Happy Holidays! This time of year brings me so much joy! From decorating Christmas trees and gingerbread houses, to spending time with family and baking cookies, I enjoy it all! Don’t even get me started on Christmas music (I know Sabir has to be sick of it by now). Michael Bublé’s Holiday station is playing 24/7 in our house. One of our annual family traditions involves baking these delicious Christmas treasure cookies! My sister, Ellese, looked forward to this day every year. She would always ask if we could double the batch so that she could have a ton of extras!
This year was different, but I know she will always be with us in spirit. We are so grateful that we get to pass this tradition down to her two children, my niece and nephew, Sophia and Matthew!
For the past two years, we’ve made two different batches – one which follows the original recipe and another which has been veganized. The original recipe calls for condensed milk and butter. Thankfully, there are amazing alternatives out there! Vegan butter, which you can find anywhere nowadays, and coconut condensed milk. We love to use either Earth Balance or Miyoko’s vegan butter. For the coconut condensed milk – we use Nature’s Charm. This one is a little tough to find but we’ve had luck at Wegmans and Whole Foods. I believe WalMart may sell it as well!
Christmas Treasure Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs *see notes
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 (11.25 oz.) can sweetened condensed coconut milk *see notes
- 1/2 cup vegan butter at room temp
- 1 1/3 cups shredded coconut *see notes
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips *see notes
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 375 degrees
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Add graham cracker crumbs, flour, and baking powder to a small bowl and mix until fully combined
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In a separate bowl, use a whisk or hand mixer to beat the coconut condensed milk and room temperature butter until smooth
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Add the crumb mixture to the wet ingredients and mix well
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Fold in the coconut shreds, chocolate chips, and walnuts
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Wrap the bowl in plastic wrap and chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes (This step is important! It helps acheive a more structured cookie)
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Using a cookie scoop or tablespoon, form a ball and place onto ungreased cookie sheet or parchment paper
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Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the bottoms are lightly browned (I found that 9 minutes was the perfect time)
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Let cookies completely cool and enjoy!
Recipe Notes
*If you cannot find vegan graham cracker crumbs; Nabisco Original Graham Crackers and Keeblers Original Graham Crackers are vegan. You can pulse these in a food processor until they are crumbs
*The brand of coconut condensed milk I use is "Nature's Charm." You can find this at Wegmans, Whole Foods, or online
*I use sweetened coconut shreds, but I'm sure unsweetened could work too
*I use a bag of Enjoy Life's semi-sweet mini chocolate chips. It falls a tad short of 2 cups, but the cookies still come out delish!
Looks so yummy! Cant wait to try thiS Recipe 😊
thanks wafaa 🥰🤗! you’ll definitely have to let me know what you think! they’re our favorites hehe