If you are a fan of soft, pillowy, cake-like cookies, you are going to love these old-fashioned Pineapple Cookies. They have a completely different texture than a standard chocolate chip cookie. They stay incredibly moist, have a subtle tropical flavor from the crushed fruit, and take less than 25 minutes to make from start to finish.
Pineapple Cookies Fast Facts
- Prep & Bake Time: 15 minutes of hands-on preparation and just 8 minutes in the oven. Ready to enjoy in less than 25 minutes.
- The Core Texture: These are classic old-fashioned pineapple drop cookies, meaning they have a wonderfully soft, cake-like texture rather than a crisp snap.
- Pineapple Prep Tip: Use canned crushed pineapple, but make sure to drain it execptionaly well in a fine-mesh strainer. Pressing out the excess juice keeps the cookie dough from becoming too wet and heavy.
- Flavor Profile: Packed with brown sugar, vanilla, and real fruit bits, offering a warm, sweet, and lightly tropical flavor profile.
Why you'll love it
Old Fashioned Pineapple Drop Cookies: if you are a soft cookie fan, then you will love the spongy cake like texture of these simple drop cookies.
Easy to make: if you love easy recipes, then it won't get any easier than this pineapple drop cookies recipe
Tried and True Family recipe: I grew up with these Pineapple Cookies as a part of my Grandmother's kitchen and it is one of my favorite pineapple recipes of hers and a cookie tradition that I carried on with my children and grand children.
What Goes Into Grandma's Pineapple Cookies
- Canned crushed pineapple: This is what gives the cookies their signature moisture and soft texture. Just make sure to drain it really well.
- Brown and Granulated Sugar: The brown sugar is essential here because it adds a deep, warm flavor that pairs perfectly with the pineapple.
- Vegetable Oil: Instead of creaming butter, using oil keeps the batter light and guarantees that soft, spongy drop-cookie texture.
- Baking Powder & Baking Soda: A combination of both gives these cookies the perfect little lift so they stay nice and cakey instead of flattening out.
How I Mix Up These Soft Drop Cookies
Making these is incredibly simple. Instead of dragging out a giant stand mixer, you ust whisk your sugars, eggs, oil, and vanilla together in a large bowl. Next, you gently stir in your dry ingredients and fold in the well-drained crushed pineapple until a soft dough forms. Then, just use a standard cookie scoop to drop them onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake them at 350°F for exactly 8 minutes.
Equipment for Pineapple Drop Cookies
- Cookie Scoop: Using a uniform tablespoon sized cookie scoop ensures these classic pineapple drop cookies bake evenly with a perfectly soft, cake-like texture.
- Baking Sheet: Line your pan with parchment paper to keep the soft, moist dough from sticking.
- Electric Mixer: a hand mixer or stand mixer helps whip the brown sugar and eggs into a perfectly smooth base.
Fun Ways to Change Up the Recipe
- Add Coconut: Fold in ½ cup of sweetened shredded coconut when you add the pineapple to give them a great Pina Colada flavor.
- Add a Quick Pineapple Drizzle: Whisk a cup of powdered sugar with a tablespoon or two of the leftover pineapple juice you saved from draining the can, and drizzle it over the cookies once they cool completely.
My Best Baking Tips for Perfect Textures
- Chill the dough if it's too soft. If your kitchen is warm or the dough feels too sticky to work with, pop it in the fridge for 30 minutes before scooping. This helps the cookies hold their shape and keeps them from spreading too flat on the pan.
- For a cutout cookie, fold the dough with more flour until it is firm enough to roll out and cut into cookie shapes.
- When storing baked pineapple cookies, place a piece of wax paper between each single layer of cookies to prevent the top of each cookie from sticking.
Questions You Might Have About This Recipe
You can, but I highly recommend sticking with the vegetable oil if you want that signature cake-like texture. If you really prefer to use butter or shortening, just make sure to melt it completely before mixing it into your sugars and eggs.
Canned crushed pineapple really works best here because it gives you the most consistent texture and flavor. However, if you have fresh pineapple you want to use up, just make sure to chop or crush it incredibly fine before adding it to the dough.
It is best to bake the cookies first, then freeze them. Theses cookies are a soft dough and freezing balls of shaped dough is not possible.
Storage
Room temperature: store baked cookies in an airtight container up to 5 days.
Freezer: pineapple cookies can be stored in a freezer safe container up to 3 months.
More Pineapple Recipes to Try
This Pineapple Upside Down Cake is a family favorite!
Pineapple Pie is another family recipe handed down to me from my Nanny and is packed with bright pineapple flavor.
These Pineapple Cookies with Orange Glaze are bursting with citrus and pineapple flavor.
Pineapple fans will love this Pineapple Jalapeno Margarita!
Serve with..
Serve these soft pineapple cookies with a glass of cold milk, hot tea, or with a scoop of ice cream
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📖 Recipe
Pineapple Cookies
Equipment
- Wooden spoon , or Electric mixer
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Ingredients
- 1 cup oil
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 20 ounce can crushed pineapple
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 6 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a large bowl combined sugars, eggs, oil and vanilla extract.
- In a medium bowl combine baking powder, baking soda, salt, and 3 cups of the flour. Stir to combine.
- Add the flour mixture and the crushed pineapple (including the liquid) to the wet ingredients. Stir to combine dry ingredients.
- Add remaining flour, 1 cup at a time, and stir until combined. Using a tablespoon size cookie scoop, drop cookie dough onto prepared baking sheet.
- Bake cookies for 13 minutes until cookie are golden brown around the edges and top of the cookie is no longer wet.
- Using a cookie spatula, transfer baked cookies to a wire rack and cool complete. Store in an airtight container.
C.Materne says
These cookies were easy and are delicious I did use melted butter instead of the oil and came out great. I also added chopped cherries . I made pineapple glaze .
Mike says
6 cups of flour sounds like a lot of cookies. How many does the recipe make?
Shelby Law Ruttan says
This information is located in the recipe card. It makes a total of 68 cookies (approximately, depending on how you scoop) with 2 cookies per serving. It also instructs you to add 1 cup of flour at a time to the recipe, it is not recommended to add it all at once.
Cindy says
What kind of OIL do you use for these cookies? Canola?
Shelby Law Ruttan says
You can use vegetable oil, coconut oil (melted), or canolo oil, whichever you prefer. You can also use melted butter if that is what you would like.