Coconut Macaroon
Coconut Macaroons – I think they may be one of those foods that you either love or hate, probably mostly due to the Coconut! Growing up in a house where my mother hated Coconut, I am not quite sure where I developed my love for these treats. Most often Only bought & eaten around Passover, Manischewitz Macaroons were, for as long as I can remember, one of my favorites! The sweetness of shredded coconut, paired with the slight crunch on the outside and the soft doughy inside – it is just heavenly.
This year I put myself on a quest to find the best macaroons. I read lots of different recipes online, looked through old family cookbooks, read articles – only to realize that there is no clear-cut “best” out there! There are about a million different ways to prepare the same cookie (I probably exaggerate a bit here, not quite a million – but there are at least 4 really popular ways to prepare them that I found). After digging myself out from underneath piles of cookbooks and websites, I narrowed it down to three best-options to try out.
Today’s Macaroon (since yes, I will be sharing them all with you this week) is not the easiest one, but it is also my no stretch of the imagination difficult. It does require a little bit of time, but not too much – and the resulting cookie has that crunch to the outside which I was after. The insides are like a soft-uncooked-cookie dough (even though they are fully cooked). The final result of these cookies is that I think they are most similar to the Manischewitz ones.
You can even melt some chocolate and dip the bottoms in melted chocolate. OR you can drizzle melted chocolate over top for some fancy decorations. If you are after the Almond Joy flavor – throw an almond on top and coat with chocolate!
- 1 (14 oz bag) sweetened shredded coconut
- 3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp almond extract
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 large egg whites
- 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
- 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a large mixing bowl with a large rubber spoon/spatula, stir together sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract, almond extract and salt – until well blended. Add coconut and stir until mixture is evenly moistened.
- In a separate mixing bowl (or your stand mixer with whisk attachment), using an electric hand mixer, whip egg whites with cream of tartar on medium-high speed until soft peaks form. Once you have soft peaks, slowly add in sugar and continue to whip until medium to stiff peaks form.
- Fold half of the egg white mixture into the coconut mixture to lighten slightly, then add remaining half of egg white mixture and fold until evenly combined.
- Drop mixture (about 2 Tbsp each ball), onto 2 Silpat or parchment paper lined baking sheets, spacing cookies about an inch or so apart. Bake in preheated oven, about 25 minutes, rotating pans (top to bottom and spin them around) once halfway through baking. Cool on baking sheet 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
As originally published on Cooking Classy
Three Years Ago – A celebration post of my first time being published on FoodGawker! 🙂
And I Leave you with this, Today’s Question of the Day… What store-bought treat have you tried to perfect (and do you have the perfect homemade/preservative free version figured out)?