These chewy chocolate coconut pinwheels are my favorite dairy-free and egg-free cookies on the whole website. I like all the cookies I make for the kids, but I love these.
Chocolate and coconut is one of my favorite combinations. I’m a sucker for the mini Mounds and Almond Joy candy bars at Halloween, and these cookies do the trick.
Even though these cookies look fussy, they are not difficult to make. They just take a little extra time because the dough needs to chill to get that cool pinwheel to work.
Because these take a little extra time, I save these for special occasions. These are now a solid tradition for road trips in our camper, or Disney vacations (of course). Sometimes, when I run out of time to bake the cookies…I just pack the log of dough in the camper fridge and bake them while we’re on the road.
I haven’t made any recipe videos yet, but I have a feeling the first one I do will be of these cookies, so stay tuned!
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Chewy Chocolate Coconut Pinwheels
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 24 cookies 1x
Description
These chewy chocolate pinwheel cookies are dairy-free, egg-free, and vegan. Although they look difficult, they are very easy to make!
Ingredients
Dough:
- 1 1/2 cups shredded coconut
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup shortening (I use Spectrum Palm Oil Shortening)
- 2 T. corn syrup
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 t. vanilla
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 t. baking soda
- 1/4 t. salt
Ganache:
- 6 ounces safe chocolate chips (Divvies or Enjoy Life)
- 2 T. dairy-free creamer (I use Silk Soy Creamer)
Instructions
- Place the coconut in a food processor &chop the heck out of it. Keep chopping until it is fine.
- Using a stand mixer, or a hand mixer, cream the sugars with the shortening until smooth and fluffy.
- Add the corn syrup and water and continue mixing. It will curdle & separate for a bit, but should come back together.
- Add the chopped coconut & beat again.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together.
- Pour the flour mixture into the shortening and sugar mixture. Mix carefully until fully blended.
- Place the dough between two pieces of plastic wrap.
- Roll the dough into a large rectangle, 14 inches long and 8 inches wide.
- Slide the dough onto a baking sheet and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- While the dough chills, make the ganache by melting the chocolate chips and creamer in the microwave until melted and smooth. Do this carefully so the chocolate doesn’t burn 10 seconds at a time.
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Remove the top layer of plastic wrap.
- Spread the ganache over the surface of the dough, spreading all the way to the edges.
- Starting at the bottom edge, start rolling the dough up into a long log. Use the plastic wrap underneath to help guide the dough. Don’t worry if cracks appear, just push the dough around to patch up the holes.
- Wrap the whole log up and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350. Slice the dough into 1/2 inch slices and place on parchment lined baking sheets.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the tops are just golden brown.
- Transfer to a cooling rack after baking.
Notes
I use Spectrum Palm Oil shortening, it’s pricy, but works so well in cookies. You can use any other dairy-free margarine or shortening if you’d like.
If you don’t have a dairy allergy, you can use unsalted butter and regular creamer in this recipe.
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 15
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
Pinwheels at Disney back in the day!
sort of like a Mounds bar only swirly?
My 3 year old daughter, who was born in China, was just diagnosed with dairy and egg allergies. We have 4 other children in our family who are allergy-free, so baking/cooking has become somewhat of a challenge. One quick question: Does regular, unbleached flour have eggs and/or dairy products in it? I've noticed you use different flours in some of your recipes, so I am curious if I am missing something in flour for my daughter or if it's because of other allergies your children have?
Thank you!!
By the way – LOVE your site! It is a dream come true for our little angel! In our house it's birthday month and she's missing out on ice cream and cake far too much! Can't wait to try all your FUN recipes!
E, I have serious Mounds/Almond Joy issues. I sneak them out of the kids' halloween bags every year and give myself a bellyache eating one too many.
Julie, flour is usually safe. The only major exception I've found is with cake flour, which I use to make the cookie in thin mints and in ice cream sandwiches. I use Swan's Down, Softasilk has a dairy/egg warning on it. Have fun baking and let me know how things turn out!
I love your site!!! You are creative and I can't believe you can find time to experiment like you do. I have 3 kids, one with food allergies, and can't wait to try some of your recipes! Thanks for all of the effort and for sharing!
Those look wonderful! I submitted a couple recipes to the Faan/Divvies recipe contest, and have my fingers crossed. I called up Divvies with a couple of ingredient questions, and they said nutmeg was acceptable, but coconut was not. Did you submit this one? (How's that for nosy!)
Hi Libby, I did submit this one as well, out of stubbornness…coconut is not a nut….just like nutmeg is not a nut 🙂 These were, by far, my best effort. It was fun to practice at any rate.
I bought a Cuisinart Ice Cream maker last night on your reccommendation and we just make Sunbutter and jam soy ice cream tonight. It was great and I am so glad you pointed your readers to the Williams Sonoma site. We have a store locally and I was able to get it for the same price the site listed but without shipping. The extra bowl will be great to have when company comes. Just wanted to say thanks for mentioning it!
wow these sound yummy, I wonder if vegan butter would be ok as we don't have shortening in Belgium?
I'm sure the vegan butter would work, I usually use dairy-free margarine for cookies, but wanted to try something new. Cookie dough with margarine tends to spread more when baked than dough with shortening. If your cookies end out being pancakes, try decreasing the amount of water in the dough or popping the sliced cookies in the freezer for a bit before baking.