This Saturday I borrowed 2 books from the library on baking cookies. The following macaroons recipe is based on Key Lime CoconutMacaroons, from Jill Snider’s Cookies book. That recipe caught my eye because it was eggless originally, when the macaroon recipes I’ve seen so far used egg whites and I had all the ingredients at home. Since I don’t like lime/lemon flavoring in cookies/cakes, I omitted it. The original recipe called for key lime juice, so I substituted it with milk. Then only I realized that how similar it was to the South Indian “thengai-coconutburfi“. So to get that taste I decided to add some cashews and cardamom powder. I also ended up using lesser amount of coconut and all purpose flour, so the final batter was watery. Then I remembered how my grandmother used to add rava (semolina) while making the burfis, so I also added a couple tablespoons of it, to make the dough firm. In spite of all these changes, the end product tasted very good.
I think the mistake I did was adding milk to replace the lime juice, which resulted in a watery batter or not following the actual measurements. But it was definitely a very nice experience trying out various combinations. So what I would do the next time is, just combine condensed milk and coconut to form a firm dough, drop it on a cookie sheet and bake it. I’m positive that this will also bake perfectly
- 1 CupSweetened Condensed Milk
- 1/4 CupMilk
- 1/4 CupAll Purpose Flour
- 2.5 CupsSweetened Shredded Coconut
- 3 TablespoonsSemolina
- 1/4 CupCashew Nuts, Broken Into Pieces
- 1 TeaspoonCardamom Powder
- Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 350F (180C) for 15 minutes.
- In a large bowl, combine sweetened milk and milk, whisking until blended.
3. With a wooden spoon, stir in flour, mixing until thoroughly blended.
4. Stir in coconut, cashews and cardamom powder.
5. After combining all the ingredients, the batter was a little bit watery. So I test baked just 1 tablespoon and the cookie spread so much.
6. So I added 3 tablespoons of semolina (sooji/rava) to the batter and combined it well and now the batter was nice and firm. Again I test baked another tablespoon of the dough and the macaroon came out perfect.
7. Then I went ahead and dropped tablespoonfuls of dough about 1 inch apart and baked it in the oven until it was golden around the edges (which approximately took 15 minutes). I got 24 (plus 2 test bake) macaroons for the above measurement.
9. Then transfer to a rack and cool completely.
