Chocolate Coconut Cookies: Easy For Kids

Katie Dillon


Young kids will always need some supervision in the kitchen. However, if you lay out the ingredients, it may be possible for them to complete a recipe from start to finish, depending on their attention spans. This recipe is delicious and involves no heat or sharp knives in the process. I believe it gives the kids a sense of pride to know that they can make recipe all by themselves, for the most part. My 3 1/2 year old had no trouble with this recipe (other than very sticky hands) and made the cookies in the photo above.

Since this recipe makes a lot of little cookies, I took some of the dough and made fancy looking truffles. No joke, they looked similar to ones I used to buy in a store in Paris when I lived overseas. It's a versatile recipe.

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups of powdered sugar (almost one 16oz box)
3/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for dusting
1 can of sweetened condensed milk (14oz)
1 1/2 cup coconut
1/2 cup pecan chips, or very finely chopped pecans (you can buy pecan chips in a bag)

Adult prep: Open the condensed milk. I have a can opener that does not leave sharp edges, but transfer the condensed milk to another container for the child if your edges are sharp. Open the bags or boxes (assuming they are new and sealed) of powdered sugar, coconut and pecan chips. Measure vanilla into a bowl, if too challenging for the child. All of this will enable them to easily combine ingredients on their own.

Directions:
1. Combine powdered sugar and cocoa in a large bowl and mix until combined. Tip for the powdered sugar: Have your child dump the entire box or bag into the bowl and then remove 1/4 of a cup. Or just use the whole box and add a tiny bit of water, if need be.
2. Add sweetened condensed milk and vanilla. Mix. This will get stiff so adults may need to step in and mix if your kids are young or you don't want them to knead by hand. Mix as much as possible before sticking their hands in it, otherwise it really will be sticky.
3. Stir in coconut and pecans. Again, let your kids knead it, if you can. It will be messy, but good for a laugh. My daughter joked that she had monster hands because her fingers got lost in the dough.
4. Chill dough for 30 minutes. After this, it will be much easier to work with.
5. Roll into small balls about the size of a quarter. My daughter wanted to make hers into mini animals so we used cereal, mini chocolate chips and sunflower seeds. That's what I had in the house, but if you planned ahead, yours would be cuter!

Depending on how much dough gets lost in the process, you should make about 5-6 dozen cookies. If you like cookie dough or fudge, this recipe is for you.

I used extra unsweetened cocoa to roll some cookies into smaller truffle looking cookies. For a more detailed step by step and a photo of the truffles, visit Kids Recipes: No Bake Chocolate Coconut Cookies on La Jolla Mom.

You may also like:
No Bake Peanut Butter Granola Cookies
Easy Rice Krispie Treat Animals
Healthy Preschool Snacks

*Katie Dillon writes La Jolla Mom, an award winning lifestyle site about food, travel, parenting, homekeeping, and local happenings. She lives in La Jolla with her husband and preschool aged daughter, and is a proud member of the Yahoo! Mother Board.