Favorite Food Friday: Coconut Macaroons

Coconut Macaroons are my all time favorite cookie. I love them, so you would think by now I would have figured out how to make them, but no. I have been destined to eating them only when I go to a coffee shop and only if they carry them. Well no longer, I have finally found out how to make them and make them I will. There are lots of recipes out there for coconut macaroons, some that call for sweetened condensed milk other that don't, the recipe I ended up using was found on the NPR site. This recipe looked simple and only had a few ingredients all of which I had on hand so I would say at this point I am "WINNING" (sorry couldn't resist the Charlie Sheen joke.) Here is how I made them.

Measure out your ingredients, there is only 5 ingredients so pretty darn easy

Mix them all together in a stainless steel bowl

Set over a double boiler and cook while stirring until the egg whites thick and turn opaque, see how they are no longer clear in the picture and are sort of a creamy white color, that is what you are going for.

Don't forget to let the mixture cool so that all the liquid absorbs into the coconut, if you don't you may have runny cookies or really dry ones if you leave it in the bowl. Spoon onto a lined baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes. As you can see I used my Silpat but you could use parchment if you don't have a Silpat. Let cool and than drizzle them with chocolate if you want or eat them plain, I prefer plain.

I totally could eat them all but I know better than that so I decided to package some up as little thank-you gifts for some really great people around my children's school, people who may not always get recognized or thanked such as the the janitor, the lunch lady, the librarian etc. This would also make a very cute teacher appreciation gift, they are very cheap to make but have a wow factor to them. I'm hoping they will brighten a few people's day tomorrow.