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Soft, chewy thick Levain Bakery Caramel Coconut Cookies made with rich caramel, sweet coconut flakes, and semisweet chocolate chips. This seasonal Levain Bakery cookie recipe is the perfect coconut caramel cookie.
Oh, you know how much I love Levain Bakery cookies. As soon as they release a brand new seasonal cookie flavor, I receive so many messages requesting the copycat recipe.
I get to my test kitchen as quickly as possible to start creating the recipe for you! When I was recently in New York City and Washington DC, I was analyzing and studying every aspect of the cookie.
Levain Bakery just released its new Spring cookie flavor and it is insanely good. As soon as I saw that it was a Caramel Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookie, I rushed to the store to pick up the ingredients. That is one heavenly combo!
All of my recipe testers went crazy over these cookies and I couldn’t wait another minute to get this recipe out to you.
These Carmel Coconut Chocolate Cookies are perfectly soft, thick, and chewy with bits of soft caramel, sweet and chewy coconut, and decadent chocolate throughout the cookie.
You can find eight more Levain Bakery copycat cookie recipes below.
Ingredients
If you are familiar with my Levain Bakery Cookie recipes, you know they are unique and different. A few ingredients tweaks, oven temp, and a few tips and tricks make all of the difference.
- Butter — use cold butter cut into cubes. This helps the cookies keep their shape while baking and allows you to skip the chilling step.
- Brown Sugar — makes the cookies extra chewy.
- Sugar — gives the cookies crispy edges and helps to brown the cookies.
- Eggs — use large eggs in this recipe.
- Vanilla Extract — this is an optional ingredient as Levain Bakery doesn’t use vanilla in their recipes. I do like the flavor it adds to the cookie dough.
- All-Purpose Flour — I love to use a mix of all-purpose flour and cake flour. If you don’t have cake flour, you can use only all-purpose flour in this recipe.
- Cake Flour — helps to create a soft, tender texture in the cookies.
- Cornstarch — helps to thicken the cookies while still keeping them soft. Cornstarch helps to keep the cookies softer for longer.
- Baking Soda — helps the cookies to rise once they hit the oven.
- Salt — is a flavor enhancer and a must in all baked goods.
- Sweetened Coconut Flakes — use soft, sweetened coconut flakes, like Baker’s coconut in this recipe.
- Soft Caramels — use soft caramels cut into pieces or caramel bits.
- Chocolate Chips — I suggest using semi-sweet chocolate chips but you can use milk chocolate or dark chocolate too.
See the recipe card at the bottom of the post for quantities.
Instructions
- Start by creaming together cubed butter, brown sugar, and sugar for 4 minutes or until light and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula.
- Add eggs and vanilla and mix for 1 minute longer.
- Stir in all-purpose flour, cake flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt, just until combined.
- Fold in coconut and chocolate chips.
- Weigh the cookie dough into 6-ounce balls.
- Cut the soft caramel into small pieces.
- Place the cookie dough balls on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. I suggest using a light colored baking sheet.
- Place the caramel pieces in the center of the cookie dough ball. It is important to keep the caramels in the center of the cookie or they will spread on the sides of the cookie and stick to the pan.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes or until a light golden color. Remove from the oven and let set up for 10-15 minutes before removing from the pan.
Substitutions
What if I don’t have cake flour?
If you don’t have cake flour, you can use 3 cups of all-purpose flour.
What types of caramels should I use in this recipe?
I used the Werther’s Originals SOFT CHEWY caramels. Don’t use hard caramels in this cookie recipe. You can also use Kraft caramels or caramel bits.
Equipment
Storage
These Caramel Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies store very well. I suggest keeping it in an airtight container. The cookies will stay fresh for a few days.
If you would like to freeze these cookies, place them in a Ziploc freezer-safe bag.
Top tip
Watch the cookies carefully and don’t overbake. To ensure that the cookies don’t burn on the bottom, I suggest using a LIGHT COLORED cookie sheet. Also, you can place the cookie sheet on a higher rack in the oven.
Related
Looking for other Levain Bakery Cookie Recipes like this? Try these:
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Levain Bakery Caramel Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup Unsalted Butter (cold, cut into cubes)
- 1 cup Brown Sugar (packed)
- 1/2 cup Sugar
- 2 large Eggs
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract (optional)
- 1 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1 1/2 cups Cake Flour *
- 1 teaspoon Cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 1/2 cups Sweetened Flaked Coconut
- 2 cups Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips
- 16 Soft Caramels (Werther's or Kraft, cut into small pieces)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar, and sugar for 4 minutes or until light and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl.
- Add eggs and vanilla and mix for 1 minute longer.
- Stir in all-purpose flour, cake flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt.
- Fold in coconut and chocolate chips.
- Roll the dough into 6-ounce large balls. Place on a parchment paper lined light colored baking sheet.
- Cut the caramels into small pieces. Place the caramels in and around the center of the cookie. This is important so the caramel doesn't get close to the outside of the cookie which may result in the caramel sticking to the pan.
- Space the cookies apart with only 4 or 5 on each baking sheet. Bake for 8 1/2 – 10 minutes or until a light golden color.
- Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to set up for about 10-15 minutes before removing from the pan.
Notes
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
They are so simple and so delicious.
Recipe calls for a 6oz cookie but that was WAY too big for us so we did 3oz cookies (still monster cookies in my opinion), 2oz would also be a good size. I kept the oven at 400 and baked for about 10 and they were still soft and chewy on the inside and golden on the outside.
My only other note is abou the coconut. I found this was right amount of coconut for a non-coconut lover, but if you love coconut you may want to add a bit more.
These are my favorite cookies! INCREDIBLE.
I have made these twice, and both times people swoon over them! These are sophisticated, high end, out of this world cookies like no other I have ever baked. I learned from the first time making them that the cold butter should be cut quite small or shredded so it is easier to mix, and it took me longer than 4 minutes with my hand mixer to get the butter/sugar light and fluffy.
Second time making we split the batch and made half with white choc chips, and only used 1/2 cup. Those were phenomenal—the cookie flavor itself with the coconut and caramel and then a touch of white chocolate, oh my gosh. But I am here to say: The original recipe as it is, is perfection. My husband is a crunchy cookie fan, and he raved about these and could not get enough, warming in the microwave and adding ice cream on the side (he knows how to take it to the next level lol). I will add the only tweak I made to the recipe was size. I made 3oz cookies bc there are 4 of us to share with. The 3 oz were plenty large enough and I even made a few 2oz toward the end and those were nice too. At some point I want to make some 6oz bc I think that would be so cool, esp if I’m gifting these—which I 100% will be in the future. These are amazing, Melissa! Thank you for another outstanding recipe!
P.S. This marks the 5th year my daughter and I have been baking with your recipes. Our first was your coconut cake for my husband’s birthday, when she was 17. When have been baking together ever since, and your site is our go to. She bakes when she is away at University, and her friends often request her desserts. She is home now for the summer and we are planning to bake at least one recipe a week. So we will be trying some new recipes soon. Thank you for all you do!
Thank you for this excellent recipe. I made them for a group this week, with a couple modifications. I left out the caramel since I thought it would just be cloyingly sweet. I know it’s an integral part of a “caramel, coconut, chocolate chip” cookie, and I’ll use it in the future for a younger crowd. I also sub’d dark chocolate chips. After reading a different comment who said she used 3 oz. balls of dough for each cookie, I made them even smaller: 2 oz. Even at that, they were substantial cookies. They are so very good, especially when just a bit warm. Please, please, please use weights in your recipes. I had to do my own conversions.
Could I substitute some of the sugar for coconut sugar?
I found this recipe after seeing a Insider short on YouTube re: these cookies. In it, the founders of Levain say they use unsweetened coconut. Either way, I can’t wait to try them!
These will forever be some of my favorite flavors, especially in this cookie. They’re incredible!
Made these today and they are very yummy! I only make them 3 ounces because to me that’s the perfect size cookie! Most definitely going to make them again! Nice to throw them in the freezer and pull one (or two, let’s be honest!) out at night and eat them as I read the news in bed! HaaHaa!
When you say place the caramels in and around the center of the cookie do you mean press them into the top of the ball of dough? Or put them in the middle of the ball of dough?
Hi Stacy! Great question. There’s not really a wrong answer! You can place the caramel on top or put it in the middle of the dough. I personally think that the cookies look better when I put the caramel in the middle of the cookie. I also have found that sometimes the caramel can get a little crunchy or overcook when on the outside of the cookie. Hope that this helps! Happy baking!
You are the LEVAIN QUEEN!!!!
Do you think I could use toasted coconut in this recipe?
Hi! Love these. Wondering if you have an suggestions for baking as one skillet cookie? I think the dough will be fine as is but I’m unsure what to temp and time I should bake for.
Melissa, your Levain recipes are the only ones I follow. This latest one looks like a winner. Thanks so much for sharing.