Chocolate-Dipped Coconut Macaroons

My friend and neighbor Jenn asked my mom and I to teach her how to make macaroons. Little did she know that neither of us has ever made them before. So Marie set out to get eggs, chocolate, and coconut from Target and I started looking at recipes.

Macaroons turned out to be really simple-looking to make, but they can be very finicky to bake correctly- as we found out. There is a delicate balance between getting them brown on the outside yet cooked all the way through, and not sticking to the freaking parchment paper.

I settled on a recipe that didn't have sweetened condensed milk or flour. I also found that most people were baking their macaroons at 325, although my recipe called for 300, this didn't get them cooked enough so I went back to 325. We made ours bite-sized, these things hit you like a bag of sugar to the face, plus this way you can have more than one.

This recipe makes 8 bite-sized macaroons, it can easily be doubled or tripled etc.

Ingredients:

1 Egg White
1 Tbsp Sugar
1/4 Tsp Vanilla
3/4 C Sweetened Coconut
Pinch Salt

Method:

1. Mix all ingredients with spoon or your hands in a bowl until totally combined
2. Divide into 4 balls if you want larger or 8 balls if you want the bite-sized and squeeze with your fingers until they hold their ball-shape
3. Spray parchment paper with Pam or brush with oil or butter or they will stick!! and place them as close as you want- they don't spread at all
4. Bake for around 20 mins or until they are golden brown and crusty on the outside. If they are too mushy leave them in longer, but don't let them get too dark
5. Let them cool for a couple of minutes and then remove them with a spatula
6. Make your chocolate dip by melting 2/3 C chocolate chips of any kind you like (semi-sweet, dark, milk whatever) and 1 Tbsp of butter over a double boiler and when the macaroons are cool either dip them in chocolate or drizzle it with a spoon over their tops
7. Store in tupperware in the fridge so the chocolate hardens

Here's another one that I want to try later this week if I have time: Raspberry Coconut Macaroons from Smitten Kitchen. I'll let you know how they turn out. And I'm definitely going to dip these in chocolate.

Photo credit: Smitten Kitchen