Pandan Coconut Cookies

I’m always in search of delicious, easy recipes, and I love stumbling across one that is a solid foundation for future variations. This pandan coconut cookie recipe is built off of the wildly popular Easy Sugar Cookies recipe from AllRecipes. I’ve made a few modifications to the recipe that I’ve highlighted below. If you’ve never had pandan before, scroll past the recipe to read a bit more about this ingredient and why it will elevate your cookies!

Ingredients

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt*
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar**
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon pandan extract

Utensils / Tools

Parchment paper
Baking sheet
Electric mixer (preferable)
Mixing bowls (small and large)
Measuring cups and spoons

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a small bowl – stir flour, baking soda, and baking powder together.
In a large bowl – beat sugar and butter together until smooth and then beat in the egg, vanilla, and pandan
Gradually blend the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
Roll the dough into 1 inch-sized balls and place 2 inches apart onto baking sheet.
Bake in the preheated oven until edges are golden, approximately 8 to 10 minutes.
Cool on the baking sheets.

* There is no salt in the original recipe but I find adding a pinch of salt gives the cookie a bit more depth.
** The original recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of sugar but I’ve cut it down to 1 cup which I think is the perfect sweetness. If you do like your desserts on the sweeter end, anywhere between 1 – 1 1/2 cups is good.

Pandan (Pandanus amaryllifolius) is a tropical plant native to Southeast Asia. Its leaves are commonly used to flavor dishes (especially desserts) in many Southeast Asian cuisines, including Thai, Indonesian, and Malaysian. True, authentic pandan flavoring is made by crushing or blending pandan leaves with water to extract the juice from the leaves, but I’ve found it difficult to source pandan leaves and instead purchase pandan extract from Amazon, which isn’t exactly the same but is delicious nonetheless!

Pandan’s flavor profile is sweet, fragrant, and herbal, and there’s a hint of nuttiness that makes it the perfect pair with coconut. I wish I had some more of these words when I made these cookies for my friends and answered their questions about pandan by telling them that it was a leaf. I’m glad they trusted me and tried the cookies anyway!

Let me know how you would describe the flavor profile of pandan in the comments below, and if you try these cookies, please let me know what you think!

Happy baking!