Munchie Mondays: Chocolate Covered Coconut Macaroons
If I were a guy, I'd ask Molly from Orangette to marry me. I LOVE her recipes and I love her writing. These cookies are from her food blog and they very well are the best damn cookies in the world.
Case in point: I'm sick as a dog right now. My nose is running, my head hurts and I'm coughing up things that just shouldn't exist in nature. Sammi being the generous soul that she is, baked me up a batch of these as a "get well" present. They were so good, I crawled out of bed to make own batch after I finished hers. She used bittersweet chocolate and I used semi-sweet for mine. Although you can use either, I think bittersweet tastes much more sophisticated. It offsets the sweetness of the coconut quite well.
I added maraschino cherries atop my cookies because I feel guilty copying recipes word for word. They look like titties as my husband decided to inform me...I suppose they do. Anyhow, don't feel the need to add those if you so desire.
Chocolate-Covered Coconut Macaroons (with a cherry on top)
Adapted from this recipe.Thank you Orangette!
3 cups (lightly packed) sweetened shredded coconut
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup egg whites (about 5 or 6 large)
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup heavy cream
10 maraschino cherries patted dry
Place the first three ingredients in a large, heavy saucepan, and stir to combine well. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring regularly, about 10-12 minutes, until the mixture is pasty but not dry. (The uncooked mixture will look sort of granular at first, then creamy as it heats, and then it will slowly get drier and drier. You want to stop cooking when it no longer looks creamy but is still quite gluey and sticky, not dry.) Remove from heat. Mix in vanilla and almond extracts. Spread out the coconut mixture on a large baking sheet. Refrigerate until cold, about 30 minutes.
reheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Line another baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat baking mat. Using a 1/4-cup measuring scoop, scoop and pack the coconut mixture into domes, and place them on the baking sheet. I ended up with about 10 cookies. The original recipe ended up with a dozen. Bake the macaroons until golden, about 30 minutes. They'll look like this:
Transfer to a rack and cool. Meanwhile prepare the ganache. Place chocolate chips in a glass bowl and microwave for 20 seconds allowing the morsels to soften. Heat cream over medium heat until steaming hot and simmering, but not boiling. Remove from heat and pour into bowl of chocolate and whisk fiercely until all the chocolate melts and you get a thick batter-like sauce.
Place cookie rack over a ridged cookie pan and drizzle chocolate over the tops of the macaroons allowing most of the cookie to be covered. Yummy! i managed to use all of my sauce, but if you have leftovers, you can store them in tuppaware in the fridge or freeze. The sauce makes great fondue dip.
Let the cookies set up in the fridge for about 2 hours or so. If desired, top with maraschino cherries after an 1 of setting up. I think toasted almond flakes would be yummy too...maybe sprinkles? I dunno. Anyway, store in an airtight container between sheets of wax paper in the refrigerator or freeze. They actually taste really yummy frozen!
Case in point: I'm sick as a dog right now. My nose is running, my head hurts and I'm coughing up things that just shouldn't exist in nature. Sammi being the generous soul that she is, baked me up a batch of these as a "get well" present. They were so good, I crawled out of bed to make own batch after I finished hers. She used bittersweet chocolate and I used semi-sweet for mine. Although you can use either, I think bittersweet tastes much more sophisticated. It offsets the sweetness of the coconut quite well.
I added maraschino cherries atop my cookies because I feel guilty copying recipes word for word. They look like titties as my husband decided to inform me...I suppose they do. Anyhow, don't feel the need to add those if you so desire.
Chocolate-Covered Coconut Macaroons (with a cherry on top)
Adapted from this recipe.Thank you Orangette!
3 cups (lightly packed) sweetened shredded coconut
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup egg whites (about 5 or 6 large)
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup heavy cream
10 maraschino cherries patted dry
Place the first three ingredients in a large, heavy saucepan, and stir to combine well. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring regularly, about 10-12 minutes, until the mixture is pasty but not dry. (The uncooked mixture will look sort of granular at first, then creamy as it heats, and then it will slowly get drier and drier. You want to stop cooking when it no longer looks creamy but is still quite gluey and sticky, not dry.) Remove from heat. Mix in vanilla and almond extracts. Spread out the coconut mixture on a large baking sheet. Refrigerate until cold, about 30 minutes.
reheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Line another baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat baking mat. Using a 1/4-cup measuring scoop, scoop and pack the coconut mixture into domes, and place them on the baking sheet. I ended up with about 10 cookies. The original recipe ended up with a dozen. Bake the macaroons until golden, about 30 minutes. They'll look like this:
Transfer to a rack and cool. Meanwhile prepare the ganache. Place chocolate chips in a glass bowl and microwave for 20 seconds allowing the morsels to soften. Heat cream over medium heat until steaming hot and simmering, but not boiling. Remove from heat and pour into bowl of chocolate and whisk fiercely until all the chocolate melts and you get a thick batter-like sauce.
Place cookie rack over a ridged cookie pan and drizzle chocolate over the tops of the macaroons allowing most of the cookie to be covered. Yummy! i managed to use all of my sauce, but if you have leftovers, you can store them in tuppaware in the fridge or freeze. The sauce makes great fondue dip.
Let the cookies set up in the fridge for about 2 hours or so. If desired, top with maraschino cherries after an 1 of setting up. I think toasted almond flakes would be yummy too...maybe sprinkles? I dunno. Anyway, store in an airtight container between sheets of wax paper in the refrigerator or freeze. They actually taste really yummy frozen!
Labels: chocolate, coconut, cookies, Munchie Mondays, recipe
posted by cchang at 5:07 PM
2 Comments:
I've been good - restricting myself to one a day, so I still have one left - I bet the cherries are awesome with the macaroon though! Very amaretto... I might have to try that next time.
I'm also pondering adding liquor to the ganache next time, just a little frangelico maybe, or something like amaretto perhaps. I think the hazelnut of the frangelico could be neat with the coconut though :D
I'm not big on sweets, but the eggplant dish you showed last week made me very hungry. Someday I gotta try that roasted garlic thing.
Sorry about your dad. My Dad had cancer three times. Once he was divinely healed, with no medical treatment. The second time he used a demanding nutritional/supplement/detoxification regimen. Two years ago he had a small tumor removed surgically (with half of his colon, unfortunately). Anyway, there is more than one way to "skin a cat." (what an awful phrase) Cancer is like a battle between host and tumor (which stragely is also host, though mutated), and there are many ways to influence that battle in favor of the host -- in addition to conventional treatments, or even when there are no useful conventional ones.
Not *strictly* related, but my most recent post on thevitaminkid.blogspot.com is about a possible breakthrough in cancer treatment, not toxic and non-patentable (read: inexpensive) -- assuming it works well in humans, and hopefully if Big Pharma does not somehow get in the way of the research. (Call me paranoid.)
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