German Chocolate Cake Cookies – Soft, chewy chocolate cookies with rich caramel, coconut, and pecan frosting won’t last long on the cookie plate.
These German Chocolate Cake cookies are a delicious household staple. They make a perfect snack year-round but are an incredibly excellent holiday gift! They’re a great addition to any dessert table, but they won’t last long as they’re deliciously addictive!
Today, I am featuring one of the best cookies you will ever eat! A cookie that will become so addictive you will make them in large quantities and freeze them to have them for a week or two.
My Favorite Kitchen Tools To Make This Recipe
From trusty pots and pans to handy gadgets, I’ve curated a list of products I use and love.
Making one of the traditional cakes, German Chocolate cake, into a cookie was one of the best recipes I have ever made. How can you go wrong with caramel, pecans, and chocolate?
My favorite thing about this recipe is that everything is from scratch. This chocolate cookie is so chewy and moist, making it the best platform for the frosting. Bake them today, as they are hands down amazing, delicious, unbelievable, out of this world, and the best cookie ever, as quoted by my friends and family who tried them.
Recipe Tips
Ingredients
- 1 cup salted butter softened
- Light brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Eggs beaten
- All-purpose flour
- Unsweetened cocoa powder
- Baking soda
- Salt
How do you make German Chocolate Cake Cookies?
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Blend the butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla, and eggs in a medium bowl.
In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and blend until combined.
Drop the dough by tablespoonful onto the prepared baking sheets, 12 cookies per sheet, and bake for 8 to 10 minutes.
Cool on a baking rack.
Add evaporated milk, sugar, egg yolks, butter, and vanilla to a large pan and place on the stovetop over medium heat to make the frosting. Stir so that it becomes well combined.
Continue stirring until thickened; this takes approximately 11-12 minutes.
Once thickened, remove from heat and add coconut and pecans. Beat until thick enough to spread.
Spread frosting over the tops of cooled cookies.
More German Chocolate Cake inspired recipes
What brings me the most joy when making this cookie is my husband. He loves these; had I made these when we were dating, I think we would have married even earlier. He loves them so much it would have created an instant proposal.
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German Chocolate Cake Cookies
Video
Ingredients
Chocolate Cookies
- 1 cup salted butter softened
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs beaten
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- pinch salt
Coconut Pecan Frosting
- 1 cup evaporated milk
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 1/3 cup sweetened shredded coconut
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- Optional: ¼ cup chocolate candy coating melted for drizzle
Instructions
Chocolate Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a stand mixer or large bowl using a hand mixer, blend the butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla, and eggs. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add the flour mixture into the butter mixture and blend until combined.
- Drop the dough by tablespoonful onto the prepared baking sheets, 12 cookies per sheet, and bake 8 to 10 minutes. Cool on a baking rack.
Coconut Pecan Frosting
- Add evaporated milk, sugar, egg yolks, butter and vanilla to a large pan and place on stovetop over medium heat.
- Stir so that it becomes well combined. Continue stirring until thickened, this takes approximately 11-12 minutes. I set my timer for 11 minutes and 30 seconds, this seems to work every time.
- Once thickened remove from heat and add coconut and pecans. Beat until thick enough to spread.
- Spread frosting over the tops of cooled cookies.
- Optional: Drizzle with melted candy coating and let set up. Top with a white chocolate heart. See note.
- Note: I melted some pink chocolate candy coating, put it into a Ziplock lunch baggie, snipped off a small corner. Then on some wax paper drew hearts with the chocolate. I let them harden, then gently placed them on top of the cookies. A great decoration for upcoming Valentine’s Day.
Do you use salted or unsalted butter?
I always use salted unless indicated. xo San
Yum, these are the perfect chocolate cookie!!!! They look so rich, a great dessert to share with coffee for guests!
I was curious about how the frosting sets up? I’d like yo make them for a cookie exchange but don’t want them smoothed when I box them up.
well, I cannot figure out what I could have done wrong…….they puffed up beautifully in the oven, and then flattened out completely, becoming hard as rocks! I very carefully followed the recipe and checked it again. With all the reviews from people who have not tried them yet, I am wondering if anyone else has this result….I do see that one person has. I was looking for a cookie just as these seemed to be. Oh, well….
How did they taste? Also, how old are you baking ingredients? These cookies are flat, they are not a thick or puffy cookie.
I made these tonight and these are absolutely the BEST COOKIE i have ever made. Thank you for this recipe!
I am so happy to hear that. Thank you.
How many cookies does this recipe yield? I need to make about 3 dozen — Thank you!
Has anyone subbed frozen coconut in place of sweetened shredded coconut?
I have never done this. Did you try it? San
Wanted to make these for awhile, tonight I finally got around to it. These are scrumptious, my husband said these are now on his yummy list. Thank you for this amazing recipe!
I am definitely going to make these cookies! My daughter loves German Chocolate cake, donuts, and I’m sure she will love these too. I will need to ship them so I may make them into a sandwich style cookie so the topping doesn’t go all over the place. Thanks for the great recipe.
Enjoy Tracee.
I am excited to try these as I absolutely LOVE German Chocolate Cake. I am curious as to how well these will taste with chocolate as the base instead of German Chocolate. I am a stickler on this when it comes to my German Chocolate Cake. A chocolate cake with German Choc. Icing does not taste the same as German Chocolate being used. Either way I’m sure these are delicious cookies & I will update after I try.
I was so excited to try this recipe but when I did the cookies came out so thin that they broke when I tried taking them of the paper and the ones I did take off are so fragil to hold that they crumble. I don’t know what I did wrong . Help please.
Lizette – shoot me an email I would love to help – sandra@adashofsanity.com xo San
Made these very yummy cookies. Chilled the frosting to make it thicker. Turned out great. Love the chocolate cookie. Very moist and chewy. Thinking about just using the cookie recipe to make whoopie pies or sandwich cookies. Thank you for posting a delicious recipe.
Ken this made my day. I am so glad you enjoyed them! xo San
I baked your German chocolate cake cookies but I did little mistake, good mistake 😉 Instead of evaporated milk I used condensed milk I did not added extra sugar and I used unsweetened coconut flakes. I also use chocolate cake from the box to makes cookies and now I am doing again and I baked Ghirardelli chocolate cookies from the box.
Cookies are very delicious, thanks for the recipe 🙂
I am so glad you loved it. xo San
You were right, these are the best cookies we will ever eat- EVER!! Thank you for sharing the recipe!!
Sue I am thrilled you loved them just as much as we do. xo San
I can’t wait to make these! Do you store them in the fridge??
Katie – you can. They freeze well but they never last that long to do this. But I love eating them cold. xo San
I followed recipe exactly. After stirring the icing for probably 20 min it barely got thick. I thought at some point it would, but needless to say after wasting my money and entire evening I’m throwing cookies in the pail. Super disappointed with the directions or perhaps inaccurate measurements. 11 minutes 30 seconds versus 20 minutes+ = I wish I chose someone else’s recipe. Money not well spent & final product in the pail. 🙁 #sadness
Sorry this did not work out for you. As you can see from the comments many including myself have has success. I would encourage to try this again, if you have any questions or issues feel free to email me. San
The cookies are moist and delicious. My husband usually doesn’t eat frostings with coconut and nuts but he loved these cookies. I am making another batch to share with friends. Thanks for the great recipe!!!!!!!!