German chocolate cookies have all the elements of the classic cake, but in cookie form! The coconut and pecan filling works perfectly as a topping for chewy chocolate cookies. Recipe includes a how-to video!
German Chocolate Cake-Inspired Cookies
Another cake-inspired cookie recipe, my German chocolate cookies have a lighter and slightly less intense chocolatey flavor with the traditional caramel-y coconut/pecan topping (taken from my German chocolate cake).
We lightly flatten the cookies after baking, which not only gives a nice flat surface for the topping but also compacts the cookies for a denser, chewy texture (which has been a HUGE hit with my double chocolate chunk cookies I recently shared–such a simple step with big impact!). The cookies will be cakier (in a not-so-good way) and seem more dry if you skip this step, so don’t.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Tastes like real German chocolate cake, from the light chocolatey base to that decadent frosting. Speaking of frosting…
- The caramel/coconut/pecan topping is absolutely irresistible! You’ll want to put it on everything–or eat it by the spoonful.
- No chilling required! While you will have to let the topping cool before using it, you can bake the dough right away! And by the time you’re done making the cookies, the topping should absolutely be ready to go.
- Gourmet results! From using toasted pecans in the topping to opting for cake flour in the cookies themselves (may sound weird, but trust me!), my well-researched recipe was carefully designed for the BEST flavor and results.
Ingredients
Let’s talk ingredients. I’d also love to know, do you find these sections to be helpful? I like to break down what goes into the recipe and why, but also want these blog posts to be as helpful and enjoyable to read as possible, so your feedback is always welcome!
- Evaporated milk. Not to be confused with sweetened condensed milk, which is often sold nearby but is NOT the same thing. Bakers often confuse the two when making my easy fudge recipe, and I don’t want you to make the same mistake here!
- Coconut. Use sweetened shredded coconut (also called angel flake coconut) sold in the baking aisle of most grocery stores. I haven’t tested this recipe with unsweetened coconut, but its usually less moist (and obviously less sweet!), so the end result will not be the same if you use that instead.
- Pecans. Toasted pecans provide the best flavor. If you can’t find toasted pecans, you can toast them yourself with my tutorial on how to toast pecans–it’s easy! Note: it is best to toast the pecans before chopping.
- Cake flour. This gives our cookies a lighter, cakier texture, which is exactly what I was going for since this was meant to emulate a cake, after all (I also use cake flour in my Devil’s food cookies for the same reason). If you don’t keep cake flour on hand, I do provide instructions on how to substitute all-purpose flour in the recipe notes, but cake flour will give you the best results.
- Natural cocoa powder. Stick with natural cocoa powder here, as Dutch process cocoa would be a bit too rich for these cookies. Natural cocoa leans a bit more toward a more classic German chocolate cake flavor, which is less chocolatey and intense (unlike Devil’s food cake).
- Eggs. This recipe uses a lot of yolks. You’ll need one whole egg plus a yolk (which adds tenderness) for the cookie, then you’ll need 3 additional egg yolks for the topping (unfortunately egg whites would now work here).
SAM’S TIP: If you don’t want to toss your leftover egg whites, save them for candied pecans and/or candied walnuts, meringues, chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream, white cupcakes, or my macaron recipe!
As always, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make German Chocolate Cookies
Make the topping
I do the topping first so that it has plenty of time to cool before topping the cookies. Everything gets made in the saucepan (no egg tempering needed, I don’t love that step and have even found ways to make my pastry cream and banana pudding without egg tempering!).
Make sure you keep the heat low and stir constantly until the butter melts and the mixture turns a light golden brown color. If your heat is too high, you’ll cook the eggs and have an unpleasant, curdled mess.
Test to make sure it has reached the proper consistency by dipping a spoon in; it should coat the back. Once it is thickened, take it off the heat, add the rest of the ingredients, and let it cool completely. You can speed up this process by pouring it into a new heatproof bowl.
Make the cookie dough
The dough comes together pretty easily and not unlike a standard cookie dough. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy (do “cream” them, meaning beat for several minutes on high speed until things are truly well-combined — this is important for the proper texture), then stir in the cocoa powder, eggs, and vanilla (my preference is to add the cocoa here rather than with the other dry ingredients, it just is easier this way!).
Whisk the dry ingredients in a separate bowl before gradually adding this to the wet ingredients. This dough can be a bit thick, don’t add the flour too quickly or you’ll end up leaving me a comment saying your dough was too crumbly! The dough needs time to properly absorb the flour.
Scoop the dough, roll it into balls (bonus for uniform cookies!) and bake!
Assembly
Don’t over-bake these cookies. If you do, they’ll be dry and crumbly they should be ever-so-slightly under-baked so that they stay soft, tender, and perfectly chewy.
After baking, gently flatten the top of each cookie within a minute of removing from the oven. This not only gives us a flat surface for topping with our coconut mixture, but it also compresses the cookies, giving them perfectly dense, chewy centers!
Add a scoop of the “frosting” over each cookie (make sure they’ve at least mostly cooled first), and you’re good to go!
SAM’S TIP: For the prettiest results, roll your cookie dough instead of just dropping it onto your baking sheets. It takes a little extra work, but it is worth it (in this baker’s opinion, anyway 😉).
Frequently Asked Questions
I recommend it if you don’t plan to eat all of your cookies the same day you make them. The frosting is similar to a custard, so you really should refrigerate to be safe. You will be fine to let individual cookies come to room temperature before enjoying though!
This usually happens if you try to use the frosting while it’s still warm, so don’t skip that cooling step!
If your frosting is still overly runny even after it has cooled completely, then you may not have cooked it long enough. Unfortunately there’s really no good way to fix this after the fact. I recommend watching my video below so you can see exactly how I cook my frosting and when I remove it from the heat.
This can happen if you skipped the flattening step after baking (this is a must for the proper texture!) or if you over-baked your cookies.
It can be hard to tell when chocolate cookies are done baking, since you can’t really see any golden brown coloring. I always look to make sure the edges are set, which usually takes about 8-9 minutes with this recipe. It is okay (and ideal) if the centers are still a bit underdone when they come out of the oven.
Do you have any other requests for my gourmet cookie collection? Let me know!
Enjoy!
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German Chocolate Cookies
Ingredients
Topping
- 3 large egg yolks
- ¾ cup (177 ml) evaporated milk
- 6 Tablespoons (85 g) unsalted butter cut into 6 pieces
- ½ cup (100 g) light brown sugar firmly packed
- ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon table salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cup (94 g) toasted pecans chopped (see note)
- 1 ½ cups (120 g) sweetened shredded coconut
Cookies
- 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- ¾ cup (150 g) light brown sugar firmly packed
- ½ cup (50 g) natural cocoa powder
- 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk room temperature preferred
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ½ cups (285 g) cake flour (see note)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon table salt
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
Topping
- Prepare the topping first as it will need a fair bit of time to cool before you can top your cookies with it!
- In a medium-sized saucepan, combine egg yolks and evaporated milk and whisk together until eggs are lightly beaten.3 large egg yolks, ¾ cup (177 ml) evaporated milk
- Add butter, sugars, and salt and heat over medium/low heat, stirring to combine. Be sure to keep your heat low so you do not cook your eggs. Stir continuously until mixture is light golden brown and has thickened (it should coat the back of a spoon, I demonstrate this in the video), this should take around 10 minutes but may take longer.6 Tablespoons (85 g) unsalted butter, ½ cup (100 g) light brown sugar, ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar, ¼ teaspoon table salt
- Remove pan from heat and stir in vanilla, pecans, and coconut.1 teaspoon vanilla extract, ¾ cup (94 g) toasted pecans, 1 ½ cups (120 g) sweetened shredded coconut
- Allow topping to cool completely at room temperature before spreading over cookies. Meanwhile, prepare your cookies.
Cookies
- Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line baking sheets with parchment paper, set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment), combine butter and sugar and use an electric mixer to beat together until creamed, light, and fluffy (at least 2 minutes on high speed)1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar, ¾ cup (150 g) light brown sugar
- Add cocoa powder and stir on low-speed until completely combined.½ cup (50 g) natural cocoa powder
- Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and stir again until completely combined and uniform.1 large egg + 1 egg yolk, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- In a separate, medium-sized mixing bowl whisk together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.2 ½ cups (285 g) cake flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, ¼ teaspoon baking soda, ¾ teaspoon table salt
- Gradually stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients in several parts, mixing after each addition until completely combined.
- Scoop cookie dough by the level 1 ½ Tablespoon-sized scoop (32g) and roll gently between your palms to make a smooth ball. Transfer to prepared baking sheets, spacing cookies at least 2” (5cm) apart.
- Transfer baking sheet to center rack of 350F (175C) preheated oven and bake for 8-9 minutes. Within a minute of removing from the oven, use a flat surface (such as the clean bottom of a measuring cup) to lightly press down to gently flatten the top of each cookie (so the surface is flat and smooth). Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for at least 5-10 minutes before carefully transferring to cooling rack to cool completely (or at least mostly cooled) before covering with topping.
- Once the topping and cookies have both cooled, scoop topping by 1 Tablespoon-sized scoop and use a spoon to gently spread over the surface of the cookie, nudging it toward the edges. Serve and enjoy.
Notes
Egg whites
If you don’t want to waste your egg whites, save them for macarons, meringues, white cupcakes, Swiss meringue buttercream, or candied pecans!Pecans
If you don’t already have toasted pecans, you can follow my simple tutorial on how to toast pecans. Toast them, let them cool a bit, and then chop them for best results.Cake flour
Cake flour is best for this cookie for a lighter, tender texture reminiscent of a German chocolate cake. However, if all-purpose flour is all you have, you can substitute 2 ¼ cup (280g) of all-purpose flour + 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch.Storing
Because of the coconut topping, these cookies should be refrigerated if you’re keeping them longer than 24 hours. To store them, keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator. If you don’t like them cold, it’s fine to pull a few out and bring to room temperature before enjoying!Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Taryn
So I’m an imbecile and took the topping off the stove before it was thick enough. I had been stirring for like 40 mins 😫 and thought it has to be done. Well I had it on low the entire time. So when all was said and done it was too thin to be put on top of a cookie (after sitting in the fridge, adding more nuts and coconut…). So I thought screw it, it’s going back on the stove. I put it back on the stove and cooked it until thickened and all was well in the end! Just in case somebody else is dumb like me, just know you can put it back on the stove coconut and all if you jump the gun before it’s thick enough 😁
Sam
I hope you still enjoyed them! 🙂
Janna Ochap
Hi – does the topping set firm where they could be bagged? Thanks
Casey @ Sugar Spun RunCasey
Hi Janna! The topping on these firms up a little, but probably not enough to bag them.
Sandy
Can I refrigerate the topping make the cookies the next day.
Casey @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Sandy! That should be fine, if the topping is too cold and difficult to spread you may need to let it warm up a little bit.
Laurinda
These got high praise from the Post office I work for. Not sure if they replace the Cinnamon Poptart for favorite, because some people don’t like coconut. I am going to try the Strawberry Poptart some day, if my Son will stop eating all the Strawberries. I tried doubling the recipe, but found it difficult to work with and keep the middles centered. Now I half everything and make smaller cookies. It works out great. Thank you for sharing all your wonderful recipes.
Sam
I’m so glad everyone has enjoyed everything so much! 🙂
Terri Clark
I made these last week and took them to work and everyone loved them.
Sam
I’m so glad they were such a hit, Terri!
Kathryn
Delicious. But you lost me on the german chocolate name. No substitute for german chocolate
Sue
Can you freeze these?
Sam
Hi Sue! I haven’t personally tried it, but I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work. 🙂
Eric Wright
how can I buy some cookies
Sam
Hi Eric! I don’t sell any cookies. I just provide the recipes to make your own. 🙂
Nanette
It’s official. You are absolutely my favorite baker in the whole wide world. This recipe came up on my feed, and I actually gasped with joy! My favorite cake is German chocolate cake, and these cookies take the cake! 😆 I can’t wait to bake these babies. My neighbors usually get half of what I bake, so I will let you know what everyone thinks!
Sam
Thank you so much, Nanette! I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much! 🙂
april
After watching your video together, my son declared that we had to have them. I made these tonight. They’re super decadent, and you get a higher topping-to-cake ratio than you do with a normal German chocolate slice (which I love).
Amazing, thanks for these creative and delicious recipes. You are so inspiring!
Sam
Thank you so much, April! I’m so glad they were such a hit! 🙂
Charlotte Kearn
I haven’t made these yet, but they sound delicious. I was wondering if they freeze well, I would like to make them ahead of time and then make the frosting the day I would be serving them.
Sam
Hi Charlotte! I haven’t personally frozen them, but you shouldn’t have any issues doing so. 🙂