Macadamia coconut bear paw cookies
These bear paw cookies are made with white cake mix, macadamia nuts, homemade coconut frosting, coconut shreds, and milk chocolate chips/wafers. Super coconutty, delicious, and just adorable!
Equipment
- Hand mixer
- 2 Baking sheets
- 1.5 tbsp cookie dough scoop
Ingredients
- 15 oz box white cake mix
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
- 1/2 cup macadamia nuts, roughly chopped
Frosting
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1-1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp coconut extract
- 1/8 tsp salt
Decorations
- 22 milk chocolate candy melts
- 66 milk chocolate chips
- 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350℉ and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats and set aside for later.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the white cake mix and baking powder. Then using a hand mixer, add the melted butter and eggs to the bowl and beat on low until fully incorporated. You can alternatively mix everything with a rubber spatula if you do not have a mixer
- Fold in the chopped macadamia nuts
- Chill for 30 minutes to reduce spreading. (Optional step for a slightly thicker cookie) The baking powder will also help to give it some rise.
- Use a small cookie scoop or a spoon to drop 1 ½ tablespoon-sized balls onto the baking sheets. Space them a few inches apart to leave room for the cookies to spread
- Bake at 350℉ for 8-10 minutes, or until the tops are set and it reaches desired doneness.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the sheet for 3 minutes before transferring them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
- As the cookies bake, you can prepare the frosting. In a mixing bowl, beat the butter until smooth and creamy. Then add the powdered sugar a little at a time and mix until combined. Add both of the extracts and salt and mix again until well incorporated and you have a smooth, easily spreadable frosting.
- Once the cookies have cooled, use a small icing spatula to frost about 1 tablespoon of frosting on each cookie. Add a chocolate candy melt and 3 semisweet chocolate chips to make the bear paws. Cover the rest of the frosting with coconut shreds, avoid covering the paws.
Notes
You can use any boxed cake mix flavor you like however if you use a bigger box you will have to adjust the amount of butter used.
Want to use your own homemade cookie recipe? Go for it. You can use any cookie base you like and just add the coconut frosting, coconut shreds, and milk chocolate bear paw decorations.
If you don’t have butter, use equal amounts of vegetable oil.
You can swap the macadamia nuts for any other nut or omit it entirely.
You can skip the baking powder. It will just result in a slightly thinner cookie.
You can also skip chilling the dough if you are short on time. Your cookies may just spread out more. They will still be good either way!
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!