{recipe} Pillowy Coconut Macaroons

This recipe is:

• super easy
• gluten-free
• dairy-free
• eaten up in mere moments
• good for passover, as they are not leavened (I’m not Jewish, but I know how that stuff works)

Lately, you can’t escape food lovers and cooks waxing poetic about the latest baking craze: macarons. I get it. They are oh so lovely to look at. They are small and colorful. They are so de rigeur. But I actually don’t think they taste that great. I think they taste meh. Even the really really really good ones. I’m just not into them. There, I said it. My name is Karen and I don’t think macarons taste that great.

So let me dispel your confusion: this recipe is not for macarons with one o, it is for macaroons with two os. I have always (rightly or wrongly? who knows) thought of the one-o macarons as being a French thing, and the two-o macaroon as being an American thing. Anyone know if that’s true? And two-os are not adorable little sandwiches of prettily colored, perfectly round discs, they are blobs of coconutty goodness.

Maybe it was the one-o vs. two-o inferiority complex, maybe it’s because they looked like albino McDonald’s fry guys, or maybe it’s just because I am frickin’ fancy- but I put gold leaf on them. It was Tuesday. No one expects gold leaf on a Tuesday.

Pillowy Coconut Macaroons

makes 16… unless you make them freakishly small or freakishly large, in which case it will make a different amount

Ingredients:

• 3 egg whites (as with one-o macarons, using old egg whites is acceptable/encouraged)
• large pinch of salt
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups sweetened coconut (I use the “angel flake” kind, but maybe it’s just good marketing)

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350. Prepare a baking sheet with a silpat, parchment, or cooking spray.
• Put egg whites and salt in a mixer with a whisk attachment and beat until the whites form very soft peaks.
• Add sugar and continue beating until the whites form stiff peaks.
• Gently fold the vanilla and coconut (the vanilla part will be awkward and streaky at first, but it will all work out in the end.)
• Use your hands to gently grab a wad of dough and form it into a circular mound shape.
• Bake for 15-20 minutes, until macaroons are lightly browned but still soft inside. Remove to a wire rack for cooling. Unlike most cookies, these don’t taste that great when they’re hot- they are better at room temperature.