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Coconut Snowballs

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These delicious Coconut Snowball cookies have a tender, shortbread-like texture and are packed with coconut flavor. They make a beautiful and unique addition to any cookie tray.

Coconut snowball cookies stacked on a white serving platter.

Delicious Coconut Snowball Cookies

These tasty little cookies are a coconut lover’s dream come true! We swapped out the butter for coconut oil to give them an extra boost of coconut flavor. It also gives these cookies a tender, shortbread-like texture that just melts in your mouth. Then we dipped them in a simple glaze and shredded coconut and voila. They are absolutely delicious and equally beautiful to look at. They make a great addition to holiday cookie plates are are super customizable too.

If you’re not a huge fan of shredded coconut, you can also top these cookies with sprinkles, chopped nuts, or crushed candy canes. And even though you lose the ‘snowball’ appearance, toasting the coconut will add a deliciously crunchy, nutty flavor to these cookies.

Homemade cookies dipped in icing and coated with flaked coconut on a blue plate.

Ingredients You Need to Make Coconut Snowball Cookies:

  • All-Purpose Flour
  • Coconut Oil
  • Sugar
  • Greek Yogurt
  • Milk
  • Vanilla Extract
  • Salt
  • Powdered Sugar
  • Shredded Coconut
Ingredients to make coconut snowball cookies.

How to Make Coconut Snowball Cookies:

  1. Mix dry ingredients. Add flour, sugar, and salt to the bowl of a stand mixer. Give it a quick stir to combine.
  2. Add the wet ingredients. With the mixer on low, add the coconut oil to the dry ingredients one tablespoon at a time. Add the greek yogurt and vanilla extract and stir to combine. The dough will look slightly crumbly. If it is too crumbly to shape into balls, add a bit of milk, half a tablespoon at a time, until you get the right consistency.
  3. Shape into balls. Use a cookie scoop to form dough balls, about 1-inch in size. Place onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
  4. Bake. Bake cookies in a preheated 375 degree oven for 10-12 minutes or until very lightly browned. Remove from the oven and cool completely.
  5. Make the icing. In a small bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, greek yogurt, and milk. The icing should be thin enough to easily dip the top of the cookies in.
  6. Ice the cookies. Place the shredded coconut into a shallow bowl. Once the cookies have cooled, dip the top of the cookies into the icing, and then into the coconut. Enjoy!
Process shots showing how to make homemade coconut snowball cookies.

Tips & Suggestions

Substitutions:

Looking to switch it up? Here are some other tasty topping ideas:

  • Toasted Shredded Coconut
  • Chopped Nuts
  • Sprinkles
  • Crushed Candy Canes
  • Plain Glaze
  • Dip in Melted Semi-Sweet Chocolate
  • Replace the milk with lime juice and add a teaspoon of fresh lime zest.
  • Skip the glaze and roll the cookies in powdered sugar when they’re still warm

How to store leftover coconut snowball cookies:

Store leftover cookies in an airtight container for 3-4 days. You can also freeze unglazed cookies for 2-3 months.

Coconut Snowball cookies topped with shredded coconut and piled on a blue serving plate.
Coconut balls piled on a white serving plate.

Love Coconut? Here are More Delicious Coconut Recipes to Try:

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3.8 from 34 votes

Coconut Snowballs

These delicious Coconut Snowball cookies have a tender, shortbread-like texture and are packed with coconut flavor. They make a beautiful and unique addition to any cookie tray.
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time10 minutes
Total Time25 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Servings: 36 cookies
Calories: 138kcal

Ingredients

Cookie

Glaze

Topping

  • 1 1/2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut

Instructions

Cookie

  • Preheat oven to 375℉.
  • In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the flour, sugar, and salt. Mix until combined.
  • Keep the mixer running on low and add the coconut oil about 1 tablespoon at a time. The dough should start looking slightly crumbly. Add the vanilla and Greek yogurt and mix just until large pieces of dough start to clump together.
  • The dough will be slightly crumbly which is normal. If it is too crumbly to form into balls and keeps cracking or breaking, add more milk 1/2 tablespoon at a time.
  • Use a cookie scoop to form dough balls about 1-inch big. Finish rolling into balls with your hands. Place the dough balls on a parchment lined baking sheet 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until they begin to turn a very light brown.
  • Remove from oven and transfer to a cooling rack.

Glaze

  • In a medium mixing bowl, add greek yogurt, milk and powdered sugar and beat until smooth using a hand mixer until combined. The frosting should be thin enough to easily dip a cookie into. Add more milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, if needed.
  • Once the cookies have cooled, dip the top of each cookie into the frosting. Then dip into the shredded coconut. Let cookies cool completely before storing. Enjoy!

Nutrition

Calories: 138kcal | Carbohydrates: 18g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.4g | Cholesterol: 0.1mg | Sodium: 27mg | Potassium: 26mg | Fiber: 0.4g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 3IU | Vitamin C: 0.03mg | Calcium: 5mg | Iron: 0.5mg
Keyword : Coconut Snowballs

www.superhealthykids.com

Natalie Monson

I'm a registered dietitian, mom of 4, avid lover of food and strong promoter of healthy habits. Here you will find lots of delicious recipes full of fruits and veggies, tips for getting your kids to eat better and become intuitive eaters and lots of resources for feeding your family.

Learn More about Natalie

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Recipe Rating




16 Comments

5 stars
My entire family absolutely loves this! It is a definitely a keeper recipe. We like to keep them in the freeze until we are ready to eat them.. YUM!

Hi Natalie, is it possible to use olive oil or some other type of oil instead of coconut oil (I can’t find coconut oil in my local stores). Thanks.

Hi Chris, the coconut oil is actually pretty important, both for flavor and to hold the snowballs together. If it’s not available to you locally and you don’t mind ordering online, there are plenty of places to get it (like Amazon!) Good luck!

I tried to make these today but I used a blender because I don’t have a food processor. I also used dessicated coconut instead. I found that it never really made a paste. Not sure if this is because of the blender or using dessicated coconut instead. I was still able to make it into balls at the end altho the mixture was a little dry.