Holiday Baking Countdown: Coconut Macaroons

Aurelia Brogan
Dec 14, 2020
2 min read

So I was getting tired of making butter laden cookies and wanted to make something a bit more wholesome. My mother used to make delicious light coconut macaroons and I remember her fluffing up the egg whites and folding in sweet coconut. When I tried to find a good recipe for coconut macaroons, there were of course a lot of recipes, but many were made with sweetened coconut and sweetened condensed milk. My goal is usually to keep the ingredients and preparation as simple as possible. But wow — that’s hard to do when there are so many ways to make a simple cookie!

Some recipes recommend that you heat egg whites and sugar first, while others suggest that you whip the egg whites until stiff. One of the first recipes I came across recommended pulsing the coconut, while others never mention this step at all. Some have vanilla flavoring, nuts or chocolate mixed into the batter and some don’t. Some are made with added flour and others are not. Anyway, I combined the best of these recipes into what I thought would deliver a lovely sweet cookie with a lovely Italian almond flavor and achieved success! A tender, moist and perfectly sweet cookie with a mix of flaked and finely grated coconut, that is gluten free too.

Print Recipe

Coconut Macaroons

A simple gluten free coconut macaroon recipe that is not heavy but not a meringue either. A nice almond flavor and a sprinkle of crushed pistachios or almonds gives it a lovely flavor. The versions are endless!

Course: christmas cookies, coconut, coconutcookies, coconutmacaroons, Cookies, Dessert, glutenfreecookies, holidaycookies

Ingredients

2 egg whites
2 1/4 cups unsweetened coconut, pulsed
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
1/2 tsp almond flavor (If you want a stronger almond flavor add 3/4-1 tsp)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt
toppings- pistachio, almond, hershey kisses, white chocolate, dark chocolate, powdered sugar, raspberry jam, raspberries, dried or candied cherries.

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375°

Pulse coconut about 1 minute until it's in tiny pieces, but not a powder.

Beat egg whites together on high in stand mixer with sugar until foam and to very soft peaks. Add flavorings.

Mix in pulsed chopped coconut and the unpulsed coconut and salt

Roll into balls, or make rounded scoops with a small cookie scoop.

If you want to, you can crunch up some pistachio or almonds and carefully sprinkle over the cookie balls before they go into the oven.

Bake for 10 minutes until golden. Remove from oven and let sit on tray for a few minutes to firm up. They will be too soft and sticky to move right away. Then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

If you plan to fill the centers with a kiss or jam, with a spoon or your finger make a dent in the middle of the warm cookie. You can also do this step before baking.

Drizzle with melted chocolate, nuts, or powdered sugar. Or place a kiss in the center, a 1/2 tsp of jam or some fruit.

There are so many ways to decorate!