One of the cookies I made over the weekend for Chinese New Year were these coconut macaroons. I originally wanted to try macaroons around Christmas time, but I didn’t get a chance to. I figured, this would be a good opportunity to make these since coconut is one of the candies in a traditional Chinese New Year candy tray.
I found these in Martha Stewart’s cookie book and it looked simple enough. It’s fairly easy for me to get unsweetened coconut flakes from the Asian supermarkets. However, Martha mentions that if you don’t have any, you can substitute sweetened coconut, but reduce the amount of sugar called for to 1 TBSP. The original recipe called for chocolate chunks, but I had lots of chocolate chips to use, so I used that instead.
Chocolate Chip Coconut Macaroons
adapted from: Martha Stewart’s Cookies
ingredients:
3/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups unsweetened coconut flakes
2 large egg whites
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
directions:
Preheat oven to 375° F. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray, set aside.
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl except for the chocolate chips. Mix well to combine. Stir in chocolate chips to combine.
Dampen your hands with cold water (repeat as necessary while forming cookies). Using a TBSP sized cookie scoop, scoop mixture into hands and mound into small haystacks. Place on cookie sheet.
Bake until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes, rotating the sheets 180° halfway through. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack
Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Makes about 1 1/2 dozen cookies (I got 22).
