I’m going to just come right out and admit it: I don’t like macaroons. I don’t like coconut all that much, and I like almond extract even less. (But I love almonds … go figure.)
But it’s not always all about what I want. My wife loves macaroons. I think it comes from fond childhood memories of the Girl Scout Samoas. But whatever the reason, I’ve chosen to overlook this obvious character flaw. That’s why I agreed that, in honor of Valentine’s Day, we’d go ahead and make them anyway.
And you know what? I … I …
No, I can’t do it. I still don’t like them. My wife said they were fabulous, though. And one daughter and my father-in-law are also now fans. This is why there’s more than one kind of cookie: We can’t all like the same one. That’s also why, the next day, my wife made me a batch of oatmeal-raisin cookies. Which are one of the world’s perfect foods.
Oh, but back to the macaroons. They’re actually pretty easy to make. But this version has a couple of extras that you don’t get in the Girls Scouts version.
Ingredients
14 ounces shredded coconut
14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
1 cup craisins (dried cranberries)
1/2 cup chopped cashews
8 ounces semi-sweet or milk chocolate (optional)
Directions
Everything else is ready to go except the cashews. If we were doing almonds you can find them already slivered. But the cashews had to be chopped. Jenn did them by hand, because she didn’t want them totally crushed, like the Ninja would do to them.
In a large bowl, combine the coconut, cashews, craisins, almond extract …
Wow! That’s just a little over-exposed. Let me try that again.
Man, trying to get something as dark as the craisins to show up red, not black, but still see any detail in the coconut is freakin’ hard. Okay, no one cares about my photography problems. Moving on, where were we … nuts, almond extract …
Ah, right, and finally the vanilla.
Give everything a stir until it’s pretty uniform.
Then add the condensed milk.
Yes, you have to mix it before adding the condensed milk. This stuff is incredibly sticky. If you put it all in at once, you’ll never get the nuts and craisins mixed in evenly. To say nothing of the almond extract and vanilla.
Now give it another mix until all the coconut is coated and sticking together.
Use an ice cream scoop to measure out even portions onto a greased baking sheet.
Actually, put some foil on it first. You don’t want to have to clean up after baking this.
We got twelve good-size cookies out of this recipe. You could easily make smaller ones and get two baking sheets full.
Bake at 350° for 8-10 minutes, until the coconut is crispy brown on the edges.
Lift them off the baking sheet immediately to prevent sticking.
Serve as is …
… or melt some chocolate and drizzle it over the top, or dip them in.
And that’s it.
If you’d rather have a bit of nostalgia, this looks like a pretty good Girl Scout Samoas copycat.
Want more like this? For more recipes like this, that you can hold right in your hands, and write on, take notes, tear pages out if you want (Gosh, you're tough on books, aren't you?) you might be interested in How To Cook Like Your Grandmother, 2nd edition, Illustrated. Or to learn your way around the kitchen, check out Starting From Scratch: The Owner's Manual for Your Kitchen.
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8 Comments
Is it a character flaw to love both macaroons AND oatmeal raisin cookies? That’s me. These look scrumptious and so easy. Going to try these tomorrow.
I LOVE Coconut!
Have you tried adding 2 whipped egg whites when you make the macaroons? They hold together and become more chewy!
Mary, these held together really well just from the condensed milk. I did see plenty of recipes that called for the whipped egg whites, but in all the ones that had photos they looked more like a crispy, baked custard type of cookie. You saying it’s more chewy is kind of surprising.
Do you do them with the egg whites and the condensed milk? Because all the recipes I saw were one or the other.
I just made some the other day with both the condensed milk and egg whites. They turned out chewy, when they first came out of the oven they were crispy on the outside and chewy inside, but after a day or so they are not crispy anymore.
I had coconut macaroons from a bakery that closed a while back. They were the best macaroons I ever had. I think they had flour in the recipe, because they were more like a traditional cookie. Most macaroons are chewy in a way I don’t really like. These look delicious. I like the addition of the craisins-nice flavor combo!
My first batch of macaroons I used the foil and stuck exactly to the recipe.. my macaroons burned on the bottoms and were cemented to the foil and fell apart. so for the second batch I used parchment paper and added two egg whites and they came out absolutely fabulous, I dipped them halfway into milk chocolate to make them look pretty and taste amazing! It could just be my oven because I think my temperature setting may be off. I highly recommend using the “cherry” flavored craisens… so delicious!
Natasha, after reading your comment I went back and checked how I wrote it up. I’m not terribly clear that you needed to grease the foil. (I would recommend lard or olive oil.)