Coconut Macaroons
Coconut macaroons are the ugly duckling of the cookie world. Ideally, they should be crispy on the outside, melt-in-your-mouth soft and chewy on the inside, and perfectly round in shape with the exception of a flat base. However, I have yet to come across a recipe that allows for ALL of these things at once - and I’ve made a LOT of coconut macaroons in my day. In my experience, if they’re deliciously chewy on the inside and crispy on the outside they tend to come out of the oven looking like a hot mess that needs to be cleaned up, a la your college roommate on New Years Eve. On the other hand, if they look perfectly shaped they tend to be dry on the inside - and no one wants a dry coconut macaroon.
The exception to this is, of course, Flour bakery in Boston. Their coconut macaroons are PERFECTION. But I, friends, am just a pale mommy baking macaroons in my kitchen (#palemommy - it’s trending in our house). So, while mine aren’t perfect, they’re certainly delicious - and that’s just fine with me because I’m not going for perfection. I’m going for deliciously homemade. So, boom, done.
As a side note, these macaroons are gluten free. Can I get a holla from my GF friends in the back?! Much love to you, you know who you are :).
Step 1: Gather Your Ingredients
The most important ingredient here is, of course, coconut. I used sweetened coconut here but you could absolutely use unsweetened coconut and increase the sugar by a 1/2 cup. These are cookies - don’t fear the sugar, embrace it!
Additionally, I always like to have more coconut on hand than the recipe calls for because you can always add more coconut to get the recipe to look right if you need to. Coconut macaroons are super forgiving because there’s no flour, baking powder, or baking soda (all of the things that need to be precisely measured because cooking is chemistry and formulas matter) to contend with. If you need to add more coconut, go ahead and add more. Fun fact - I had to add an entire extra bag of sweetened coconut to mine this time and I’m not sorry - they’re fantastic!
Step 2: Beat Egg Whites and Sugar
These cookies only contain 3 ingredients, so it’s important to pay attention to what’s there. One of the most important parts is thoroughly beating your sugar into your egg whites. I used a stand mixer with a whisk attachment but you could just as easily use a hand mixer - it just takes a few minutes so your arm might get tired, but it’s all in the name of delicious cookies so suck it up, buttercup!
Beat sugar and egg whites together until frothy. If they’re still stringy, you haven’t beaten them enough. Frothy means frothy - you want to see those little bubbles.
Hey hey, little bubbles!
Step 3: Add Coconut
Add your coconut to the bowl and fold into the egg mixture with a wooden spoon. You want your finished mixture to look wet but not dripping wet, so if you need to add more coconut go ahead and do so. The Macaroon Police are not going to come and get you - you do you.
I added extra coconut - a whole bag, but I was also making a double batch, so more like half of a bag if you’re making it in normal proportions.
Step 4: Bake Macaroons
Using a cookie scoop (or two spoons) drop by 1 1/2 inch rounds onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Coconut can be a bit unwieldly, so I find I need to kind of corale it back into the cookie scoop by folding the rouge ends in before placing it on the cookie sheet. Additionally, I find releasing the macaroon from the scoop onto the cookie sheet can make it a bit misshapen - just use the back of the cookie scoop to pat it back down into submission.
These can be placed relatively close together - they’re going to run together, but that’s okay because you’ll clean them up later.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes, or until macaroons are evenly golden brown and not wet looking (they’ll still be chewy on the inside).
Fold those little guys back in, otherwise they’ll get overly crispy.
Use the back of the scoop to reshape your macaroons.
Ready for the oven. Try as I might I can’t keep all of those little pieces of coconut contained. Grrr.
Step 5: Clean Up Your Cookies
As your cookies bake and you see all of the stuff oozing out of the bottom of them you may think you’ve done something wrong. Nope, not wrong - and don’t sweat it.
Once they’ve cooled, take a serrated knife and cut the oozed parts off to reveal your perfectly round macaroons. You’ll want to do this near the sink as with every few cookies you’ll need to run the knife under hot water to remove any built up gooiness - a clean knife makes this process a lot easier.
At this point, if you want to be a little bit extra, feel free to melt some chocolate and either drizzle it over the top or dip the bottom of your macaroons in it. I’ve done this in the past, but I don’t think it’s necessary. If you LOVE chocolate, go ahead - they’re your cookies. Personally, I feel the chocolate overshadows the taste of toasted coconut, so I like my macaroons to be pure. Your call, though.
Every one will look like a misshapen blob coming out of the oven. Don’t worry - your perfect macaroons are under there just waiting to be set free!
I love you, perfect little coconut macaroons!!!
And there you have it - coconut macaroons for the win! These are a holiday staple for me (especially because I deliver cookies to a bunch of gluten free friends) and I hope you love them as much as I do!
Happy baking, friends :)