Chocolate-Dipped Coconut Macaroons

These. Are. So. Good.

These cookie were an unexpected treat I made last week (yes, I'm behind on my blogging. Expect a lot of posts this week as I play catch up) due to the fact that I had shredded coconut in my house and I never have shredded coconut in my house. I'm thinking of making it a staple from now on.

If you like macaroons, I promise these are amazing. They may also be one of the the easiest cookies I've ever made. There are only four ingredients!

• 3 large egg whites
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 14 oz. package of sweetened flaked coconut

Looking at that picture you may be thinking "Hey. That doesn't look like a full package of coconut." It isn't, but there was still enough to make the cookies.

See, I had made some granola early in the week that needed just a little coconut and I had most of the bag left over to do something with. In case you're wondering, the granola needs work but it was edible.

The first step is to preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Then, in a large bowl whisk together the egg whites, sugar, and salt until frothy.

Yum. With a fork, or spatula like I used, mix in the coconut nut until moistened.

Pack the mixture into level, tablespoon amounts and drop onto baking sheet. Bake until golden, about 25-30 minutes. I checked mine at 20 minutes and they were perfect. Know your oven.

Once they were cooled I made up some ganache; because I had some cream I wanted to use up and chocolate-dipped macaroons sounded amazing. Ganache is also ridiculously easy, but here's the recipe for anyone who would like it.

4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped

1/2 cup heavy cream

First, chop up that chocolate as fine as you can. This will help it to melt more evenly. Place it in a heatproof bowl. Next, bring the cream to a boil over medium heat in a saucepan. Pour the cream over the chocolate and let it sit 10 minutes. Stir the mixture gently until fully incorporated. The ganache should appear glossy.

After I made that I dipped the cookies half-way into the ganache and placed on waxed paper. I did not get any good shots of this process, but you can imagine. Then they're all done!

I took these to work and they were gone within an hour; and that was even with the cupcakes that someone else had brought in. Those were not gone in an hour, but to be fair, there were more cupcakes than cookies.

xoxo

Stephanie

*recipe from Martha Stewart. Again.