More Cloudy Christmas Confections

Can you tell I’m into alliteration today? I made some coconut macaroons, and they came out so nice, I thought I’d share the recipe. Mostly they’re just a meringue with a lot of coconut. It’s super easy, which is really good. I used to be an obsessive Martha Stewart type of cookie maker, where the more complicated the recipe was the better. That was before I had two little kitchen helpers. These days, it’s either got to be quick and easy since I’m sneaking the baking in when they’re not around, or it’s got to be quick and easy anyway, since I’m letting them help, and I can only be patient when the flour is flying for so long.

So without further ado, here’s how I make Coconut Macaroons

2 egg whites

1/2 to 1 tsp vanilla (depends on how strong I want it to be)

2/3 c. powdered sugar

1 1/2 c. shredded coconut

preheat the oven to 325 degrees

Grease your cookie sheet, since this recipe doesn’t have any fat in it. Usually you don’t need to grease your cookie sheet for cookies, but most of them have far more fat than these do. Make sure the bowl and mixer you’re going to use is perfectly dry, otherwise the eggs may not form the fluffy goodness we’re looking for. Then seperate the eggs, and dump the egg whites into your mixer bowl. I save the yolks for later. Beat those egg whites for a while, until they start looking like meringue and form soft peaks when you touch them. That’s when you add the sugar, a little at a time, otherwise you loose bubbles in your egg whites, plus, you get a lovely snow like coating of sugar all over you kitchen. Once the peaks in your eggs are nice and pointy, then you gently add the coconut with a spoon or a spatula. Then plop spoonfulls onto a cookie sheet and put them in the oven for about 20 minutes till they’re just starting to brown.

pull them out, and attempt to let them cool before eating them. At this point I think that the only thing that could make them more perfect would be a drizzle of melted chocolate after they’re baked, but that breaks the fast and easy rule for me, so I’ll leave that to someone else.