Niall has been hinting for a while and finally flat out asked me to make macaroons. At first I thought he meant something like these heart shaped ones, but he asked specifically for coconut almond with milk chocolate. I used the recipe from Adventures in Shaw. This was my first attempt at macaroons and they weren't extremely pretty, but smelled really good baking and turned out okay. The biggest problem had to do with my inability to melt and drizzle chocolate. Makes 27 macaroons.
Ingredients
3 cups shredded coconut (desicated coconut)
1 cup slivered almonds
2/3 cup condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 egg whites
pinch of salt
12 ounces milk chocolate
3 Tablespoons cream (I used single cream)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. On a large baking tray, mix the coconut and almonds together.
Toast the coconut and almonds in the oven, mixing on occasion and checking often to make sure they don't burn. I loved how the house smelled as the coconut browned! Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Place in a large bowl.
While the coconuts and almonds are cooling, mix the egg whites with a pinch of salt and beat until soft peaks form. I used the stand mixer and it took about six minutes. Combine the condensed milk with the vanilla.
When the coconut has cooled, add the milk mixture to the bowl and mix well.
Then fold in the egg whites.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and grease. Once again, the parchment paper! I don't know know how it's supposed to work, but the macaroons stuck a little and I wonder if just using a greased cookie sheet with no paper would have been better.
I used a cookie scoop to put the macaroon mixture onto the cookie sheet, each macaroon was the size of a heaping tablespoon.
Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, until the coconut is nicely browned. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
I pretty much failed at the chocolate dipping part. I don't even know how to do it better. I melted the chocolate with the cream in a double boiler. (Uh, a metal bowl over a sauce pan full of water. I used Cadbury milk chocolate, which was a temptation for Niall and we ended up with less chocolate than we were supposed to.)
When the chocolate is melted, I was supposed to dip each macaroon in the chocolate, place on parchment paper and then drizzle chocolate over the top with a spoon. I tried that and got the bottoms dipped but the drizzle didn't quite happen. It sort of glooped. Then I refrigerated the macaroons (on the trays) but the chocolate never really set. But, Niall got his macaroons and I guess that's that.
2 comments:
I hate to sound like a know-it-all, (because I definately am not), the heart-shaped cookies are called macarons. (mack-uh-rawns) I didn't know this until I learned it in school, (most everyone knew this but me); so I would like to share this knowledge! Macaroons, are the coconut/almond ones like the ones you created! There's a tid bit for you!
You do know everything! Those frenchy macaroons, where they drop that extra "o", are illusive to me. I've never had them but they look so pretty. I don't know if I'd ever dare to say them out loud. And remember how I didn't know Spanakopita either? I think I'll have to give both of them (macarOns and Spanakopita) a try someday, when I'm feeling brave.
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