Just thought there might be time for one more.
These cookies take maybe 5 minutes to assemble. And then another 13-15 to bake. If you want to dip them, there's another 10 minutes, unless you employ your "helpers," which will make it go either much faster or much slower.
But even if you don't have time today, it's worth making time another day because these are tasty, easy, and--for a cookie (and they are, my friends, a cookie)--kind of sort of on the more virtuous side--by which I mean that they do employ a lot of coconut, which at least is better for you than, say, white sugar and white flour in combination. They're also wonderfully forgiving, meaning they can handle a few, er, adaptations and all will still be well.
Chocolate Dipped Coconut Macaroons
adapted from The Best Recipe Cookbook (Cook's Illustrated)
prep time: 5 minutes
Bake time: 13-15
Cost:
Note: This does call for one somewhat odd ingredient: cream of coconut. This is sweetened coconut juice (and is pretty much the best tasting stuff on the planet--kind of like sweetened condensed milk, only coconut style). It has no alcohol, but you'll likely find it in the liquor aisle at the store since it is commonly used in pina coladas.
Another note: Cook's Illustrated recommends 1 C cream of coconut, 2 Tbsp light corn syrup, 4 large egg whites, 2 tsp vanilla, 1/2 tsp salt, and 3 C unsweetened shredded coconut and 3 C sweetened flaked coconut. However, they offer the below alternative for those who have trouble finding unsweetened coconut (we can find it here, but it takes another errand, which doesn't always happen for me).
1/2 C cream of coconut
4 large egg whites
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp flour
6 C sweetened shredded coconut
Put oven rack in middle. Heat oven to 375. Line large baking sheet with parchment paper (don't skip; these babies will stick).
Whisk together cream of coconut, egg whites, vanilla, and salt.
Toss together coconut and flour, breaking up any large clumps in coconut.
Add wet mix to coconut and mix.
Mound into haystacks on parchment and bake for 13-16 minutes or until brown on top and at edges.
They're some kind of wonderful just alone, but we like to dip ours in chocolate to feed our gluttonous tendencies. I use 60% chocolate.
For dipping:
1 bag 60% dark chocolate chips (I usually use Ghiradelli)
To melt the chocolate, put chips in microwave at 30 second intervals, mixing in between, until almost entirely melted. When just a few lumps remain, mix it up until those lumps melt.
When macaroons are at room temperature, you can dip the bottoms of the macaroons in chocolate.
You can dip them by actually dipping the bottoms in. We did this with several of ours, and it's how all my kids did it (if you get a macaroon my kids dipped, lucky you, because they did not skimp on the chocolate). However, I found that the tops of the haystacks were sometimes delicate and occasionally broke off with dipping; therefore I preferred to sort of hold mine and paint the chocolate on the bottoms. I only had a child around to take a picture of this, so it's a bit fuzzy, but you get the idea.
When you're done, place them on parchment paper. I couldn't remember if we usually placed them bottoms down or tops down, so I tried some of each. They both worked.
Let the chocolate set and you're good to go.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a date with some push-ups and crunches. Or a nap. Preferably both.
Merry Christmas!!!
PRINTABLE RECIPE
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