Macaroons are made either with ground almond or with coconut. They are often in circular shape and can be easily confused with the French confection ‘Macaron’. Even though the ingredients in both ‘Macaroons’ and ‘Macaron’ are very similar they are widely different from one another and each stand with its head held high providing a wonderful dessert with its own sweetness and taste. The name ‘Macaroons’ comes from Italian maccarone or maccherone meaning “paste” referring to the almond paste in the original recipe. Coconut Macaroons are very common in Australia, USA, Germany and many other countries.

The main ingredients in making macaroon are egg whites, sugar, and dried coconut. Nowadays sweetened condensed milk is replaced instead of sugar. And what’s the effect? The resulting macaroons are soft and chewy on the inside and crispy on the outside. As a variation macaroons are typically dipped in milk chocolate; sometimes nuts such as almonds, cashews or other nuts are also added to give the extra crunch. I’m a big fan of dark chocolate but I didn’t have them in my pantry so I went with milk chocolate this time. I’m sure to try them with dark chocolate in the near future, what’s your choice?

Step-by-Step Pictorial:

Preheat oven to 325 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a medium bowl mix shredded coconut, sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla extract. Keep aside.
In a another bowl beat egg whites and salt using a hand-held electric mixer until stiff peaks are formed.

Add the egg whites to the coconut mixture and gently fold using a rubber spatula. Either using a cookie scoop or with two spoons place about a heaping tablespoon of the mixture on the parchment paper with about an inch space apart. Bake for about 25 minutes until the tops are golden brown and the bottom and edges are deep golden. Cool completely on a cooling rack. If you are dipping the macaroons in chocolate then melt the chocolates in either a double boiler (a heat proof bowl placed on top of simmering boiling water but the bowl shouldn’t touch the water) or in microwave in 30 seconds interval stopping each time to give a stir to distribute the heat evenly until the chocolate is smooth and creamy. Dip the bottom of the cooled macaroons in the chocolate and let the excess drip back to the bowl. Place the macaroons on the parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Once all the macaroons are dipped in chocolate, place the cookie sheet in refrigerator for about 10 minutes or until the chocolate is set. Enjoy!!!

Coconut Macaroons

Ingredients

Sweetened Shredded Coconut — 14 ounce
Vanilla Extract — 1 tsp
Egg Whites — from 2 large eggs
Sweetened Condensed milk (not evaporated milk)— 7/8 cup
Salt — 1/4 tsp
Semi-sweet Chocolate — 4 ounces (chopped) (needed only if you are going to dip the macaroons in chocolate)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a medium bowl mix shredded coconut, sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla extract. Keep aside.
In a another bowl beat egg whites and salt using a handheld electric mixer until stiff peaks are formed. Add the egg whites to the coconut mixture and gently fold using a rubber spatula.
Either using a cookie scoop or with two spoons place about a heaping tablespoon of the mixture on the parchment paper with about an inch space apart. Bake for about 25 minutes until the tops are golden brown and the bottom and edges are deep golden. Cool completely on a cooling rack.
If you are dipping the macaroons in chocolate then melt the chocolates in either a double boiler (a heat proof bowl placed on top of simmering boiling water but the bowl shouldn’t touch the water) or in microwave in 30 seconds interval stopping each time to give a stir to distribute the heat evenly until the chocolate is smooth and creamy. Dip the bottom of the cooled macaroons in the chocolate and let the excess drip back to the bowl. Place the macaroons on the parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Once all the macaroons are dipped in chocolate, place the cookie sheet in refrigerator for about 10 minutes or until the chocolate is set. Enjoy!!!

Notes

To measure 7/8 cup of sweetened condensed milk, measure 1 cup of sweetened condensed milk and remove 1/8 cup. If you don’t have 1/8 cup measure then remove half of 1/4 cup.