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 think these cookies would freeze well?
They freeze so well. My sister does that all the time. xo San
I can’t wait to try this recipe! I had been looking for a good scratch recipe for these – I have been making mine with a German Chocolate cake mix and canned coconut peacan frosting, but would love to try from scratch! Mine are a box of cake mix with 1/4 cup oil and 2 eggs. Once mixed together, roll into about 40 balls (about an inch) and bake at 350 for 8 to 10 minutes. When they come out of the oven, flatten with spatula and let cool. Frost the bottom of a cookie and sandwich together with another. Makes 20 sandwich cookies that won’t stick to a ziplock bag in a lunchbox! They are soft and chewy.
I can’t do canned frosting, but I love the idea with the cake mix. I do that with other cookies. I can’t wait for you to try this. You will find that homemade frosting is so much better. xo San
I wonder if these could be adapted to be gluten free?? I think I MUST try!! Thanks for the inspiration!
How many grams is a stick of butter as in the UK we don’t measure butter by sticks.
Thank you
113 grams – hope this helps.
Do these freeze well? I ask as when I bake I do so in huge quantities.
Yes they freeze very well.
I made these cookies for my mom for Mother’s Day, and she said they were absolutely the best cookies she’d ever had! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Thank you so much Kate!
I just want to correct your recipe. German chocolate cake calls for German”s baking chocolate in the baking aisle. The coconut frosting does not make this “German”. It’s actually a guy’s last name, like Hershey chocolate, not german from Germany. German’s baking chocolate is actually a lighter chocolate than most in the baking aisle
These cookies are the absolute best cookie anyone will ever eat or make. They are thin, chocolately and chewy. The frosting is to die for!! I made these for my family and everyone devoured them immediately! Everyone should try these, but be careful, you WILL fall in love.
Feels like a silly question but we’re headed up to Steamboat this weekend and I want to make these but are they messy to store? Or does the frosting harden enough to stack in a tupperware carefully? Thx!
Does the flour need to be sifted?
No it does not. Enjoy!
I have made these for years for Christmas–an easy shortcut is to use a german chocolate cake mix–turns out fine when time is an issue!! These are always a hit at my cookie exchanges!!
awesome recipe!
I just found your recipe about 6 months ago and have made a few times. They are amazing! I have to stop myself from eating them all. I finally took them to work and everyone loved them. Thank you for sharing.
I’ve made these and they are the best!! I did have to double the frosting to frost all of my cookies, This recipe made 4 dozen when using a cookie scoop. Thanks for sharing.. 🙂
OH EMM GEEE .. My coworkers went nuts for these cookies. I’ll be saving this recipe.
These look amazing. I love German Chocolate cake, so I’m sure we’d like these. That’s why I probably won’t make them since they look like they will sabotage our efforts to lose weight with all that butter and sugar. No Christmas baking for us this year. Maybe next year.
Hi! I know this post is a few years old, but I just made these for my father’s (a German chocolate cake lover) 60th birthday, and they turned out AMAZING!!
FANTASTIC recipe!!!!!
Thanks for making me look like a rock star baker 😉
This recipe turned out wonderful. Just made it for the German Chocolate Cake lovers in my life for Christmas. They turned out perfect and my family loved them!
Has anyone used a german chocalte box recipe instead of mixing this?