Mum’s Coconut Biscuits

- Advertisement -

Margaret Beer
My mother used to make these biscuits for the church fair each year when I was a child, and they bring back a lot of memories. She lost the recipe but I think this is just about it. At least my 3 brothers assure me it is. Anyway, it has once more become the favourite with the next generation as it was with mine, and I hope you will get a lot of pleasure with it too.

*Note from Helen: due to concerns regarding the lack of flour the recipe has been retested and we were happy with the 2 tablespoons of flour that the original recipe used.  However, due to there being a few concerns we have increased it slightly without an adverse effect.
These are a popular biscuit in our house and the kids were more than happy with the recipe testing.

 

Ingredients

  • 125g butter
  • 125g sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3 cups (300g) desiccated coconut
  • 1/4 cup (35g) flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 x size 7 egg (approx 62g)
  • 1/4 cup (60ml) milk

Method

Preheat oven to 180 C.
Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla until pale and creamy, add the egg and beat well.
Add the coconut, flour and baking powder. Add the milk and mix well.  Place teaspoon dollops on a cold greased tray (or one lined with baking paper).
Flatten a little by gently pressing with your hand or use a flour dusted fork.
Bake for approximately 15 minutes until golden.
Cool on a wire rack and then store in an airtight container.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

114 thoughts on “Mum’s Coconut Biscuits

  1. Just out of the oven & the kitchen smells coconutty sweet. I cut down the sugar because I used fresh grated coconut where the coconut milk had already been extracted. Nice & crispy on the outside & soft on the inside. Delicious…
    Now, I’m wondering how well will they keep but by the looks of things they won’t last that long. Thank you for sharing this recipe.

  2. Hello from Scotland! Just made these and they are delicious! Just the right consistency. I’m not great at baking but these were super easy and made the mixture in no time at all
    Would be a great one to make it kids too as you can just measure the stuff out and chuck it in the food mixer
    Thank you for the recipe, will definitely be making these again!

  3. Hi. I’m FROM South Africa.. I tried your recipe a few mins ago, sad to report that it’s was a really dry mixture, it didn’t turn out the way I expected. Really crumbly, tastes good but I had to add in more milk to mould iny palm’s. What do you think went wrong as I used a scale to measure. It would be great if you could do a video.

  4. Amazing recipe, thank you :) Followed the recipe to the ‘T’. Used grams, brown granulated sugar and plain flour. Tip of using floured fork to flatten works a treat. I have a new electric oven which I think is quite hot. Baked first ones at 180c. Perfect :) Some had cooked more on the edges than the top ( being picky) so tried baking some at 170c and they started to run! So they clearly need the hotter temperature. Such a simple recipe and they look and taste AWESOME.

  5. Mine turned out so good and so tasty.
    I’ve just changed the amount of ingredient
    Instead of 1/4 cup of flour I’ve put 1/2 cup of flour and for the milk instead of 60ml i’ve put 100ml. And baked them for 20mins

  6. Bisquits turned out yummy the family just love them!!! I did add a little bit more flour than it is in the recipe( I used the plain flour) I did put a table spoon of the mixture on a baking tray, next time I will try not flatten them so much. Thank you Helen Jackson for that amazing and delicious “mamas” recipe …Greetings from Scotland

  7. The recipe didnt work for me either. They turned out very oily and not sweet enough. Needed almost 100ml of milk for the mixture so that they could be made into a biscuit shape. Used Plain flour as it doesnt mention above.

  8. Made these today as I absolutely love coconut, and whilst they tasted good, they were really crumbly, the mixture was not a dropping consistency and looked dry even after adding extra milk. I live in the UK and used the metric measurements (grams) as opposed to cups. What do you think caused this?. If I added more flour and milk and less coconut would these come out as a coconut biscuit with a crunch rather then a soft bake?. Thank for your help.

    • Hi Kshma, aargh that is such a nuisance for you as the mixture should be very sticky. Some people are worried that it is too sticky to work but I promise it does. I have looked over the gram measure and it should be spot on…. hmm can’t think what would have made them dry,. It sounds like too much coconut but if you followed the recipe then it shouldn’t be.

      • Just made these and they are delicious! I was very worried after 2 minutes in the oven, as they are very buttery and it looked like they were going to melt away. They didn’t and kept their shape really well.
        Thanks!

  9. Sorry read the comments so got my answer do you have to chill dough at all or bake as soon as portioned onto tray thanks

  10. Wow. This is one of the first coconut recipes that actually worked for me. Thank you Helen Jackson for this delicious recipe. Not only was it so easy to make but the flavour of the biscuit was so yummy. My family loved it. 100 percent better than the shop biscuits that’s for sure. I recommend this recipe for anyone that’s looking for the real deal. Also I’d like to say Thankyou for passing down your mother’s family recipe. That’s gold.

  11. Reading the comments, is entertainment at its best. Please forgive me for laughing, I’m not a perfect cook, I do create disasters in the kitchen sometimes. My approach is: if it doesn’t work, just try again, and never never give up.
    The biscuits are just wonderful.
    Thank You for sharing it, with us.

  12. Was a little nervous just before putting cookies in the oven as the mixture is quite sticky however, these cookies turned out fantastic! Light and very tasty. Recommend making these

  13. Fantastic recipe! Trying to avoid white sugar, so used date syrup and a little maple syrup instead, added a little more flour to balance it out. Very light and delicious treats.

  14. BEWARE
    Wasted my short pensioner money on the description above
    Put onto tray and into oven. When I looked after about 1 min
    the whole thing is like soup covering the whole tray!
    I followed instructions to the T. Maybe put better measurements like “1 cup”, do you mean a mug or tea cup or coffee cup? Same goes for quarter cup milk.What size cup?????
    Anyway, thanks for nothing, had to throw out the whole lot!!!!

    • I am sorry that you had a problem with the recipe Brigitte, a I have added into the recipe that the coconut is 100g in weight and the milk 60ml. Here in NZ we tend to cook a lot with standardised cup measures but I realise that isn’t the same everywhere.
      The biscuits are delicious as per the below comments.

  15. I have just made these following the recipe. They are perfectly delicious. Will definitely be making again.
    Thank you for sharing.

  16. Something is wrong either in the amount of milk or ? Mine came out a crumbly mess. Had to keep adding milk to get to the point I could shape dough! Must added 1 1/2 cups of milk or there about and still weren’t moist enough to drop out of a teaspoon. S o I formed the best I could and Baked!
    Tasted good (sweet) but still crumbly! I followed the recipe EXACTLY as written !

  17. These are the best coconut biscuits I’ve ever made. Yummy & absolutely delicious. Only problem is they all disappeared almost straight away.

  18. Just wondering can these be frozen before baking so that they can be ready prepped for the oven? If so do u have a rough estimate on how long they can stay in freezer for? If not its ok it just would be interesting to know. Thanks

  19. For goodness sake. don’t be so rude some of you and hide behind the keyboard, I wonder if you would speak to Helen like that face – face. I always use cups, I have 3 sets of them and they are available in the supermarkets just level top with the flat of a knife and you shouldn’t have problems, I prefer cups to grams personally and the recipe say ONE SIZE SEVEN EGG and ONE TEASPOON OF VANILLA hello?

  20. Hi, I’m not a baker at all but I just made my first batch of coconut biscuits abd it’s absolutely delicious..
    Thanks for sharing your mums recipe.
    I will definitely be making these again❤️

  21. This sounds good. Do you think it can be made without flour or with a substitute such as ground almonds or Cassava flour or even buckwheat flour?

  22. Made these but I think I put too much milk!!!!! Should you add 190 mls???
    They spread into one mass but they taste beautiful!!!!!

  23. Just made these and I made a little well in each one and added jam. They where AMAZING!! Thanks for sharing the recipe, I’ll be keeping this handy for my next bake sale at work my colleagues will love these.

  24. This recipe is great but the flour is too little. I added more and more until I was able to make small balls and it worked out just well. Thank you very much for sharing this recipe.

    • Hi Manu, I promise the recipe works with the amount of flour stated. it is how the biscuits are meant to be.
      If you add more flour then they will have a drier texture. Best, Helen

  25. I love this recipe! The only problem is that the biscuits are far too moreish

    I have a family member who is dairy free that I’d like to make these for, so I’m wondering if anyone has tried substituting coconut oil or anything else for the butter?

  26. Just made these. Just as per recipe. Deeeelicious! Thank you so much. Perfection. Chewy and soft and crunchy all at the same time. Mmhmmmm!

  27. My 5 year old daughter and I just made this coconut biscuits, we didn’t have enough coconut so added more flour to the mix. Came out lovely from the oven, we used many little cookie cutters and the shapes held very well. Thank you for this recipe! We will be making more!

  28. More flour is needed to enable the biscuits to hold and not run into each other, dont think you need so much sugar. Taste fantastic though.

  29. From my mother’s old cookbook here is her recipe for coconut biscuits

    1/4 lb butter, small cup sugar, 2cups coconut, 1 cup flour, 1 teaspoon B.P, 1egg.

    Cream butter and sugar, add egg, add other ingredients.
    Oven 300 – 350 which I think translates as ? 150-180%

  30. Hi , I tried to make these to the recipe, tasted fantastic , although slightly crispy round the edges.
    Be good to have the whole recipe in grams? I don’t get this cup method?
    Thanks

  31. I just made these using the exact recipe (except I didn’t have any vanilla) they turned out perfectly! No need for adjustments (although I had to cook for a bit longer to get them brown but that’s probably just my oven).
    Thank you – yummo.

  32. I was little in 70s my mum used to buy from co-op coconut biscuits I still remember the taste and crunchy texture full flavour of coconut I made them today but there are nearest maybe next time I will change a little but not bad

  33. I’m in heaven! These are absolutely fanatic! A nice crust on the out side and moist in the middle!
    I followed the exact recipe. No problem here!
    I’ve been looking for this recipe for over 50 years! When my Grandfather introduced me coconut bon bons and store bought coconut cookies. All I could ever find was macaroons.
    I must apologize for the bakers that had a problem and were so rude and took it out on you.
    I was taught to Always bake a test cookie before you ruin a whole pan. And to be kind!
    Thank you so much Helen for sharing!

  34. I tend to avoid recipes that give imprecise measures like “a cup…”. I foolishly chanced my luck with this one as several are in grams and there is a comment to the effect that the original had been corrected to address concerns that the mixture was too moist. The individual “dollops” all merged into one on the baking tray. Too thin to hold together when scraped off.

  35. I made these this evening first batch tasted and liked luvly but spread out quite big the second batch I added 3 teaspoons extra flour & teaspoon size blobs and they came out PERFIC. So yummy can,t stop eating them.i will defo make them again.

  36. Yes 100% agree this recipe for “mums coconut biscuits” is so out off wack its laughable.
    – add vanilla ( not listed in the ingredients.
    – butter quantity should be cut by half/ not needed at all, hence why biscuits melt.
    – 25g less sugar can be omitted.
    – half to 1 cup flour needed.
    – no need for mixer, can be meixed all together in a bowl.

    • Hi Marie, oops yes the vanilla was missing in the ingredients and I have added it in.
      I have tested the recipe again to check on the proportions and am completely happy with the biscuits.
      They came out exactly as the image shows.
      They are very light in flour but quite a macaroon (not to be confused with macaron) in texture.

  37. Why do you use two types of measurement? Grams and cups? Would be simpler to stick with one, or give both……I’m not that smart you see and have to google how many grams in a cup as I don’t have fancy kitchen scales!

    Great recipe though ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

  38. May I suggest rolling them into balls and then squishing them down a wee bit. Means the edges don’t get overly browned / burnt.