How to Use Up the Last of Your Shredded Coconut

If you’re not in the regular practice of cooking with shredded coconut, the remaining scoops left in the bag will loom like Monday morning in your pantry. But coconut is a lot more versatile than we might give it credit for. Double-check to see if it’s sweetened or unsweetened, and then use it in these recipes:

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Chocolate, Cherry & Coconut Breakfast Bars

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• Add coconut to a batch of granola. The toasty, caramelized flakes make up some of the best bites.
• Or use it in fruit bars, like these toasted coconut-date bars and chocolate-cherry, Lamington-inspired ones.
• Or make actual Lamingtons, coating them in chocolate and then coconut shreds.
• Cook it with oatmeal, overnight oatmeal, or other porridges.
• Sprinkle away—onto pancakes, citrusy fruit salads, yogurt, smoothies, popcorn... Toasting is optional but very recommended.
• Go all-out: Coconut bars! Coconut cake! Coconut cream pie! Coconut tres leches cake!
• Or almost all-out, by stirring it into batters for carrot cake or hummingbird cake.
• Coconut cookies—like macaroons or buttery, delicate tuiles—use lots of coconut, come together quickly, and get eaten just as fast.
• Spike your homemade nut butter with it.
• Or just make your own coconut butter. All you need is shredded coconut!
• Infuse booze with it. Rum and vodka are both excellent choices. (Alternatively, infuse simple syrup with it by steeping coconut in the hot syrup and then straining the coconut out.)
• Make your own tea infusions: Fill a tea sachet or tea strainer with tea (black, green, or pu-erh would all work well) and add a pinch of shredded coconut, then pour the hot water over.

Are you pro-coconut, or against it? And how do you cook with it? Tell us in the comments.