The Best Homemade Coconut Eggs

Homemade chocolate covered coconut eggs are perfect for filling the Easter basket, they are deliciously sweet! Guests always enjoy them too, they are a great snack to serve with your holiday dinner.

Every year for Easter we have a couple traditions, besides making baked ham and coloring eggs. I do not care how old I am, coloring eggs is still fun every year! Even tho there are no little kids running around here anymore.

But the sweetest tradition is making peanut butter eggs and coconut Easter eggs. They are both delicious and a classic candy.

I am not a fan of the coconut cream eggs you get in the store that have that sweetened filling on the inside, but homemade ones are amazing!

Ingredients and substitutions

There are only a few simple ingredients here to make these homemade!

• Coconut – We use sweetened, but you can use unsweetened if you prefer to keep the sugar down a little bit.
• Cream cheese – No substitutions recommended.
• Powdered sugar – No substitutions recommended. These will not turn out right with granulated sugar, it has to be powdered (also called confectioners) sugar.
• Vanilla extract – Optional but we love these with vanilla in it.
• Coconut oil – We use coconut oil in the dough and also for melting the chocolate. If you do not have it, you can use softened butter in the dough and shortening for melting the chocolate.
• Chocolate chips – Either dark chocolate or milk chocolate is best. Dark chocolate coconut eggs are so delicious, so sometimes we make half dark and half milk chocolate. You can use other chocolate for melting, but we always use chips.

Making the coconut eggs

The dough for these is easy to make and delicious, but it needs to be in the freezer before shaping and also after shaping before coating. These do take a while with the freezing, but they are worth it!

Making the coconut filling

First thing you need to do is take the cream cheese out and allow it to soften at room temperature. I usually let it sit out about an hour, but it depends on how warm your house is.

The coconut oil also needs to be softened, but not melted. Unless you store it in a cold place, it should be ok at room temperature. It needs to be soft enough to mix thoroughly into the dough. If using butter in it’s place, you do need it to soften at room temperature.

1. In a large mixing bowl cream the cream cheese and coconut oil (or butter) until smooth with a hand mixer, about 1 minute on medium. You can use a stand mixer in place of the hand mixer, we just use our hand mixer for these coconut eggs.
2. Add in the vanilla extract and mix until it is incorporated, about 20-30 seconds.
3. Pour in the powdered sugar and mix into the cream cheese mixture until it is mixed well. I find that the dough often comes up the beaters on the mixer (sometimes it all gets stuck on the beaters) so you may need to carefully remove it with the mixer off and unplugged (always unplug mixer before handling the beaters.)
4. Add in the coconut and mix with the mixer until it is all mixed through. I go for about 1 minute so it breaks the coconut up smaller to spread it through the dough evenly. If you prefer bigger flakes of coconut, you can use a spoon to stir it in instead of the mixer.
5. Divide into 2 and place each section in plastic wrap or in freezer safe containers. It is best to divide so it chills evenly, it needs to be chilled to be workable for shaping. Trust me, it’s a sticky mess otherwise!

I recommend freezing the filling for at least 1 hour, but you can freeze it a little longer too.

Shaping the eggs

I am not going to tell you that this filling is the easiest to work with. If you do not freeze it long enough, it will be soft and sticky. While you can shape them right away, I do not recommend it without freezing.

Line a freezer safe large container or a baking sheet with wax paper. I can never fit a baking sheet in my freezer (it is quite often a full mess) but if you can, the baking sheet works perfectly when shaping these homemade coconut eggs.

Remove filling from the freezer and shape the eggs how you would like. I do recommend keeping them either flat or small to medium if making them rounded. They are delicious but they are sweet and will be somewhat soft inside when they are done and stored in the fridge.

I typically use a spoon and scoop out some of the filling to keep them a reasonable size. Then I shape them into a rounded egg shape, but you can make them however you want!

If you need to do more layers of shaped coconut eggs, use a piece of wax paper in between the layers. They will stick to each other if you do not.

Cover and freeze for at least 45 minutes, but can be a little longer too. They need to be partially frozen to coat them easier.

Coating the eggs

They wouldn’t be chocolate covered coconut eggs without the chocolate, right? This can be a little messy but coating anything in chocolate can be. These eggs need to be pretty firm to coat easily. You can coat them when they are soft, but it isn’t easy to do. I know this from experience!

Melt the chocolate on the stove (our preferred method)

In a small saucepan melt the coconut oil (or shortening.) Add in the chocolate chips and stir well. Keep the burner on medium low to low (depending on how hot your burner gets) to prevent the chocolate from burning. Cook stirring constantly until it is just melted, remove from heat immediately.

Melt the chocolate in the microwave

Add the coconut oil and chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl that is large enough to stir the chips in. Chocolate burns easy so you will be heating it in small amounts at a time until heated. Heat for 10-15 seconds, remove and stir. Repeat this until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Do not over heat, stop as soon as it is smooth when stirred!

Coating

As soon as the chocolate is ready, take the coconut eggs out of the freezer. Dip them carefully into the chocolate to coat them all the way.

Place them onto a baking sheet that is lined with wax paper and place the coated eggs into the fridge until the chocolate sets.

You can eat them as soon as the chocolate sets or store in the fridge until serving.

Frequently asked questions