Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Dark Chocolate Coconut Macaroons

I love dessert, but since switching to paleo, I've had to get a bit creative.  I found this recipe a few months back and gave it a whirl.  It wasn't quite like a cookie.... it was more like a baclava that used coconut instead of phylo dough.  It was also massively crumbly, probably due to the large flake coconut.  I thought the dark chocoloate would be a nice touch.  Its tasty and it helps to hold the whole thing together. 

So I tweaked the recipe a bit and came up with this:

2.5 cups unsweetened coconut (I did 1.5 cups shreeded, 1 cup flaked)
3 egg whites (I started with 2 and it wasn't moist enough so I added the 3rd white)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup honey (I used orange blossom)
a few drops almond extract
good sized handfull of chocolate chips

Mix ingredients from coconut through almond extract together and let it sit a few minutes so the coconut becomes slightly saturated.  Pre-heat oven to 350.  Form balls with some sort of scoop (I used an ice cream scoop, but you could use a tablespoon for smaller sized macaroons) and put on cookie sheet.  Bake for 12 minutes.  Cool in freezer for ~30 minutes.

Once cooled, take chocolate chips and partially melt in the microwave.  Remove from microwave and stir to melt all the chocolate.  Dip tops of macaroons in the chocolate then place the whole lot in the freezer to set the chocolate.

This made 9 two-inch diameter cookies.  I just eat one for dessert as they are pretty rich.

And of course, I don't have any pictures.  That would require planning ahead.

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