I’m a big fan of lemon flavored anything and I also love coconut. So why not combine the two for the perfect spring dessert! That’s where these cookies originated from. I wanted something that felt like spring. To make these cookies look like spring I chose to use a daisy shaped cookie cutter and place a yellow M&M in the center of each. Voila, instant spring flowers! These cookies come together easily. And you don’t even need lemons because they get their lemon flavor from lemon jello. Yes, jello! The jello adds a lot of flavor to the cookies and keeps them moist, so don’t knock it till you try it!
I also decided to use this recipe to make super cute Easter basket cookie cups stuffed with green lemon coconut icing and M&M eggs! The cups can be made easily in a mini-muffin pan and make an adorable sweet treat for your holiday festivities. Adding some green dye to the lemon coconut icing makes it look like grass and the M&M eggs are a perfect topper!
Lemon Coconut Daisies, Cookie Cups and Icing
Ingredients
Cookie Ingredients:
- 1¾ Cup flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 0.3 oz small box or One 0.6oz (big box) Lemon Jello Mix (regular or sugar-free)
- ¾ Cup butter softened
- 1 Cup sugar or sugar substitute
- 1 Cup shredded sweetened coconut
- 1 Egg
- 1 Teaspoon vanilla
- Yellow M&Ms to place in center of cookies optional
Icing Ingredients:
- 2 Cups confectioners' sugar
- 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 Tablespoons water as needed
- 1 Cup shredded sweetened coconut
- Assorted food coloring optional
Instructions
Cookie Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit
- In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and Jello mix and set aside.
- In a large bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer beat butter and sugar until creamy & fluffy
- Add egg and vanilla to butter and sugar mixture and beat until well combined
- Next, mix in the coconut and ensure it is well combined. You can also add in some yellow food coloring at this point if you’d like a more pronounced yellow color
- Begin gradually adding the flour mixture into the butter mixture in batches allowing to combine
- Chill the dough dough covered in the refrigerator for at least a half hour or until cool and firm
- On a floured surface roll out the dough with floured rolling pin aiming for about ¼ inch thickness, don’t roll too thin
- The dough may be sticky so adding extra flour might be necessary
- Using your desired cookie cutter (we chose a flower/daisy shape) cut the dough and place cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet. Make sure to leave sufficient space as the cookies do expand in the oven.
- Bake in preheated 400 degree oven for 5-8 minutes, or until the edges are barely brown, cookies will still feel soft to the touch.
- Remove cookies from the oven
- While still warm and on the baking sheet press M&Ms into center of cookies (if desired)
- Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet as they are quite fragile until they cool and firm up, then transfer to wire cooling rack or plate to serve
Directions for cookie cups
- For bite-sized cookie cups use a 24 well mini-muffin pan
- Grease pan with cooking spray if recipe calls for it (this recipe does not)
- Using a cookie scoop (looks like a small ice cream scoop) portion our even cookie balls into each of the wells
- Using a tablespoon, the end of a wooden spoon or a shot glass dusted with flour press down on the center of each cookie ball so that it forms a small cup in the well
- Cook the cookies as instructed
- When the cookies come out of the oven and importantly, before they cool, repeat the same pressing/molding process for each of the cookies to ensure they take the ‘cookie cup’ shape. The cookie cups will expand and puff up when they cook so this step is important.
- Allow cookies to cool in the muffin tin and then remove
- Fill with desired filling and toppings!
Icing Directions
- Combine all ingredients and mix together
- Add food coloring if desired
- Add additional sugar if too thin
- Ice cookies!
