Eight Years of Blogging! Chocolate Drizzled Toasted Almond Coconut Macaroons

Today it has been eight years since I started my blog!  I cannot believe it—eight years!  When I started it, just to keep track of and share happenings of my boys and my life with my family and friends, I had no idea I’d still be at it this many years later.  My boys are sure growing up!

 

It’s strange to think back to 2008.  Sam wasn’t even one when I started my blog.  He’s now almost nine!  Scott is 17, Parker is 14, and Taylor is 12!  Bah!!!  It’s too much to keep thinking about, so let’s talk macaroons instead.

 

I love coconut.  I don’t think I’ve ever met or made a macaroon I didn’t like.  But I think I’ve made one that might be my favorite now….and for always?  These have toasted almonds, ground nice and finely.  They are made with coconut sugar and raw honey, unsweetened coconut and egg whites.  Perfectly gluten free and refined sugar free, but you must believe me—they are so good.  Perfect, if I must say so.  Yes, they are great plain, as is.  But if you know me, I have to add a little chocolate to just about everything.  So I melted some Enjoy Life chocolate chips and drizzled it over the tops of the cookies, then sprinkled some more of the freshly ground toasted almonds on top.  Heavenly!

 

They really are great without the chocolate.  I know, I ate a few of them before the chocolate came along.  But come on—everything is better with chocolate.  It had to be done.  I just wouldn’t be me if I hadn’t.  You want the recipe, I know, that’s really why you’re here. 

 

Can you guess which one I ate first?  That’s right—the one where the bigger drizzle of chocolate fell upon it. ; )

 

Chocolate Drizzled Toasted Almond Coconut Macaroons, by Katrina, Baking and Boys! (Gluten Free, Grain Free, Paleo, Refined Sugar Free)

 

2 large egg whites, room temperature

1/4 cup coconut sugar

1/4 cup raw honey

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1/8 teaspoon salt

3 cups unsweetened (dessicated) shredded coconut

1/2 cup freshly toasted, then finely ground almonds*

3-4 ounces Enjoy Life chocolate chips (3 ounces is 1/2 cup)

1/2 teaspoon coconut oil

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the egg whites and begin beating them on high speed with the wire attachment until foamy.  Gradually add the coconut sugar then the honey. Scrape the sides of the bowl.  Add the vanilla, almond extract and salt and beat until soft peaks form.  Fold the coconut and ground almonds into the egg white mixture.  Using a cookie scoop, put the coconut mixture into mounds on the baking sheet, using your hands/fingers form each firmly together on the tops.  They can be fairly close together on the baking sheet as they do not spread.  Makes about 16 cookies.  Bake for 15 minutes.  Let cool on the baking sheet until almost cool.  Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.  Melt the chocolate in a glass dish in the microwave in 20-30 second intervals, stirring in between.  When it is almost completely melted, add the coconut oil and stir until melted and combined.  This only takes about 90 seconds total.  Using a small spoon (or add the chocolate to a sandwich-sized plastic zip top baggie with the corner snipped off), drizzle the chocolate over each cookie.  I happened to have some extra ground almonds and sprinkled it over each cookie. 

 

I took the inspiration and basic recipe for these from a recipe for some macaroons I made a couple years ago that were also the bomb--White Chocolate Lime Coconut Macaroons and Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Coconut Macaroons.  These were also delicious!  Try them!  Credit goes again to What Jew Wanna Eat for the original recipe.

 

Happy Eight Years of Blogging to me.  Who knows—maybe another eight year or more?  I don’t even want to think about how grown up my boys would be then—and how old that would make me…..

True No Bake Cookies—The Easiest and Yummiest Cookies Ever

If you’re looking for the world’s most simple, yummiest treat (you could totally whip these up in minutes and serve them for New Year’s Eve tonight), this is the cookie!  There was recently a very small feud (not really a feud, just an observance) between a fellow food blogger and I about these classic no bake cookies.  This recipe I’ve made and posted today are THE original cookies, THE recipe I grew up making.  There are no other True No Bake Cookies. ; )  That said, Blaise from Blaise the Baker posted a step-by-step tutorial about these cookies yesterday on his Facebook page.  You can get his (not original, hehe) recipe on the link to his blog.  After I saw his post, it dawned on me that every time I have seen these cookies, for years—they have always had peanut butter in them.  I’m here to tell you, even as a chocolate and peanut butter lover, that these should not be made with peanut butter.  It’s wrong. 

Okay, okay, it’s probably not wrong.  But THE True No Bake Cookies I grew up with do not have peanut butter, so it has always seemed wrong to me.  After chatting with Blaise, I looked through my good old recipe box for the recipe.  And when I say old, I mean it—I have in that box recipes from when I took a cooking class in 7th grade, so we’re talking 34+ years ago.  Whew!  Anyway, there I found THE recipe!

And here I share THE recipe with YOU!  Peanut butter not necessary.  If you need the chocolate/peanut butter combo fix, eat a Reese’s. 

True No Bake Cookies, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup 2% milk

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups old fashioned oats

1/2 cup nuts (I always remember walnuts, peanuts are not an option, haha), optional

1 cup sweetened, shredded coconut, optional

In a large saucepan, over medium heat, combine together the sugar, butter, milk, cocoa and salt.  When it comes to a good rolling boil, boil for exactly one minute.  Remove from heat and add the vanilla.  Stir well.  Add the oats, coconut, and nuts and stir together to combine.  Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto waxed paper and let cool.  They don’t even take 30 minutes to cool and set up.  Serve the plateful and watch them disappear.  Makes 18-20.  (The nuts and coconut are optional.  I left out the nuts as my kids don’t love them.)

You do not need to make these all perfectly uniform.  They shouldn’t be.  That is what makes them “true”.

How do you make no bake cookies?  Wondering if I have other fellow non-peanut butter no bake cookie people out there.  I’m sure Blaise and all the others out there who put peanut butter in theirs still have a great cookie.  Just having a little fun.

Happy End of 2015!  And here’s to a wonderful New Year to you all!  Make it a great one!  I plan to do so!

Saucepan M&M Cookies

Just thought I’d share these perfect M&M Cookies I made today to take to a family BBQ.

I won’t be eating them because of the new changes in my diet, but they look like a perfect cookie full of chocolate and candies.  I probably should have doubled the recipe.  I have a feeling I’ll be asked to make them again soon.  The boys are going crazy that I won’t let them have one until tonight.  So sad. ;)

These couldn’t have been easier to make either.  Got the recipe from the cookie expert herself, Anna, at Cookie Madness.  I followed her recipe exactly.  So check out the link to her blog for the recipe.  I suppose I did make a couple small changes, I used semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of the dark chocolate chips she used and regular plain M&M’s instead of the mini ones Anna used.  I also called my cookies done at 11 minutes, her recipe says 12-15. 

Anna got the original recipe for these cookies in the book, The Weekend Baker:  Irresistible Recipes, Simple Techniques, and Stress Free Strategies for Busy People by Abigail Johnson Dodge.

Since I’ve been making healthier treats lately with unrefined sugar, it was fun to whip these up.  I sure like baking!  I also had some overripe bananas, so I made a banana sheet cake frosted with cream cheese frosting.  Sigh….some things I really miss…..I suppose it’s all for better health—right!  (I’ve been enjoying plenty of refined sugar free, gluten free treats anyway, I might have also whipped up some more of the Gluten Free Chocolate Zucchini Brownies today, too.

You know how sometimes it’s kind of a pain to get out the mixer and have to cream everything together?  These are so simple and all made in one saucepan after melting the butter.  Easy!  Here’s the link for the recipe again at Cookie Madness.