How to Toast Coconut in the Oven

Have you ever toasted coconut? No? Why the heck not! It’s fast and super easy to do. One bite of toasted flaked coconut and you’ll fall in love. Toasted coconut has a nutty, toasty coconut flavor that you would expect. Therefore, nothing quite compares to toasted coconut. Fresh coconut is moist but toasting coconut in the oven draws out the moisture and what is left behind is coconut with a deep concentrated flavor. How to toast coconut in the oven is so simple, with great rewards. Store your toasted flaked coconut in clean, dry glass jars with a tight fitting screw top over.

Toasted Coconut in Recipes

It’s best to experiment when using toasted coconut. Use it as a garnish on desserts, brownies, cookies and smoothies. Most recipes call for using sweetened flaked coconut but certain recipes such as Ultimate Mounds Bars and Key Lime Cheesecake Bars with Coconut Crust will benefit from toasted coconut. What I like to do is, if a recipe calls for coconut, I toast half of the coconut called for in the recipe and then mix the toasted and regular coconut together. Do some toasted coconut experiments of your own and see what works for you. Your next recipe will benefit from the added moisture from the coconut and added toasted flavor.

Watch Closely

Toasting coconut works great for shredded or shaved coconut, and sweetened or unsweetened. For this recipe we used sweetened, flaked coconut. The one and only rule of thumb when toasting coconut is to never walk away!! It takes coconut literally 2.5 seconds to burn. Coconut can go from golden brown to burnt black in no time flat. Follow the few simple steps below and you’ll be on your way to experiencing the wonderful world of toasted coconut.

A Few Simple Steps

Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

Empty one 14-16 oz. package coconut onto prepared baking sheet.

Spread coconut out in a single layer on prepared baking sheet.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Bake until light golden brown and fragrant, stirring frequently, about 5 to 10 minute.

There are many brands of coconut to choose from but here on Turnips 2 Tangerines we like to use Bakers Coconut Coconut or Mounds Flaked Coconut.