30 Desserts to Make If You're Crazy for Coconut
Make these healthy coconut recipes when you want a sweet treat. These dessert recipes call for various forms of the tropical fruit. Coconut milk adds creaminess and natural sweetness while shredded coconut adds texture. Recipes like Lemon Icebox Pie with Coconut-Graham Cracker Crust and Coconut Yogurt Pops are delicious and will have you dreaming of an island getaway.
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Lemon Icebox Pie with Coconut-Graham Cracker Crust
Light and delicious, this easy old-fashioned lemon icebox pie takes dessert up a notch thanks to coconut in the crust, which boosts both flavor and texture. For the brightest hit of citrus use fresh-squeezed lemon juice. Look for graham crackers made with 100% whole-wheat flour to get the most fiber. Seeing graham flour on the label? Good news--that's coarsely ground whole-wheat.
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Vegan Carrot Cake with Coconut Cream Frosting
Classic carrot cake goes vegan in this easy recipe, and gets covered with coconut whipped cream to replace the traditional cream cheese frosting. A mixture of flax and water makes a sturdy substitute for eggs in this vegan cake. Plus, sweet crushed pineapple helps to make this cake delicious with less added sugar.
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Peach-Blueberry-Coconut Trifle
This stunning fruit-filled trifle is a perfect make-ahead dessert for summer barbecues and dinner parties. Resist the urge to dig in until the trifle has chilled for at least a few hours--that time lets the flavors mingle and allows the cake to absorb the rum and fruit juices.
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Oatmeal-Coconut Cookies with Cranberries & White Chocolate
Our classic oatmeal cookie recipe gets a flavor twist with coconut, white chocolate chips (which have a more delicate flavor than milk or dark chocolate) and tart dried cranberries. The result is a chewy, sweet treat that's sure to leave you coming back for more.
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Coconut Cream Pie
This luscious cream pie recipe, made with low fat milk and just a little sugar, is the perfect guilt-free dessert.
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Coconut Yogurt Pops
Who doesn't love popsicles? In these coconut yogurt freezer pops, yogurt and coconut are blended together and frozen to make a cool, healthy snack or dessert.
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Tropical Coconut Custard
A classic sweet custard flavored with coconut, ginger, and vanilla is served in individual cups and topped with pretty slices of star fruit.
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Bunny Butt Cake
You won't believe how easy it is to assemble this adorable bunny-butt-shaped cake. You don't even need any special baking pans--just a round cake pan and a muffin tin are used to make the cute bunny butt and little bunny feet. Shredded coconut and fresh berries complete the look in a snap for an Easter dessert everyone will rave about.
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Pineapple-Coconut Layer Cake
In this stunning dessert recipe, two layers of coconut cake, made with white whole-wheat flour for extra nutrition, are filled with sweet pineapple curd and topped with creamy coconut frosting, chunks of fresh pineapple and toasted coconut.
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Coconut Cream & Fruit-Topped Vanilla Cake
This delicious fruit-topped vanilla cake with coconut-cream frosting is perfect for a birthday or holiday party.
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Mango Coconut Chia Pudding
Switch up your morning oatmeal routine with this so-easy chia pudding recipe. Creamy mango and coconut combine in this healthy breakfast recipe for a taste of the tropics.
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Coconut Peanut Butter Balls
All you need are four simple ingredients to make healthier coconutty peanut butter balls that kids and grownups will love. Make this easy recipe for a bite-size treat, on-the-go snack or easy homemade gift. You can swap the peanut butter for almond butter or even sunflower seed butter if you need a nut-free snack for school.
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Pumpkin Coconut Energy Balls
These easy pumpkin-spiced coconut oat balls make a great, packable afternoon snack or a delicious party appetizer.
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Frozen Chocolate-Coconut Milk with Strawberries
In this quick dessert recipe, fresh strawberries top nondairy chocolate "ice cream" for a cooling treat.
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Banana-Coconut Bread
A unique take on banana bread, this recipe introduces the banana-coconut flavor combination. This creative, diabetic-friendly recipe is the perfect solution for using over-ripe bananas and is easy to make.
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Coconut Whipped Cream
Coconut whipped cream, also known as vegan whipped cream, is the perfect topping for any dairy-free or vegan dessert. It's light, creamy and entirely plant-based. Like regular whipped cream, you can also add flavoring--citrus zest, espresso powder or a different extract--to this basic recipe to customize the flavor. Refrigerating the can of coconut milk or cream overnight allows the fat/cream to separate from the liquid and solidify.
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Tropical Coffee Cake
Mango and coconut give this low-calorie coffee cake island flair. Yogurt and just a small amount of oil keep the cake moist yet low in fat.
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Chocolate Coconut Macaroons
These airy coconut cookies get an upgrade with a simple dark chocolate drizzle in this healthy dessert recipe.
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Chocolate Cobbler
This chocolate cobbler delivers ooey-gooey chocolate fudginess in every bite. The coconut milk adds creaminess and a hint of natural sweetness. Be sure to use self-rising flour to ensure the cobbler bakes correctly. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
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Piña Colada Nice Cream
Get all the tropical flavors you love in a piña colada in this creamy dairy-free dessert. This ice cream alternative gets its sweetness from pineapple and coconut and is just as delicious with or without the optional rum. Either way, it's sure to put you in a beachy state of mind--not bad for a treat that takes just 10 minutes to whip up in your food processor.
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Pineapple Coconut Banana Bread
This lightened-up banana bread packs plenty of tropical flavor.
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Coconut-Dark Chocolate Truffles
Coconut macaroons meet dark chocolate truffles in these little treats. Inside the snap of the dark chocolate shell lies the tender coconut-cocoa filling: a mix of naturally sweet dates, cocoa and coconut flour. Coconut flour is a healthy way to add decadent coconut flavor to this coconut-dark chocolate truffle recipe and other baked goods. It packs a whopping 5 grams of fiber per 2 tablespoons (with only 2 grams of total and saturated fat). Look for coconut flour near other gluten-free flours.
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Virgin Banana Piña Colada Pops
The tropical flavors of a piña colada make for one delicious ice pop. Be sure to reach for ripe bananas to get the perfect sweetness (without any added sugar!) for this clean-eating-friendly frozen treat.
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Coconut-Butter Mochi Cake with Lime Curd
Mochi (made from glutinous sweet rice flour) is a pillow-like dough that the Japanese fashion into all kinds of confections. In Hawaii it's made into this simple, rich cake with the addition of eggs. We love it with this zesty lime curd topping for an extra-special dessert. Recipe adapted from Chef Greg Harrison, Pacific'O Restaurant.
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Chocolate Coconut Meringues
These chocolate, coconut and almond meringue cookies are so light and airy, they are a perfect little treat that's not too heavy.
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Mango-Coconut Ice Cream Pie
In this healthy ice cream pie recipe, crumbled gingersnaps make an easy and tasty crust for the mango and coconut filling made with nonfat vanilla Greek yogurt.
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Cranberry-Coconut Bread Pudding
In this healthy bread pudding recipe, whole-wheat bread, fresh cranberries, candied ginger and toasted coconut come together for a memorable dessert. To make individual bread puddings instead of one large pan, divide the batter among 12 small oiled individual baking dishes (about 8 ounces each). Cover with foil. Bake for 30 minutes, uncover, sprinkle with coconut and bake for 20 to 25 minutes more.
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Iced Coconut Latte Pops
When you don't have time to make ice coffee, grab a latte popsicle from the freezer and keep your cool.
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Pineapple & Coconut Napoleons
Prepare this beautiful stacked cream and pineapple napoleons recipe when you want a special dessert without a lot of effort. We use store-bought angel food cake to keep this pineapple dessert brilliantly simple and fast.
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Gingerbread-Coconut Thumbprint Cookies with Blueberry Jam
This healthy thumbprint cookie recipe has all the flavors of a traditional gingerbread cookie: cinnamon, ginger, cloves and molasses. These soft and chewy gingerbread cookies are decorated with coconut and filled with blueberry jam, but we also like them filled with raspberry or apricot preserves.