German Chocolate Cookies

Make the Chocolate Cookie Dough

Start by beating the butter with an electric mixer for about 2 minutes, until it’s fluffy and creamy.

Add the sweetened condensed milk and sugar and mix until combined. Add the egg and vanilla next, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed so everything mixes evenly.

Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Mix on the lowest setting just until the dry ingredients are almost completely incorporated.

At this point, I like to stop using the mixer and finish the dough by hand with a spatula. This lets me scrape everything from the bottom of the bowl while also making sure I don’t unnecessarily overwork the dough.

Wrap the Dough

Transfer the finished dough to the counter, wrap it tightly in plastic, and refrigerate it for at least 1 hour. You can also make the dough the day before and leave it refrigerated overnight.

I find chilling particularly helpful with this dough because it makes rolling much easier without having to compensate with a lot of extra flour.

Roll and Cut the Cookies

When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350ºF and line your baking sheets with parchment paper.

Divide the chilled dough into four pieces. Work with one piece at a time and keep the remaining dough wrapped and refrigerated. Keeping the dough cold makes this entire process much easier.

Lightly flour the counter and the top of the dough, then roll it to about 1/4-inch thick.

You can add a little more flour underneath if the dough begins sticking, but try to use as little as possible. This is important: adding too much flour while rolling can eventually make the cookies dry and tough.

If the dough is still sticking even with a light dusting of flour, I’d rather put it back in the refrigerator for a few minutes than continue adding flour. You can also roll it between two sheets of wax or parchment paper.

Use the cookie cutter of your choice to cut the dough. I use a 2-inch round cutter, which makes a nice size for sandwich cookies.

Bake

Arrange the cookies about 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheet. They don’t spread or rise very much, so you don’t need to leave a huge amount of room between them.

Bake for about 8 minutes.

The exact baking time will depend on the size and thickness of your cookies, so I pay more attention to how they look than strictly to the timer. Chocolate cookies are harder to judge by color. Instead, look directly at the center of the cookie.

If the center still looks wet or shiny, give the cookies another minute and check again. Once the surface looks set, take them out.

You don’t want to overbake these. They’re meant to stay soft enough to pair nicely with the chewy coconut filling.

Gather the scraps into a ball, flatten and roll them again, and continue cutting cookies. Repeat with the remaining portions of refrigerated dough until you’ve baked all of the cookies.

Let them cool completely before filling.

Make the Coconut Pecan Filling

This is probably my favorite part of the recipe. The filling is based on brigadeiro, but the addition of coconut, pecans, and coconut milk or heavy cream gives it both the flavor of German chocolate cake and a softer consistency that’s ideal for sandwich cookies. The brigadeiro inspiration was also part of the original recipe and is what gives the filling its distinctive fudgy texture.

Add the sweetened condensed milk, shredded coconut, chopped pecans, butter, and coconut milk or heavy cream to a medium saucepan.

Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly for about 10 minutes.

Don’t walk away from the pan here. As the mixture cooks, it will become noticeably thicker. I’m looking for it to begin falling from the spatula in thick chunks. When you drag the spatula across the bottom of the pan, you should also be able to briefly see the bottom before the filling flows back together.

That’s when I take it off the heat. It’s important not to overcook the filling because it will continue to thicken as it cools. If you cook it too far in the pan, it can become difficult to pipe later.

Transfer the filling to a bowl and let it cool completely at room temperature before assembling the cookies.

Assemble the Cookies

Once both the cookies and filling are completely cool, transfer the coconut pecan filling to a piping bag fitted with a round tip.

Turn one chocolate cookie over and pipe the filling onto the flat bottom side. Top with a second cookie and gently press them together to form a sandwich.

I like to pair up cookies of similar sizes before I start piping. It makes assembly go much faster and gives you neater sandwiches.

Decorate the Cookies

Melt the chocolate in the microwave until smooth.

From here, you can finish the cookies a couple of different ways. Drizzle the melted chocolate over the tops for a simpler finish, or dip part of each sandwich cookie directly into the chocolate.

While the chocolate is still wet, sprinkle it with shredded coconut, chopped pecans, or both.

I actually like making a combination of dipped and drizzled cookies. They look especially pretty together in a holiday cookie box, and you don’t have to do anything extra besides change the way you’re adding the same chocolate and toppings.