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…..

White Chocolate Lime Coconut Macaroons and Dark Chocolate Macadamia Coconut Macaroons

I originally was just planning to share with you this great Coconut Macaroon recipe I recently found.  I made them for the first time in January and it has taken me this long to get my act together and get it blogged, so today I thought I’d make them again.  While making them, I had an idea to try some of the mixture with some lime zest added and dip them in white chocolate.  Then  I wanted to just make more of them the way I originally did with the bottom of them dipped in dark chocolate.  While dipping some, I dropped one in the chocolate, so I just dunked the whole thing and enrobed it in dark chocolate.  Ended up making a few like that. (Can you say Almond Joy?!)  I also recently saw some macaroons that were drizzled with chocolate and had macadamia nuts on top—so I did that, too.

I don’t know why I never thought of the fact that coconut macaroons can have so many different things added.  I also don’t know which kind I like the best.  The white chocolate lime ones are really good and have the little added zing that is good. 

When I originally made these back in January I made them for my book group.  One of the gals in the group doesn’t like chocolate (GASP!), so I always try to make something she can enjoy.  So I made a batch and dipped half in chocolate and left half “plain”.

Yes, I dipped more in chocolate than I left plain.  ;)

Just teasing, it was about half and half.   They really are great both ways, like they stand on their own without the chocolate.  If you like coconut, you’ll love these.  All the macaroon recipes I’ve seen and made before usually have egg whites and/or sweetened condensed milk.  The coconut is usually just mixed in to the barely beaten egg whites.  This recipe has the egg whites first beaten to a stiff peak with a little sugar added, then the coconut (and ground almonds) are folded in to the egg whites.

For the macadamia nut ones, I just sprinkled some on the tops, but these would be even more kicked up Hawaiian-like if you added ground macadamia nuts to the coconut mixture instead of almonds.

I found this treasured recipe at Amy’s blog, What Jew Wanna Eat.  I’m not Jewish and don’t eat Kosher, but love her blog.  Check out the link for her macaroons, she made them with the bottoms dipped in chocolate, then dipped in sea salt and rainbow sprinkles.  Love!  I also like that they are made with unsweetened coconut, which I prefer to the long shreds of sweetened coconut.  Though both times I made these, I didn’t quite have enough unsweetened and used two cups unsweetened and one cup of sweetened.  I like the texture of unsweetened coconut and that it is usually ground to a finer consistency. 

Coconut Macaroons with White Chocolate and Lime or Dark Chocolate, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, adapted from Amy, What Jew Wanna Eat

2 large egg whites

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch of salt

3 cups coconut (unsweetened or sweetened, or a mix of—your choice)

1/2 cup ground almonds (I used sliced almonds, then ground them in the food processor)

3 ounces white chocolate, melted*

zest of half a lime

3 ounces dark chocolate, melted*

Macadamia nuts, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Beat the egg whites in a mixer on high to a soft peak.  Gradually add the sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.  Then fold in the vanilla, salt, coconut and ground almonds. 

If making some with lime, put half the coconut mixture in a separate bowl and add the lime zest and stir to incorporate.  Scoop mounds of all the mixtures about ping pong ball size onto the baking sheet.  Bake for about 15 minutes until the macaroons are dry to the touch.  Let cool on baking sheet until they are firm enough to move to a wire rack (they are slightly delicate).  Once cooled, dip the bottoms of the lime macaroons in the melted white chocolate and set them on waxed paper to let the chocolate harden.  Then dip the other half in the dark chocolate, or drizzle the chocolate over the tops and sprinkle with macadamia nuts, or colorful sprinkles, or whatever you’d like! 

Go ahead and play with your macaroons, flavors could be endless!

My favorite are probably the simple coconut macaroons, dipped in dark chocolate, but those white chocolate lime ones ARE pretty darn good, if you HAVE to have white chocolate instead of dark. ;)