Gooey Butter Cookies with Coconut and Dark Chocolate Chips!
My family loves cookies, but when we travel I hate purchasing ingredients that I know we’ll never finish up before going back home. These gooey butter cookies are perfect, with just a few ingredients, and very little leftover.
I will say I prefer cooking from scratch, but some of my favorite cakes and cookies are what Sandra Lee would call, semi-homemade. That’s just what these Gooey Butter Cookies are. Only this time I decided to jazz them up a bit, with the addition of coconut and dark chocolate chips.
What’s great about this recipe is you can doctor it up with ingredients you love, cake mix of choice, or just leave as is, and they’re still sensational. I prefer to prep the batter a day ahead, place in the refrigerator, then scoop out and place on a cookie sheet the next day. Better yet, go ahead and roll them up, and place in the freezer to have on hand. Then when you’re suddenly surprised with guests at your door, pull them out of the freezer, defrost 5-10 minutes, and place in the oven. Your guests will be pleasantly surprised.
If you haven’t tried homemade Gooey Butter Cookies before, with or without Coconut and Dark Chocolate Chips, you’re in for a real treat.
Here’s the recipe….
Gooey Butter Cookies with Coconut & Dark Chocolate Chips
Ingredients:
1 box Yellow Cake Mix (or Red Velvet, Chocolate, etc)
1 - 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 - 12 ounce package dark chocolate chips
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
Powdered Sugar
Directions:
1. Combine cake mix, cream cheese, butter, egg and vanilla with an electric mixer.
2. Then fold in chocolate chips and coconut.
3. Place in refrigerator for at least 1 hour or overnight.
4. With a cookie scoop or teaspoon take batter and roll into a ball - walnut size.
5. Roll in powdered sugar and place on parchment or foil lined cookie sheet.
6. Place cookies in a preheated 350F degree oven for 10-12 minutes or until edges start to slightly brown.
7. Remove from oven. If desired sprinkle with more powdered sugar or simply serve, and Enjoy!!!
Hi, I’m Vicki Bensinger! I have been teaching culinary classes throughout Missouri since 1992. I offer personalized private culinary classes for individuals and small groups in the comfort of your home or organization.
Didn’t know that cake mix can be used to make cookies…these buttery cookies must be divine with add of coconut and chocolate!
Have a great weekend, Vicki!
Angie
They are surprisingly delicious and yes buttery. You could cut the butter if you wanted in 1/2. Add whatever ingredients suit your fancy. Go with lemon cake mix for a lemony cookie and add the zest of a lemon with cashews or almonds; why not pumpkin cake during the holidays with heath bar chips. You get the picture – the possibilities are endless.
They make the perfect homemade cookies anytime but especially if you’re traveling and your family is dying for cookies and all the homemade cookies in town are $2-$5. Homemade is a steal! Plus as I mentioned in the post, you’re not left with remaining flour, sugar, etc.
Thanks for your comment.
Just like Angie I didn’t know that you could use cake mix for cookies. I have never seen those here, so I ll have to wait patiently to give your quick recipe a try. Thanks for sharing Vickie!
Yes you can, if you look at the box ingredients you’ll see it’s much of what goes into a cookie. You can also use pudding mix just like these cookies which are my husband and sons favorites: https://www.vickibensinger.com/2013/05/chocolate-brickle-sensations.html
Change up the box mix to be more creative in what you prepare – the possibilities are endless!
We’ve never made Gooey Butter anything – definitely something we need to sometime! The cookies look like a lot of fun! Hope you’re enjoying your time in the mountains.
Thanks John we are having a nice time. The weather is perfect. My husband and I took a long walk/hike with the dog this morning and he just left to do the Pike’s Peak biking event. Just chillin!
These Gooey Butter Cookies are great and so easy. You can try them first without the coconut and chocolate chips to see how they taste plain (wonderful), then doctor them up as you see fit. I decided to try them with coconut and dark chocolate chips and they were sensational. It made a huge batch and they were gone in one day. Thank goodness for biking and hiking to help shed those calories.
Have a great day!
I was just thinking the other day, that I needed a new cookie recipe and here you are! These look great and they’re the perfect recipe for days at the lake!
They definitely would be perfect for the lake or any vacation spot. Quick, easy and few ingredients.
These look so gooey and delicious, love the cake mix idea 🙂
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
P.S. To prepare for my exams now I won’t be commenting for around 4 weeks – See you in a month my friend 🙂
Thank you and good luck on your finals!
Thanks for passing on your cookie recipe..I’ve been missing gooey butter cookies since our visit to St Louis last year!
Oh I know and we have the best gooey butter cake ever. I hope you enjoy these if you decide to try them.
I love your semi-homemade idea for these cookies, especially while on vacation. It doesn’t make sense to waste a whole bag of flour while you only need a few cups. 🙂 I heard great things about making cookies from boxed cake mix but haven’t try that on my own. I’m inspired by your recipe. Good to know the dough freezes well too. 🙂
They taste great. The first time I ever tried it I was shocked at how great they were and so easy too. No fuss with lots of ingredients which makes it perfect for when you’re traveling.
I have never tried making cookies with a cake mix although i have seen a few blogger friends doing that. I have fallen in love with this recipe. Now a visit to the grocery store for a pack of cake mix 🙂
Please let me know what you think after you try them.
This reminds me that I haven’t made good cookies for quite sometime now. Your cookies look so fabulous…I have heard about cake-batter cookies before, but never tried them. Sounds fun!
They are. I hope you try them and have your kids help as well, they’ll enjoy rolling them in the powdered sugar.
Just made theses cookies and they are delicious. Can’t stop eating them. Think I will try some chocolate soon. Thanks for the recipe, Vicki.
I’m so glad you liked them Loretta. Thank you for sharing that with me. Let us know what combination you come up with when using the chocolate cake mix. I can’t wait to find out. Feel free to post it here. Thanks. Have a great day!
I’ve seen recipes for cookies using cake mix but I still haven’t tried making any. These with the dark chocolate and coconut have tempted me!
Hi Vickie these look awesome! I wanted to let you know that on Youtube the Peanut butter ice cream shows you marked mine as Spam. I was sure you didn’t mean that so I deleted it.. they sent me an email about it too… just wanted to let you know.. thanks… have a great weekend!
Just came across your recipe and I’m going to make these. I’m so excited about it. I wanted to know if these cookies can sit out on the counter and how many days the cookies will still be good. I’m going to put these in my hotel wedding bags and the cookies will be packaged in a cellophane bag. So not air tight. what do you think?