As a coconut lover, I’ve tried dozens of coconut macaroon recipes over the years — be it for the holidays or for friends who eat gluten-free. These are my favorite. Chewy and moist on the inside, crispy and golden on the outside, they are delicious plain but even more irresistible dipped in chocolate. They also keep well for days, which makes them the perfect cookie to make ahead or give as gifts during the holidays.
The key ingredient in the recipe is sweetened condensed milk, which — take note — is not the same as evaporated milk. Both are similar canned milk products that have had water removed from them, but one is sweetened and the other is not. They are not interchangeable in recipes. Sweetened condensed milk is sticky-sweet and makes the best macaroons. Many recipes call for it but, in my experience, they all have the same problem: too much liquid, which causes the sweet batter to pool around the edges of the macaroons and burn in the oven. That’s because recipe writers want to keep their recipes neat and tidy with one whole bag of coconut and full one can of sweetened condensed milk (after all, it’s annoying to have leftover sweetened condensed milk because there’s not much you can do with it, except add it to your coffee). For this recipe, you’ll have to sacrifice some sweetened condensed milk, but your macaroons will be perfect :)
Begin by combining the coconut, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla.
Mix until well combined.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the egg whites and salt until stiff peaks form.
Stiff peaks look like this when you lift the beaters out of the bowl.
Add the egg whites to the coconut mixture.
And fold until combined.
Using two spoons, form heaping tablespoons of the mixture into mounds onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing about 1 inch apart.
Bake for about 25 minutes, until the bottoms and edges are deeply golden and the tops are lightly golden. Let the macaroons cool on the baking sheet for a minute, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.
If you’d like to dip the macaroons in chocolate, melt the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl, stopping to stir every 30 seconds, until just smooth and creamy. (Alternatively, melt in double boiler over simmering water.) Dip the bottoms of the macaroons in the chocolate and return to the lined baking sheets.
Refrigerate for about 10 minutes, or until the chocolate is set. That’s all there is to it. Enjoy!
Wondering with to do with those leftover egg yolks? Check out these recipes: Chocolate Cream Pie, Coconut Dream Pie, Millionaire’s Shortbread, Molten Chocolate Cakes, Tres Leches Cake, Rugelach, Banana Pudding Parfaits andRum Cake.
