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Daydreaming of swinging in a hammock on a Caribbean beach dotted with swaying palm trees? These Crispy Coconut Lime Cookies are the next best thing!
Delicious sweet and tart, these tropical sugar cookies that are made with shredded coconut, cream cheese, butter, lime juice and zest, and coconut extract. They’re perfect for gift-giving or munching on any time of day.
Jump to:
- Why We Love This Recipe
- Ingredients
- Key Lime Cookies and Other Variations
- How to Make Coconut Lime Cookies
- How to Serve These Sugar Cookies
- Expert Tips
- Freezing Instructions for Cookies and Cookie Dough
- FAQs
- More Easy Dessert Recipes
- Crispy Coconut Lime Cookies
- Other Tropical and Coconut Recipes You’ll Love
Why We Love This Recipe
Just like the lyrics ‘Put ‘da lime in the coconut’ in Harry Nilsson’s Coconut song, lime and coconut just go together naturally!
In this recipe, the tropical flavours meet in a classic sugar cookie that’s like sunshine on a plate. Here’s why we love these tropical cookies and you will too!
- They’re fun to make and feature ingredients you may not normally see in everyday cookies.
- Irresistibly creamy and delicious! The sweet coconut aroma and flavour is as rich as a piña colada under the tropical sun.
- A versatile and crispy coconut sugar cookie. Much like champurradas, the famous sesame seed cookie of Guatemala, these Latin American sugar cookies are thin and crispy. They go perfectly with coffee and cocoa or with savoury cheeses and nuts.
- They freeze beautifully.
Ingredients
Made with simple baking ingredients plus a few tropical additions give these lime coconut cookies their signature flavor. They’re all easy to find at the grocery.
- Flour: White flour makes up the base of these cookies.
- Baking powder and baking soda: These are leaveners that help make the cookies rise.
- Salt: Salt is used for intensifying flavour and for adding texture to the dough.
- Shredded sweetened coconut: Sweetened coconut flakes add both texture and coconut flavour.
- Granulated sugar: White sugar helps make the cookies crispy and add sweetness.
- Cream cheese: This adds richness and helps make the cookies moist.
- Butter: Butter gives flavour and helps make the cookies crispy.
- Vegetable oil: A little extra fat helps hold the cookies together.
- Egg: An egg helps the cookies rise, keeps them together, and adds moisture to the dough.
- Lime Zest and Juice: Adds citrusy freshness.
- Milk: A splash of milk makes the cookies tender and soft.
- Coconut extract: Coconut extract is for an extra boost of coconut flavouring. If you don’t have coconut extract, you can substitute a coconut rum like Malibu Coconut Rum Liqueur for even more tropical flavour.
Key Lime Cookies and Other Variations
- Change up the citrus. Make them with key limes and zest for coconut key lime cookies or change it up for lemons instead of lime.
- Remove the coconut flakes and extract to make lime sugar cookies. Or you can also add an herb like rosemary, tarragon, thyme, or basil instead.
- Prefer a chewier cookie? Make these cookies thick instead of thin.
- Make traditional sugar cookies instead. Take out the lime and coconut and use vanilla for a more classic taste.
- Add macadamia nuts for crunchy and fun cookies.
- Toss in some white chocolate chips for a creamy, melty texture.
How to Make Coconut Lime Cookies
Let’s look at how to mix up a batch of these cookies. Please scroll down to the recipe card for the exact quantities of ingredients and the full method.
- Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the chopped coconut and stir again.
- Mix the sugar, lime zest, and cream cheese until combined in another mixing bowl.
- Add the cooled melted butter to sugar and cream cheese and mix to combine. then add the milk, oil, egg, lime juice, and coconut extract to the sugar mixture and mix to combine.
- Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and mix until combined. Once it’s mixed, wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least one hour.
- Use a cookie scoop to shape the chilled dough into cookies.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a baking mat and place the scooped cookie dough onto the tray.
- Use the bottom of a glass or measuring cup to flatten the cookie dough. Bake until the edges just turn golden brown.
⭐️ PRO TIP: The final texture of these lime cookies with coconut are determined by the thickness of the dough. The thicker the cookie, the chewier it will be.
How to Serve These Sugar Cookies
- Make a basket of cookies to give away to your friends or family. You can include Chocolate Eggnog Cookies, Champurradas – Guatemalan Sesame Seed Cookies, and Healthy No-Bake Energy Balls.
- Serve these lime cookies after dinner. Some ideas that would go well with them are: Perfect 15-Minute Grilled Halibut with Peach Salsa, Beer Pizza Dough with Brie, Basil and Prosciutto, Hilachas – Guatemalan Shredded Beef Stew, or Grilled Steak in Beer Marinade with Salsa Fresca.
Expert Tips
- Coconut lime cookies taste great thick and chewy or thin and crispy! All you need to do is flatten them more or less depending on how you want them to cook up.
- Store leftover cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.
- Lime coconut cookies freeze great! So make a double batch the extras so you have them on hand for your next sugar craving.
- Be sure to leave plenty of space between the cookies. They’ll spread quite a bit to about 3 inches in diameter.
- Chilling the dough is essential to the outcome so don’t skip it.
Freezing Instructions for Cookies and Cookie Dough
- To freeze this cookie dough, form it into a ball and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Place it inside a freezer bag (with excess air removed.) Store frozen from 6 to 9 months. Thaw at room temperature until just soft enough to spoon onto a baking sheet.
- To freeze baked cookies, arrange them in a square container lined with plastic wrap or foil. Separate each layer of cookies with more plastic wrap or foil.
- Fill to top of the container. Close container, label and freeze. Store frozen from 6 to 9 months. Thaw cookies by allowing them to stand at room temperature for 15 minutes.
FAQs
You can use two of these cookies and a cream cheese filling to make them into cookie sandwiches.
Yes, you can make these cookies gluten-free by removing the all-purpose flour and using almond flour instead.
You can make frosting with powdered sugar, lime juice, and heavy whipping cream and spread it over the cookies. Don’t forget to sprinkle the tops with lime zest!
More Easy Dessert Recipes
Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟rating in the recipe card below & a comment further down if you REALLY like it. Thanks!
Crispy Coconut Lime Cookies
Equipment
- Baking sheet
- Parchment Paper or Silicone Mat
- Electric mixer
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup finely shredded sweetened coconut
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 2 ounces cream cheese softened
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- 1 egg large
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1 teaspoon coconut extract
- 1 tablespoon lime juice fresh
- 1 teaspoon lime zest
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350
- Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. Combine, then add coconut and combine.
- In a medium bowl, mix the sugar, lime zest, and cream cheese until combined.
- Add cooled melted butter to sugar and cream cheese and mix to combine.
- Add milk, oil, egg, lime juice, and coconut extract to the sugar mixture and mix to combine.
- Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and mix until combined.
- Form into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and chill dough in the refrigerator for at least one hour.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a baking mat. Using a spoon or cookie scoop, place about 1½ tablespoon of dough on a cookie tray, about 3½ inches apart.
- With the bottom of a glass or measuring cup, flatten the cookie dough to about ¼ inch.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 11-12 minutes or until the edges just turn golden brown.
Notes
Nutrition
Other Tropical and Coconut Recipes You’ll Love
- Easy Mango Piña Colada Popsicles
- Kiwi and Coconut Milk Chia Pudding (Vegan & GF)
- Light Mango Coconut Panna Cotta
- Tahitian Fish Coconut Salad
Dividing her time between Canada, Guatemala and Mexico (or the nearest tropical beach), Michele Peterson is the founder of A Taste for Travel. Her award-winning travel and food writing has appeared in Lonely Planet’s cookbook Mexico: From the Source, National Geographic Traveler, Fodor’s and 100+ other publications.
Read more about Michele Peterson.
The Ultimate Girls’ Getaway Weekend in Vancouver, B.C.
Mister Rigel
Amazing. I will add zest, I prefer a little more zip. I have one humble suggestion. Baking powder and soda are listed in the ingredients; only the baking soda made it to the instructions. Clarify, perhaps?
Michele Peterson
Extra lime zest is always good! And thanks for the reminder!
Penny George
I found this dough to be very loose. Would not form into a ball. I think between the butter and the oil is too much. Should just be one or the other. Refrigerating now, but I don’t think it will work. Will see……. Also the dough is tasteless.
Michele Peterson
Hi Penny The fat helps keep the dough together better so if it’s not holding its shape then you can add more oil/butter or a small amount of water. If you used coconut extract and good quality coconut the taste will intensify when cooked. You can always add more lime zest to enhance the lime flavour.
wcjr
This recipe makes a delicious cookie. We love the crispy sticky result. The combo of coconut and lime is awesome.
Maybe it should be baked/refrigerated in two batches. The first half of the refrigerated dough spooned out nice and firm – made for perfect cookies. The second half of the dough became warm and soft and spooned out a bit messy. However, nobody complained and all were eaten up happily.
BTW: Don’t preheat the oven as stated in step 1 – there is a 1 hour refrig time before baking.
Michele Peterson
Thanks for the tips!