cooling rack and cool completely before serving.
- *Optional: You can drizzle baking chocolate over them and add some sprinkles. They make perfect holiday treats for Valentine's Day, Easter, Christmas, ect.
Want to try this Coconut Oil Shortbread Cookie recipe?
Pin it to your Pinterest board for later!
Hanna B says
These turned out to be delicious!! So simple and so yummy! Thank you for this recipe. :)
Chelsea Bartlett says
Wow! These really surprised me. As I ate one I said outloud “I wasn’t expecting that!” (only because the ingredients were few and simple-other coconut oil biscuits requiring eggs etc) These have a lovely chewy texture and clean feeling and aftertaste. Sweet enough plain, and would make a great gift as they taste like Cafe quality! This recipe will be added to my regular list. Thankyou!
Alexis says
I was skeptical about the low sugar in this recipe, even wondered if it was a typo. I tasted the dough and it was okay. But I followed the directions and the cookies turned out great in the end! I rolled half the batch in cinnamon sugar and put chocolate chips in the other half. For how simple these are I will definitely make them again. Thanks!
jinglebellstime@gmail.com says
Thanks for your comment, I’ll have to try them rolled in cinnamon and sugar, that sounds great!
Pietro Wislon says
Instead of rolling the dough and cutting chilled slices, I tried our family tradition of pressing the dough into a cast iron skillet.
I used a metal measuring cup base to press the dough about a quarter inch deep into the ungreased skillet , smoothed the edges with a spoon and made some ridge patterns on the top with a fork.
Then, with a sharp knife I carefully scored the dough to make pizza like pieces.
It turned out very well, just like the old days!
Thanks for a great recipe.
jinglebellstime@gmail.com says
I’ll have to try it that way, I love cast iron skillets!
Asha says
I loved them. This is my third time making them. Because of where I live, I omit the water and they turn out perfectly. Thanks for a great recipe!
Rachel says
Hmm, this dough tastes amazing but it’s SUPER crumbly. I’m not able to make a cookie out of the chilled dough thus far :/
I’ll wait for it to thaw and maybe they’ll turn out.
Angela says
I tried out this recipe this past December with excellent results. They are fantastic! Will be adding this to our Christmas favorites.
Elle says
Never mind on the question. Sorry, I just saw that you explained more in the actual recipe part on the bottom. One more thing… Can this be refrigerated overnight?
Elle says
What does room temperature mean? Some people might have liquid coconut oil where they live and others might be solid. Mine is solid at room temperature
Esther says
Will this short bread dough work for pie crust?
Ali says
In an attempt to make dairy free treats for a family member, I’ve subbed coconut oil for butter in numerous cookies recipes, only to experience excessively flat and crumbly results. So I was wary even trying this recipe, but I’m so happy that I did! These cookies held their shape and only melted once they were in my mouth. My family member loved them, I loved them, and they will become a part of my personal rotation from now on since they’re SO easy!
I used coconut sugar since it was all I had on hand and it made the cookies browner, but didn’t seem to affect texture to my knowledge. I also used refined coconut oil to keep them from tasting too coconut-y. Overall this was a wonderful and simple recipe (waiting on the dough to cool is the hardest part, I ended up using my freezer because I was impatient), thank you for sharing!
Ashley Gray says
Came out nicely! I added some raspberry jam as well as a lemon frosting on top of the cookies for some color and flavor.
Melissa Smith says
Omgosh these look so good! Best part is that I actually have everything to make them today!
Dana Rodriguez says
Those look really good. Thanks for the recipe. I pinned it!