I love coconut macaroons, but I always bought them. This was my first attempt to make coconut macaroons. Turns out, they are fairly easy and very delicious.
As they were not part of my family recipe collection or experience, they required some research. First, I went through many of my cookbooks, then I checked for Internet recipes and watched YouTube videos. Second, I started to pull my hair out at the multitude of variations… Finally, I combined what I thought worked best from Martha Stewart, Kraft, Eagle Brand, and some YouTube video I watched to develop my own version.
Yes, I realize that it seems like a crazy thing to do considering my lack of experience baking them, but I lacked some of the ingredients for one version I liked and wasn’t sure about the proportions on another…Thus, I am crazy.
Know what is crazier? The fact that it worked. They turned out to be very delicious and have my daughter’s stamp of approval.
Recipe: Coconut Macaroons
Ingredients
- 2 egg whites, room temperature
- 3/8 tsp. cream of tartar
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz.)
- 1 bag sweetened coconut(14 oz.)
- 1 1/2 – 2 tsp. flavor emulsion or extract, such as almond (see notes)
- 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla emulsion or extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
- Whip egg whites, salt and cream of tartar until stiff peaks form.
- Combine milk, coconut, and flavorings in a bowl.
- Fold in egg whites.
- Place by teaspoons or small scoop onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper about 1 to 1/2 inches apart.
- Bake about 20 minutes or until golden brown.
- Transfer parchment paper onto cooling racks. Allow to cool slightly before removing cookies from parchment.
- Cool completely.
- Store in airtight container.
Quick Notes
I used an untraditional emulsion for coconut macaroons, Princess Cake Flavor. It gave the macaroons a slightly citrus taste.
Using an almond emulsion would be more traditional.
Vanilla Butternut emulsion would be great as well.
The emulsions do not evaporate as extracts do, thus you get a much more robust flavor.
Do not have any emulsion on hand? It can be purchased in a variety of specialty shops, craft stores, and online.