Vegan Coconut Macaroons — with low-carb option

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These vegan macaroons are so simple together, taste great. If you’re avoiding eggs and dairy for any reason, here’s your ticket to enjoying traditional beloved cookie recipes without a lot of effort.

Bonus–since I almost always bake low-carb, the recipe doubles as a keto macaroon recipe too.

homemade chocolate and vanilla vegan macaroon cookies.

For some reason, I have always had a thing for these little mounds of coconut.

Since my son’s diagnosis with a life-threatening allergy to eggs, my heart always ached whenever I saw a macaroon recipe.

Food allergies are such a problem that way.

The allergy sufferer feels left out, but moms of kids with food allergies feel suffer as well.

Not only is it hard to make foods that taste great and are free of the offending food, but it’s also hard to see recipes that are almost entirely impossible to recreate and you know that your child will never be able to try them.

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How I Discovered Vegan Coconut Macaroons

So finding this recipe was a real treat in many ways.

Cause coconut macaroons are almost ALWAYS made with egg, and I couldn’t share the deliciousness with him.

I tried once or twice to make an egg-free version, but the resulting cookie fell apart much too easily.

So when I saw a recipe for Vegan Coconut Macaroons just before Easter, my face lit up with a smile, I pulled the ingredients together and gave them a whirl.

Surprisingly, they held together pretty well and taste great too.

I adapted a recipe by Recipes Reinvented, made them with a low carb option, and we now have another dessert success in our coconut-loving home.

These taste great plain (the vanilla version) and are fabulous with the cocoa (or carob) added.

You could really do loads of variations – think peppermint, berry…..even perhaps pumpkin!

You could even dip these in chocolate (like my Homemade Chocolate Chips, melted) for a truly lovely dessert.

These vegan coconut macaroons have just the right touch of sweetness and hold together pretty well for not having eggs in them.

And like everything else, when you make it yourself, you really can save a ton of money.

So, I looked up the price of vegan coconut macaroons online and they were $7 per pound.  These costs – maybe $1.50 per pound :-).

I always feel a great sense of accomplishment when I can make something delicious for my family — and then I see the same thing in a store or online that costs a small fortune.

Just ask my husband – I get this silly grin on my face when I show him the price tag of the overpriced version.

My kids are now in on the “game” too.

Happy Mom — Happy Sons  — Happy Budget.

Enjoy!

More Special-Diet Friendly Desserts:

Homemade “Almond Joy” Bars
Healthier “Reese’s” Candy
Homemade Chocolate / Carob Chips
Homemade “Jello”
Soft Pumpkin Cookies (these taste like Enjoy Life Allergy-Free Cookies [we think so, at least])

Recipe Notes

  • Dairy-free Milk Options: Rice milk or almond milk would work as well as coconut milk, but coconut milk is thicker and will result in a better finished product. See Easiest Coconut Milk for a homemade option.
  • Flour Options: See my post on Gluten-Free Baking Tips for help with gluten-free flour – I used a mix of sweet brown rice and millet. Sweet rice adds a bit of “stickiness” to your gluten-free baked goods. Use organic almond flour if grain free. This also makes this recipe an “S” on the Trim Healthy Mama plan. Substitute 1/2 tablespoon organic coconut flour for AIP.
  • AIP: You can use organic carob powder instead of cocoa for AIP.
  • Chocolate Variation: If making the chocolatey version, use 4 tablespoons of either cocoa/carob for the whole batch. Use 2 tablespoons if you split the batch in half and make half vanilla and half chocolatey.
  • Sweetener: If you’d prefer to use a different sweetener, you can use 1/16 teaspoon stevia extract, or 5 1/3 tablespoon erythritol for low carb, or 4 tablespoons coconut sugar for AIP. If you’d like to substitute in a liquid sweetener, see this post on how to substitute sweeteners. If using regular sugar, use 4 tablespoons.
Vegan Coconut Macaroons
coconut macaroons on a clear glass plate

Vegan Coconut Macaroons

These Vegan Coconut Macaroons are perfect for anyone who is allergic to eggs or is avoiding eggs. They have both a low-carb and an AIP option.
5 from 4 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Dessert, Snack
Cuisine: AIP, Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free, Grain-Free, Keto, Low-Carb, Paleo, THM:S, Vegan
Keyword: keto macaroons, keto vegan macaroons, vegan coconut macaroons, vegan macaroons
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
Servings: 30
Calories: 58kcal

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350°F.
  • Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or prepare by greasing. (I use baking stones that require no pre-treating)
  • In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, whisk together the coconut milk, sweetener, and salt.
  • Add flour and stir completely
  • Heat the mixture to a full boil and simmer for about two minutes or until thickened (if making chocolate version, add 2 tablespoons cocoa powder to the mixture)
  • Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and coconut.
  • Drop mixture by heaping teaspoonfuls onto the baking sheet. I used a cookie scoop to make things quick and less messy (and it makes nicely shaped macaroons, too :-)!)
  • Bake for about 16 minutes, or until golden brown.
  • Cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes, then transfer to cooling rack.

Notes

  • Dairy-free Milk Options: Rice milk or almond milk would work as well as coconut milk, but coconut milk is thicker and will result in a better finished product. See Easiest Coconut Milk for a homemade option.
  • Flour Options: See my post on Gluten-Free Baking Tips for help with gluten-free flour – I used a mix of sweet brown rice and millet. Sweet rice adds a bit of “stickiness” to your gluten-free baked goods. Use organic almond flour if grain free. This also makes this recipe an “S” on the Trim Healthy Mama plan. Substitute 1/2 tablespoon organic coconut flour for AIP.
  • AIP: You can use organic carob powder instead of cocoa for AIP.
  • Chocolate Variation: If making the chocolatey version, use 4 tablespoons of either cocoa/carob for the whole batch. Use 2 tablespoons if you split the batch in half and make half vanilla and half chocolatey.
  • Sweetener: If you’d prefer to use a different sweetener, you can use 1/16 teaspoon stevia extract, or 5 1/3 tablespoon erythritol for low carb, or 4 tablespoons coconut sugar for AIP. If you’d like to substitute in a liquid sweetener, see this post on how to substitute sweeteners. If using regular sugar, use 4 tablespoons.

Nutrition

Calories: 58kcal | Carbohydrates: 2g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Sodium: 23mg | Potassium: 50mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 3mg | Iron: 1mg | Net Carbs: 1g

Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is merely an approximation. Optional ingredients are not included and when there is an alternative, the primary ingredient is typically used. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on this site. Erythritol carbs are not included in carb counts since they have been shown not to impact blood sugar. Net carbs are the total carbs minus fiber.

Do you have a recipe that needs a makeover for health or allergy reasons?
Let me know!

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68 Comments

  1. Just wanted to make sure I’m reading this correctly….when using coconut flour we only use 1/2 tbsp?

    Thanks!

    1. Yes, that’s right! Coconut flour absorbs a lot more liquid so that’s all you should need. I don’t recall if I’ve tried this yet, so please let me know how it goes–try 1/2 batch or just one to be on the safe side. I need to revisit this recipe soon and update it. Thanks for reading!

      1. 5 stars
        These are amazing! I’m on the aip diet and used arrowroot in place of gluten free flour. So good! Thank you!

        1. Awww so glad to hear it – thank you so much for your kind words. Gosh I really need to get those photos updated ;). Thanks again!

  2. 5 stars
    Made these and they were delicious! I used normal milk and honey as sweetener. I was looking for egg free alternative to these because I hate to waste the egg yolk when only using the egg whites in the usual recipes for these.

  3. Hi Adrienne, I am new to AIP and this was my first attempt at AIP baking. I just made these using honey and coconut flour but they just crumbled after cooling (and were very difficult to spoon onto the cookie sheet). Any thoughts on how I can improve them? I also used Native Forest’s Simple canned coconut milk (with no guar). Thank you very much, Pamela 🙂

    1. Hi there – I’m thinking that the coconut flour absorbed too much liquid. The cookies are a little hard to keep together but it can work. Maybe reduce the amount.

  4. 5 stars
    OMG! These hit the spot 🙂 Thank you for a delicious recipe. Came out perfect. I cheated a little and added a tiny bit of agave instead of 1 of the tbsp of xylitol. And made the chocolate version, as chocolate cravings sent me on a recipe search anyway.

    Perfect, bookmarking it, thank you again 🙂

    1. So happy you enjoyed them!! Not a real “cheat” at all–if that’s your cheat you are doing great!! Thanks for coming back to tell me. I hope to get better photos up here soon!

  5. 5 stars
    I can’t stop eating these… I’ve been on Keto for some time and these are a perfect treat. How would you count the macros on this recipe? Do you have nutrition facts by chance? It would be so helpful. Thanks!

    1. Hi there. So glad you like them! I’m sorry–I’m trying to put nutrition counts on my site but they aren’t there yet. Hope to have it soon. For now I would use an online calculator that you trust – thanks for your patience!

  6. Oh gosh these sound amazing! Do u think I could use agave or maple syrup for the sweetener? What measurement would u do then?

  7. These were amazing! I’m completely new to baking (and just cooking in general) and these were still super easy to make. Thanks so much for the recipe!

    Just wondering, is there a certain way I should store these? Right now I’ve put them on a foil-covered plate on the kitchen counter. Would refrigerating it be better?

    1. Hi…thanks for this….but, my milk mixture did not get thick at all……used monk fruit, only 4 tbsp, maybe that made it too thin?

      1. You’re welcome. I’m so sorry–how long did you simmer it for? Maybe it needed more time? Did you use monk w/ erythritol or just monk extract?

  8. So, I just tried out your recipe. These taste wonderful! Thank you for sharing. I’m wondering if I did something wrong, though. When I cooked them, they spread out into large flat gooey cookies instead of the beautiful mounds of coconut you have pictured. I used whole coconut milk from the can, rice flour and brown rice syrup as a sweetener. Any suggestions?

  9. Oh, I miss coconut macaroons! I can’t have any sweeteners or grains at all. Do you think this would work with no sweetener, and maybe arrowroot powder instead of flour? I could use something else moist instead of the sweetener. Thanks!