Don’t get me wrong, I adore a fabulous French pastry as much as the next dessert obsessed baker, but sometimes you just gotta’ go old school!
So, you know that classic candy bar with the soft, sweet, yielding coconut center that is enrobed in a bittersweet coat of perfectly paired dark chocolate? Well, this is an easy-peasy cookie version of that candy that’s put together in minutes, and dare I say, tastes even better than the gas station staple.
There are two distinct coconut macaroon camps, one that folds in beaten egg whites which results in a lighter, less dense cookie, and the other that does not. The latter technique is the one I employee here, which yields a more dense, moist, candy-like center, and a crispy, toasted, coconutty outer shell. This eggwhite-less macaroon recipe also means that it takes less time, requires less clean-up and is considerably less finicky, and who can’t appreciate those qualities in a cookie?!
This recipe yields 40-45 mini-macaroons.
Ingredients:
5 cups (396 grams) sweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup (63 grams) cup all-purpose flour, preferably unbleached
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 can (14 ounce/396 grams) sweetened condensed milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (80 grams) chopped bittersweet chocolate or chocolate chips
How To Use Them:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line two cookie sheets with a silicon baking mat or parchment paper.
In a large bowl, stir the coconut, flour, and salt together until thoroughly combined.
Add the sweetened condensed milk and vanilla.
Stir all of the ingredients together until they are well blended.
Using a small cookie scooper or tablespoon, drop the macaroon dough onto the prepared cookie sheets.
Leave about a 1 inch space between each macaroon.
Place the cookie sheets in the middle of the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown. 
When you remove them from the oven, let the macaroons cool on the baking sheet for 1 minute and then move to a cooling rack to continue to cool completely.
To prepare the dipping chocolate, melt the chocolate in the microwave, stirring every 15 seconds until it is almost completely melted. After you remove it from the microwave, continue to stir to allow the residual heat to melt the chocolate completely. Be careful as chocolate scorches easily.
Gently dip the macaroon in the melted bittersweet chocolate.
Lift the cookie up and let the excess chocolate drip for a moment.
Place the chocolate-dipped macaroons on parchment paper and allow the chocolate to set.
If it is a warm day, you may need to place the cookies in the refrigerator for an hour or so to set completely. To test if they are set, gently lift a macaroon off of the parchment paper. If it lifts off quickly and cleanly, then they are set, yet, if it sticks to the paper or leaves some chocolate in its wake, then you need to chill them for a bit longer.
That’s it! So simple, right? The only thing that’s left is to take a bite of pure, decadent, chocolaty coconut JOY!
