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It’s Cookie Week

You’ll get a new holiday cookie recipe and video each day this week. Read, watch, bake and enjoy!

ImageSamantha Seneviratne’s coconut cake snowballs.Credit...Rachel Vanni for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne. Prop Stylist: Megan Hedgpeth.

Growing up, every time we stopped at a gas station on road trips, Honey Buns were my chosen vice. I’d eye the pink Hostess Snoballs like a gym crush, but I never got one. (And, like a gym crush, the mystery was half the fun.) I always thought they’d be like a hand-held version of my mom’s coconut cake, but when I finally tried one as an adult, I was surprised at how little coconut flavor there was.

Then I tried Samantha Seneviratne’s coconut cake snowballs and felt joyful, triumphant in having found the thing I’d always hoped for. Sam’s cookie is a pure celebration of coconut. It’s not processed like most coconut sweets, but rather fresh, nuanced and even more delicious than it looks — and it looks so chic. Talk about style meeting substance.

Featured Recipe

Coconut Cake Cookies

View the recipe →

ImagePretty in pink.Credit...Rachel Vanni for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne. Prop Stylist: Megan Hedgpeth.

The cookie itself is incredibly tender: Sam describes it as a cross between a Mexican wedding cookie and a coconut macaroon, soft and pleasantly dense from a bit of almond flour.

The combination of toasted coconut and unrefined coconut oil, which generally has a stronger flavor than its refined sister, gives it the aforementioned freshness. A tangy cream cheese glaze offsets some of the sweetness, and the cookies are finished with coconut flakes tinted in whatever color you want.

I never knew a coconut cookie could taste so good — it’s undoubtedly the best one I’ve ever eaten. Sam allows the star ingredient to shine; you can tell how much she loves and appreciates it. I didn’t know this before we filmed the video, but her grandfather, whom she never met, actually managed several coconut farms in Sri Lanka. “Coconut is in my guts,” she said. “It’s in my blood.” Call it cookie kismet.

ImageCredit...New York Times Cooking

Watch Samantha make her coconut cake snowballs here →

Until tomorrow, you cookie fiends! Things are only just beginning to heat up in the kitchen.

ImageWould you like to bake a snowball?Credit...Rachel Vanni for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne. Prop Stylist: Megan Hedgpeth.

Share photos of the cookies you’re baking with #nytcookieweek and tag @nytcooking. You might receive a special delivery, including a few surprises from The New York Times store.

No purchase necessary, open to legal residents of the 50 U.S./D.C. at least 18 years of age, begins December 1, 2025 and ends December 14, 2025. Subject to official rules.

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