Toasted Coconut Shortbread Cookies with Pineapple Icing

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Buttery and crisp shortbread cookies with toasted coconut and a pineapple icing!

Hello summer! I was hoping to have this post ready for the actual first day of summer but I think I’m close enough 🙂 These toasted coconut shortbread cookies have been living in my brain for months now so it feels really good to get them out of my head and onto the internet and into my belly. The circle of blogger life as it were. I LOVE SHORTBREAD. These cookies are everything shortbread should be and more: buttery and crisp with a tropical pineapple-y twist. They remind me of the amazing + cute little pineapple-shaped cookies from the Honolulu Cookie Co.

The Blank Canvas

Shortbread is great for obvious reasons like that buttery goodness that I mentioned earlier but it’s also a blank (food) canvas that you can dress to suit your mood. I’ve made a few shortbread cookies for fig jar already (hi chai shortbread snowballs and orangey shortbread bunnies—links if you wanna check those out). Plain ol’ shortbread is delicious and beautiful in its own right but I just can’t help but want to put stuff in it!

How to make toasted coconut shortbread

Ingredients

• Unsweetened, shredded coconut: You can actually buy this already toasted but it’s so easy to do yourself there is no need.
• Butter: Preferably unsalted, but the world probably won’t end if you only have salted. #justdoit
• Brown Sugar: I love using brown sugar in shortbread instead of white or powdered sugar for a more carmely flavor. Especially in this recipe: toasted coconut & caramel sounds dreamy to me.
• Vanilla: Is there a vanilla shortage now? I went to Trader Joe’s the other day and they were completely out! But they have plenty of flour, finally!
• Flour
• Salt

Using shortbread with cookie cutter shapes

So I know shortbread is not as typical for cookies like these but I just prefer shortbread by leaps and bounds over sugar cookies. And it works! You just have to chill the dough when you want to make shapes or you the cookies will spread in the oven and you will be sad. If you aren’t making special shapes you can skip refrigeration and just roll the dough in to approximately 1 1/2 tablespoon-sized balls and bake away!

How to make toasted coconut

Toasting coconut is one of the quickest and easiest cooking tasks with such a huge flavor payoff. All you have to do is toss the coconut into a non-stick pan over medium heat and stir. About five minutes should it. Don’t worry about getting every strand of coconut perfectly browned. Everything is going to be okay.

Make the shortbread dough

My pastry blender is one of my favorite tools. I am not a gadget person and I like using my hands over a machine whenever I can. (Confession: I don’t even own a kitchen aid stand mixer). It’s just satisfying to cut in that butter using my own oomph. You can use a mixer if you want to though.

First, we combine the butter, sugar and vanilla:

Then add the flour and salt and keep working it with the pastry blender until a dough is formed

Lastly, add the *cooled* toasted coconut and work it in with the pastry blender.

Form and cut the shortbread pineapples

Form the dough into a squarish shape and roll out to about an 1/8 inch thick. Place it in the fridge for about 10 minutes. To firm up the dough. Try cutting one shape out and if it’s not giving you a nice clean cut, place the dough in the refrigerator again until it does.

Now bake for 20-25 minutes!

The perfect icing recipe for cookie decorating

I really don’t know what gave me the idea to use marshmallow fluff for cookie icing but I’m so glad that I did. It doesn’t run and settles beautifully. I find that I don’t need to do the typical technique of making an outline around the edge of the cookie, letting it set then filling in. If you follow this recipe, it should be a consistency that won’t easily run over the sides.

Ingredients for pineapple icing

• Pineapple extract: Kinda necessary if you want pineapple flavor. You could try pineapple juice if you want to be all natural but you probably won’t get a very strong pineapple flavor with the amount you would have to use.
• Powdered sugar: Of course.
• Marshmallow fluff: Another necessity if you want the perfect cookie icing! It gives you: sweet flavor, dreamy consistency and sets up perfectly.
• Salt: Add just a sprinkle to balance out all that sugar just a touch.
• Milk
• Green, yellow and black food coloring: I always add a tiny drop of black to my colors because it gives a nice subdued hue that I like. You don’t have to!
• Pearl sprinkles

Equipment

• Piping bags: You could try using a large ziploc bag and snipping the end, it won’t be as easy but it is possible.
• Wilton tip no. 6: The cookie cutter I used is on the bigger side. If you have a smaller cutter, you might want to go with a tip no. 2.
• Pineapple-shaped cookie cutter: I got mine at Michaels in the temptation bins on your way to the registers. The link here is a similarly sized on I found on amazon.

Ice em!

Just whisk up the ingredients (except for the food coloring) until smooth. Separate out about 1/3 cup of the icing into a separate bowl to mix the green color first. Don’t mix the yellow yet in case you need to make more green.

Trace the edges of the pineapple tops, them fill in right away. Use the end of the nozzle to swirl and smooth or a toothpick. Don’t feel like it has to be perfectly smooth. It will settle as it sits.

Once you’ve filled in all the tops, mix the yellow and repeat the process for the bottoms. And don’t forget to sprinkle some pearls on before the icing sets!