Four-Ingredient Gluten-Free Italian Coconut Cookies

  4.4 – 22 reviews  • Coconut

For more than 150 years, my family has passed down this recipe. Not a single thing has changed!

Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 30 mins
Additional Time: 1 mins
Total Time: 46 mins
Servings: 24
Yield: 24 cookies

Ingredients

  1. 3 egg whites
  2. ¾ cup white sugar
  3. 2 ½ cups shredded coconut, divided
  4. ¼ cup gluten-free all-purpose baking flour

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees F (135 degrees C). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
  2. Beat egg whites and sugar in large bowl until soft and creamy, about 2 minutes. Stir 2 cups shredded coconut and gluten-free flour slowly into the mixture until combined into a dough.
  3. Shape dough into walnut-size balls. Roll in the remaining shredded coconut and place 2 inches apart on the baking sheets.
  4. Bake in the preheated oven until lightly golden, about 30 minutes. Cool on the baking sheets for 1 minute before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Reviews

Andrew Simpson
Found this recipe because I needed an egg white recipe after using just yolks in another recipe and I had exactly 3 egg whites. My eggs were grade A large. Came out just as pictured. Actually, I think mine look even better. Similar in texture to Italian pignolia cookies. Just a hint of sweetness. And I used sweetened coconut. Yes, they were difficult to shape into balls, in so much as they weren’t perfectly round. I could be wrong but I don’t think they are meant to be perfectly round little balls. Could it be that those whose cookies were flat didn’t mix the sugar and eggs long enough?
Matthew Ortega
For the gluten free flour, try 2/3rds almond flour and 1/3rd tapioca flour (both are good for keeping moisture in the cookies) plus a teaspoon of baking powder to fluff the cookies up a bit. Make sure the egg whites are nice and fluffy and then add the flour gradually until you get the doughiness just right for forming into balls, use your judgement, not strict quantities. Also, a pinch of salt and a little quality vanilla essence into the egg whites before beating them. I used moist coconut flakes instead of fine desiccated coconut since it gives a stronger roasted coconut flavour. Bake at 170C fan forced for about 30 minutes until the coconut coating browns nicely. Crisp on the outside and moist/chewy on the inside
Kim Barajas
This recipe came out plump and round just like the pictures. The taste and consistency was excellent. I did what one reviewer said – brown the tops of the macaroons using the broiler for the last 3 minutes. Definitely recommend. Your hands will get sticky when rolling the balls. Also, I used finely grated coconut for baking.
Karen Kelley
I don’t know how to rate this. I don’t know if I did something wrong. I used gluten free all purpose flour I could not find gluten free all purpose baking mix. The mixture never turned into a batter I could roll into a ball. I add corn starch to try to absorb all the liquid. My first batch is cooking now. They are flat and are melting together.
James Myers
You’ll need 3/4 cup flour just to get the dough dry enough to roll. I increased temp to 350 after baking and in a few minutes they were nicely toasted.
Amanda Brooks
We drizzled chocolate over them. They were messy to roll but they came out PERFECT! Great way to use up some egg whites.
Jesse Foster
Would have been very helpful to have an egg white measurement other than “3 egg whites.” Eggs come in all sorts of sizes and what I had on hand was Jumbo. Even though I poured out some before I started, it wasn’t enough and even after doubling the flour, it was still pretty soupy. The flavor is great but I probably wouldn’t make them again. I hate recipes that are so much guesswork.
Steven Zamora
My came out great – I used FINELY shredded unsweetened coconut, which could account for the issues some have had. I didn’t need any additional flour. I also used a cookie scoop. Mistake the first time was cooking them too long, waiting for them to get golden on the bottom – so the next time I kept to 30 min and they were perfect!
Clifford Nolan
Cookies came out too flat. Will try adding more flour next time. Taste good even if they’re not pretty.
Scott Arnold
My version didn’t look anything like yours. They are flat almost like pancakes.
Adam Park
I used regular wheat flour. They were very sticky so I was concerned they wouldn’t turn out very good. I took them to work and everyone loved them. Plan to make a double batch for church.
Marilyn Patterson
These “Four-Ingredient Gluten-Free Italian Coconut Cookies” were quite good. They looked like “tiny snow balls,” so they are perfect for the Christmas platter. I shaped mine with my meat-ball scoop. I accidentally added all the coconut to the batter (instead of saving some of it for rolling the cookies as per the instructions), and still thought the batter was too wet to hold together so I added a couple extra tablespoons of BOB’S RED MILL GLUTEN FREE flour as well (MY MISTAKE: I SHOULD NOT HAVE DONE THAT. My cookies were very good; however, they were not as moist as the same variety of cookies from the supermarket owing to my own failure to follow the instructions.) Next time I will try to follow the instructions more closely. Thank you Melanie for sharing your recipe.
Zachary Davis
Really good! Nice cookie. Crunchy on the outside and gooey on the inside. Will definately make again! Used brown sugar and worked perfectly! Would recommend baking. Better than most GF cookies.
Susan Duffy
Love these. I broiled them the last 3 minutes to toast the top coconut layer.
Caleb Medina
This is a great use of left-over egg whites. They are a smidgeon lighter than the regular macaroons but still have that great chew. I topped them with a chocolate drizzle because I love the flavor combination.
Randy Lopez
Delicious and easy to make. Best with dark chocolate drizzles! I’ve added this one to my favorites. I do agree with the other posts that adding a little extra flour helps with texture.
Curtis Guzman
Super easy and great flavor. A great alternative to macaroons that come form the store that typically have gluten. Very light, but sweet.
Daniel Hunter
I put extra unsweetened shredded coconut to thicken the dough, and mixed in chocolate chips…perfection!!! Even my husband who isn’t a coconut fan loved it.
Thomas Murphy
Too chewy, used Carb Rite Flour and erythritol and extra flour also. Not great.
Misty Lynch
I had to add more flour for the dough to hold together. I think my egg whites made more liquid because they were from large eggs. I also used unsweetened coconut. The sugar in the dough makes them sweet enough.
Garrett Holt
I melted part of a dark chocolate bar and spooned some over the top of each cookie after they came out. I served them right out of the oven so they’d be warm. They were a nice hit with the roommates! I agree with Laura that these are sweet enough as they are, so use unsweetened coconut. I had to add a little more flour and coconut to mine since they were really wet when I tried to roll them together. They rose nicely and were really cute.

 

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