Easy Coconut Macaroons

Macaroons are really simple to make, but still delicious and mildly impressive. Even better, they contain no flour so you can eat them during Passover!

Mine are plain, but you can mix things like mini chocolate chips, dried fruit, and nuts into the batter. They are very sweet (just look at the ingredients) and pleasantly chewy.

Yield: ~20 small macaroons

Ingredients:

2 egg whites

1/2 tsp salt

14 oz bag of sweetened shredded coconut

3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk

~1 1/2 cups of mix-ins, such as nuts, dried fruit, or chocolate (optional)

(note: I made a double batch, so the photos are of larger quantities of ingredients)

(Preheat your oven to 300 deg F)

Put your egg whites in a bowl and add the salt. Beat them with a hand mixer (or a whisk, if you have lots of time and massive forearms) to stiff peaks.

Pour the sweetened condensed milk and shredded coconut into the bowl. Gently fold them into the egg whites with a rubber spatula. The final mixture looks sort of dry, but homogeneous.

Use an ice cream scoop or a pair of spoons to scoop out the cookies onto parchment lined cookie sheets. The recipe suggests a 2-inch scoop, but that would make giant cookies. Mine were about 1-inch in diameter.

Bake the cookies for ~25 minutes at 300 deg, or until golden brown and toasty. The baking time will vary based on the size of your macaroons - check them every 10 minutes or so if you are unsure.

Let the macaroons cool a bit, then eat! I prefer mine at room temperature, but some people like them warm.

I decided to dip the tops of some of my (cooled) macaroons in chocolate, mostly because I could. I used bittersweet chocolate chips (I didn't want to add even more sweetness) and melted them in the microwave. Then I simply dipped the tops into the melted chocolate and let them set (you can put them in the freezer or refrigerator if you want them to set up faster).