Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Coconut Macaroons

Going to a gym with a television screen on every cardio machine made working out a little easier in high school. The channels, however, were limited and I'd usually end up watching the Food Network while running on the treadmill. My friends joked with me about watching Ina Garten, Sandra Lee, and Giada De Laurentiis make food while I tried to burn it off, but I loved picking up new cooking tips. Once I started classes at IU and had to adjust to new gym lacking in television screens I got through workouts listening to music and/or reading instead.

Now I obsessively read magazines while on a bike, but I didn't ditch food as a topic and one of my favorites is Food & Wine. I was never the only one in the gym watching the Food Network, but I think I'm the only one reading recipes.

Most of Food & Wine is filled with recipes I don't have the skill or resources to attempt, but every issue has a couple recipes I have to try. I came across this recipe for macaroons last week while cycling and bought the ingredients just a couple short hours later.

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These Coconut Macaroons call for just a handful of ingredients and are far easier to make than I imagined. If you like coconut, these cookies have a perfect sweetness and a decadently chewy texture. These will definitely be a future Christmas go-to recipe for me and I encourage you to give them a try!

Coconut Macaroons, via Danny Cohen and Food & Wine Magazine

Ingredients:
One 14-ounce bag sweetened shredded coconut

One 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 large egg whites

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted*

  1. Preheat the oven to 350° and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, combine the coconut with the sweetened condensed milk and vanilla.

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  2. In another bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites with the salt until firm peaks form**. Fold the beaten whites into the coconut mixture.

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  3. Scoop tablespoon-size mounds of the mixture onto the baking sheets, about 1 inch apart***. Bake in the upper and middle thirds of the oven for about 25 minutes, until golden; shift the sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through baking. Transfer the baking sheets to racks and let the cookies cool completely.

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  4. Dip the bottoms of the macaroons into the melted chocolate, letting any excess drip back into the bowl. Return the cookies to the lined baking sheets. Drizzle any remaining chocolate on top and refrigerate for about 5 minutes, until set****.

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  5. Eat them!
My notes:
*I used semisweet chips and I loved this choice. Bittersweet is pretty comparable though, so I would use whatever you have laying around.
**Egg whites have formed stiffed peaks when you lift the beaters out and the egg whites stick up in peaks without falling back into the bowl. You can over beat egg whites so be careful!
***I actually scooped "batter" with a tablespoon to help my macaroons look somewhat uniform. The batter is pretty sticky so it's tough to make them really round, but the chocolate helps cover up rough edges!
****Instead of fighting for space in the fridge I just let the dipped cookies sit on the counter until the chocolate set and that worked fine.

You can also find the recipe here:
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/coconut-macaroons