Kirkland Chocolate Chips Cookie Recipe

These coconut chocolate chip cookies taste just like Mounds bars (or Bounty bars), in fudgy-chewy cookie form – and you'll love them. The desiccated coconut adds a a whole new level of flavour and the combination with dark chocolate is simply mind-blowing. They're incredibly easy to make and gluten free, as well!

This post may contain affiliate links, which allow me to make a small commission for my referral, at no additional cost to you. For more info, check out the Disclosure Policy . Thank you for supporting The Loopy Whisk.

Coconut chocolate chip cookies on white parchment paper. The melted chocolate forms glossy pools on top of the cookies.

The magic thing about pretty much any sort of basic cookie (dough) recipe is that once you've got the basics down, you can change it up and adapt it to include pretty much any flavours and add-ins you'd like.

I spent months developing the perfect basic gluten free chocolate chip cookie recipe (which will be part of my upcoming book on gluten free baking), one that allows you to choose which cookie texture you want (crispy, chewy, fudgy or gooey) and can be effortlessly adjusted to make hundreds of other cookie recipes.

One of those (and, hands down, one of my favourites) is this recipe for coconut chocolate chip cookies. Desiccated coconut is probably something you never thought your cookies needed, but once you give it a try, you won't be able to get enough of it.

If you're a fan of Bounty bars (or Mounds bars, for my US friends) – then you'll LOVE these cookies. Because they taste basically like a Bounty/Mounds bar, in fudgy-chewy cookie form. With lots of dark chocolate. And what's not to love about that??

Tearing a chocolate chip cookie in half.

What makes these coconut chocolate chip cookies so amazing?

1. The flavour – In the flavour-combos-to-die-for charts, coconut + chocolate HAS to be up there in the Top 10. This doesn't require a discussion, it's simply just a fact. And by using desiccated coconut, you're injecting a big explosion of coconut flavour into these cookies. So, make sure to use high quality desiccated coconut here – when you open a bag of it, the smell alone should transport you straight to a tropical destination of your choice.

2. The texture – You can easily tweak the texture of these cookies by adjusting the baking time: my personal favourite are cookies that are crisp around the edges, and somewhere between chewy and fudgy in the middle. If you prefer gooey cookies: bake them for a shorter time; if you prefer crispy cookies: bake them for longer. The addition of desiccated coconut also gives them more bite and an extra layer of texture, which makes them even better.

3. Easy to make – There's truly nothing complicated about making these cookies. While I recommend using a stand or hand mixer, you could easily make them by hand.

4. Gluten free – That's right, these gorgeous little rounds of deliciousness are 100% gluten free… and 1000% fabulous. And, before you ask: no, you couldn't possibly guess they're gluten free. Promise.

Coconut chocolate chip cookies on white parchment paper. The melted chocolate forms glossy pools on top of the cookies.

Before we get to the bits and bobs of making these wonderful cookies – if you like what you're seeing, subscribe to my newsletter to keep up to date on the latest recipes and tips!

Do you have to chill chocolate chip cookie dough?

While I totally get that you might not want to wait for your cookie dough to chill (trust me, I'm a super impatient baker as well!), you really do need to chill chocolate chip cookie dough.

You'll notice that the finished cookie dough before chilling is rather soft and sticky, and pretty impossible to scoop neatly. Chilling the dough in the fridge for about one hour firms up the butter in the dough and allows the flour to hydrate, making the chilled cookie dough easier to handle.

Without chilling, the cookie dough is also more likely to spread out into a flat pancake of a cookie… which is something you really want to avoid. Finally, chilling also allows more flavours to develop and meld together into something even more delicious.

All this is to say: yes, you do have to chill chocolate chip cookie dough.

But because I know that sometimes, you just want a cookie within minutes of the cookie craving striking – I recommend you make a larger batch of cookie dough, chill it, scoop it into individual portions, and the keep it in the fridge or freezer until needed.

Then, once the craving strikes, you can just pop the individual scoops of cookie dough into the oven, and feast on coconut chocolate chip cookie perfection in no time.

Scoops of chilled chocolate chip cookie dough, arranged close to each other in neat rows.

How do you make the cookies more crunchy/chewy/fudgy/gooey?

A lot of the cookie texture comes down to baking time. In general:

for crunchier cookies: bake them for longer
for gooier cookies: bake them for a shorter time

And as they cool, the cookies also change their texture. Specifically:

if cookies are gooey when warm, they'll be fudgy when cool
if cookies are fudgy when warm, they'll be chewy when cool
if cookies are chewy when warm, they'll be crispy/crunchy when cool

And finally: most cookies will get a bit softer and chewier the longer you keep them in a closed container, as they take on some of the ambient moisture and as that moisture gets more evenly redistributed within the cookies.

Why are your chocolate chip cookies too thick or too flat?

In general, the cookies can come out too thick if you've added too much flour to the cookie dough. So, if you follow the recipe below to the letter, this shouldn't be a concern.

Note that if you keep the cookie dough in the fridge or freezer for a longer period of time, the cookies might bake up to be a bit thicker, but not unpleasantly so.

If, however, your cookies come out too flat, it's very likely that you didn't chill your cookie dough long enough – so that the butter in the cookie dough is too warm the moment it hits the oven and/or the flour in the dough hasn't had sufficient time to fully hydrate.

So, you just need to chill your cookie dough a bit longer, and that should fix the too-flat-cookies problem.

And that's it, friends. You've now got all the knowledge you might possibly need to make truly delicious cookies. But if you have a question that wasn't covered above: leave a comment, send me an e-mail or drop me a message on Instagram – I'm always happy to chat about baking.

I really hope you'll love these coconut chocolate chip cookies as much as I do.

Enjoy.

Signature of the author, Kat.

Coconut chocolate chip cookies on white parchment paper. The melted chocolate forms glossy pools on top of the cookies.

If you like what you're seeing, subscribe to my newsletter to keep up to date on the latest recipes and tips!

▢ 100 g (3/4 stick + 1 tbsp) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
▢ 120 g (1/2 cup + 2 tbsp) light brown soft sugar
▢ 75 g (3/8 cup) caster/superfine sugar
▢ 1 UK medium/ US large egg, room temperature
▢ 1 UK medium/ US large egg yolk, room temperature
▢ 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
▢ 200 g (1 2/3 cups) plain gluten free flour blend (I used Doves Farm Freee plain GF flour mix, which doesn't contain xanthan gum. You can also mix your own with 50% white rice flour, 30% potato starch and 20% maize flour by weight.)
▢ 1/2 tsp xanthan gum (omit if your gluten free flour blend already contains xanthan)
▢ 1 tsp baking powder
▢ 1/2 tsp baking soda
▢ 1/2 tsp salt
▢ 80 g (1 cup) desiccated coconut
▢ 100 g (3 1/2 oz) dark chocolate chips, chunks, wafers or chopped dark chocolate, divided (I love Guittard's 64% and 72% chocolate wafers, as they give wonderful pools of melted chocolate – you can use either, depending on how bitter-sweet you like your chocolate)

Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla bean paste, and mix until fully incorporated.
Sift together the gluten free flour blend, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet in two batches, mixing well after each addition.
Add the desiccated coconut and mix well until combined and evenly distributed. The final cookie dough will be soft and slightly sticky to the touch.
Stir in most of the chocolate of choice, reserving a handful for later.
Chill the dough in the fridge for about 1 hour (in a bowl covered tightly with cling film) until firmed up and easily scoopable.
Using a "2 tablespoon" ice cream or cookie scoop, scoop individual portions of cookie dough. Place them snugly next to each other onto a baking sheet lined with baking/greaseproof paper, cover tightly with cling film and chill in the fridge for a further 30 minutes.
While the cookie dough is chilling for the second time, adjust the oven rack to the middle position, pre-heat the oven to 355 ºF (180 ºC) and line a separate baking sheet with baking/greaseproof paper.
Arrange the chilled cookie dough balls on the lined baking sheet so that they have enough space (about 2 inches/5 cm) around them for spreading out during baking – I usually bake 6 to 8 cookies at a time.
Bake the cookies at 355 ºF (180 ºC) for 15 – 17 minutes, depending on your preferred cookie texture and consistency. They should be light golden on top and golden brown around the edges when done.

At the 8 - 9 minute mark, take the baking sheet out of the oven, tap/bang it 5 – 7 times onto the kitchen counter, and place the reserved chocolate on top of each cookie, then return to the oven. (Tapping the cookie sheet on the kitchen counter helps the cookies to flatten, thus giving them their characteristic shape and appearance. Omit the tapping if you want thicker cookies.)

Return the cookies to the oven and bake until done. You can repeat the tapping/banging step once or twice more until the cookies are done.
Immediately out of the oven, you can correct the shape of the cookies into a more evenly round one. To do this, use a round cookie cutter slightly larger than the cookie diameter to nudge the cookies into shape.
Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 2 – 3 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Storage:

The coconut chocolate chip cookies keep well for about one week in a closed container in a cool dry place.

You can also store the raw/unbaked cookie dough balls in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 1 month. You can then bake the cookies directly out the fridge/freezer (no need to thaw them), but you'll need to prolong the baking time by about 3 - 4 minutes.