German chocolate cookie balls are soft, chewy, and extra chocolatey, topped with coconut pecan frosting and chocolate drizzle.
Try these dessert recipes next! Coconut Lime Pound Cake, German Chocolate Cake, and Samoa Cupcakes.
Alright, I’m just gonna give you the heads up and let you know I took about three thousand and seven pictures of these decadent little treats so if you’re not in the mood to look at them all and/or hear me blab about cookies and my ever-expanding love with Christmas trees, feel free to speed-scroll down to the recipe and be on your merry way. No hard feelings I promise.
And if you are still hanging around at this point, let’s talk COOKIES! And Christmas trees. First cookies though. These soft and chewy chocolatey chocolate cookie balls are pure heaven. In my opinion though you could top just about anything with this coconut pecan frosting and I would be in heaven.
In 8th grade my friend Courtney’s mom made her a German chocolate cake for her birthday and I swear to you I ate at least a third of that 3 layer, 8-inch tall cake. It was my first run-in with German chocolate anything and one bite was all it took to make me fall hard. I mean gooey coconut frosting with chocolate and pecans and CAKE. My life has never been the same since, in the best way possible.
These German chocolate cookie balls take me back to my 13 year old self chowing down on GCC at Courtney’s. So maybe on top of making you crave them on the regular, these cookies will also make you a little nostalgic.
Now on the subject of Christmas trees. Let’s take a vote. Is it entirely absurd if I am currently fighting the urge to put a Christmas tree in every room of our house? In the old house we had one tree, but our new place is laid out differently and I’m feeling this need to see a tree sparkling with twinkle lights from every corner of the house.
Tell me, do you have a Christmas tree? If so, how many? And how many is too many….? My mother has two, my mother in law technically has six now…… I feel like there is probably some safe middle ground, yeah? I need this information to present my case to the husband ya know.
Until I get this Christmas tree debacle sorted out, I’ll be eating these German chocolate cookie balls with vigor. They help clear the mind for these kinds of big, important decisions.
German Chocolate Cookie Balls
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter - softened
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cup pecans - finely chopped
- ¾ cup flour
- ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Frosting
- 1 cup light or dark corn syrup
- ¼ cup butter - melted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup pecans - finely chopped (plus additional for topping)
- ½ cup packed sweetened coconut flakes
- ¼ cup semi sweet chocolate chips - melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a baking sheet.
- Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in vanilla, chopped pecans, flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls and place on greased baking sheet.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes. Transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.
- In a medium bowl stir together corn syrup, melted butter, vanilla, chopped pecans, and coconut flakes.
- Spread about 1 tablespoon of frosting on the top of each cookie. Drizzle melted chocolate over each cookie and top with a pecan. Store in airtight container at room temperature.
hey girl these look so yummy! I just have one tree! But our neighbor has 3 in their house!
When I was younger, we had 5 trees inside and then 2 on the front porch. It was overwhelming to decorate for Christmas. Now, my son and I live with my parents and we have 1 big tree. We still put up the garlands on our arched stairway and wreaths and decorate the house, and the front porch has 2 pre-lit ready to go and decorated small trees with old fashioned style sleds by them with outdoor lighted presents. It’s enough and looks great. Think about too where are you going to store all the extra stuff that goes with multiple trees. They are beautiful, and it looked beautiful, but I sure dreaded the put up and take down process. Something to think about! Another point, as a family, we seem to spend a little more time together with one tree in one room, because we all like to look at it and gather to do so.
These little GCC cookie balls look delicious. One of my favorite cake flavors ever!
These are adorable! And I’m with you on the Christmas trees! My vote is one in every room you spend a lot of time.. Living room, bedroom, possibly kitchen 🙂
We only have one tree, but if we had the space I’d definitely like to put up more. Maybe not six though. Two or three would make me very happy! I’d say if you have the space, go for it!
To convince my husband, I’d resort to sports. “We can decorate that tree in the colours of your soccer team and that tree in the colours of your handball team.” And I’d suggest a Star Wars theme if we had a third tree. My husband is easy to manipulate like that 😀
Those cookie balls look lovely by the way. As a German I have to ask though: What makes them German? I’ve wondered the same about German chocolate cake before. I’ve seen pictures of German chocolate cake, but it doesn’t look like a typically German cake to me… so confused lol
These look yummy and will be on my Christmas baking list .
I have 6 trees in my house . 3 bedrooms , family room , dinning room , and kitchen . The only rooms without trees are the bathrooms and in the past I put small ones on the counters in them . All of mine have a different themes .