Toasted Coconut Chocolate Bird Nest Cookies

These no bake Toasted Coconut Chocolate Bird Nest Cookies are so easy to make using toasted shredded coconut, dark chocolate, sunflower seed butter, chia seeds, cinnamon, vanilla, and a pinch of salt. Make them look like bird nests and fill them with my Robin’s Egg White Chocolate Covered Almonds for the perfect dairy-free Easter dessert!

Looking for a delicious Easter treat that’s also vegan and gluten-free? These Toasted Coconut Chocolate Bird Nest Cookies are perfect! Not only are they easy to make, but they’re also no-bake, so you can spend less time in the kitchen and more time enjoying the spring weather. 🐣🐰🌸🌷🌻 They’re made with simple, wholesome ingredients that look like you spend hours baking in the kitchen. They look so cute and festive, you’ll definitely want to snap a pic for Instagram! 😉

Before you make these chocolate nest cookies, you’ll definitely want to make the Robin’s Egg White Chocolate Covered Almonds first. Good news is you can make these days ahead of time and keep them for when you’re ready.

Alternatively, and I don’t necessarily recommend this, but you can buy cute eggs to put in the middle of the nests 😜. I say I don’t recommend it because it’s hard to find gluten-free vegan egg candies, which is why I made my own, but I get it… you’re pressed for time and you want to make them, so I don’t want the candies to hold you back. It would be a really fun Easter craft with the kids though! 💖

How To Make These Chocolate Bird Nest Cookies

These no-bake cookies are easy enough for the kids to get involved and they will love it! You’ll start by toasting the coconut. While the actual cookies themselves are no-bake, you do need about 5-7 minutes to toast the coconut flakes. Simply heat the oven to 350 degrees F, add the shredded coconut to a baking sheet and toast, tossing every couple of minutes for 5-7 minutes until it turns golden brown. Remove from the oven and set aside.

Next, add the dark chocolate chips, sunflower seed butter, or another nut/seed butter like peanut butter, cinnamon, pure vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt to a large bowl and melt in the microwave for about 1 minute. You could also use the double broiler method, but that takes a bit longer so I just hit the easy button on this one, literally 😉

Whisk the chocolate mixture to ensure it’s smooth and creamy and no chocolate chip lumps remain. Then add the toasted coconut to the bowl along with the chia seeds and fold everything together until all of the coconut is coated in chocolate.

Using a medium-sized cookie scoop, scoop the chocolate coconut batter onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Using the back of a spoon, press down in the middle to create a small well to place the eggs. You may need to re-form the nexts into a more circular shape, or not… haha.

For the cookies to set up, we’ll be placing the cookies into the freezer for about 15-20 minutes. Add the candy eggs in the centers of the cookies BEFORE you place them into the freezer so they stick to the cookies and don’t fall out of the nests when you eat them… poor lil’ birdies! 😝🤣

Ingredient Variations

These Toasted Coconut Chocolate Bird Nest Cookies are so simple there’s a lot of variations you could make and they would taste amazing any way.

Nut/seed butter. I used sunflower seed butter to keep them allergy-friendly, but you can use peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter… etc.

Toasted coconut. I think the toasted coconut adds such a nice flavor and definitely makes these no-bake cookies crunchier. If you want to skip the toasting part and just use untoasted coconut you can, but they might not be as tasty or crunchy. But that’s up to you.

Swap out the coconut. I took a poll over on Instagram to see if a majority of people like coconut. I personally am not a HUGE fan of coconut, but the majority of people said they liked it. And also it looks very nest-like. So I went with shredded coconut. But I’ve also seen this type of cookie made with pretzels or Rice Krispies. Using either of those could possibly change the instructions slightly so I’m not going to get into the details on them, but if you’d like to experiment you go right ahead 🙃.

The candy eggs are optional, but kind of the point of these bird’s nest cookies, haha. If you don’t want to make the almond candy eggs, or buy them, you can skip making a well in the center of the cookies and just flatten them slightly after you scoop them out onto the parchment-lined baking sheet. They would be amazing that way too- like for instance when it’s NOT Easter!

You don’t have to use chia seeds, but chia seeds are loaded with nutrients and you don’t really notice them in these cookies so I like including them for a nutritional boost! They also add to the texture of the nests I think. But you may omit them if you prefer.

There’s no added sugar/sweetener in these cookies, which is why I use semi-sweet chocolate chips. I found them to be perfectly sweet, but if you taste it and want to add like a tablespoon of maple syrup then you can.

How To Store These No-Bake Cookies

I keep them stored in an airtight container in the fridge. I like them nice and crunchy 😉 You can also freeze these cookies, and I bet you can keep them in an air tight container on your counter, though I haven’t tried that.

I hope you love this easy, fun spring Easter treat! My family absolutely loved these Toasted Coconut Chocolate Bird Nest Cookies, and their faces sure said it all 😝. Let me know what you think down below in the comments section, as well as giving it a five star rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ so that others can discover these no bake coconut cookies! Tag me on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest!

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