Coconut Macaroons Tested Recipe & Video

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Bite into one of these sweet tasting Coconut Macaroons and you will enjoy the contrast of a crispy exterior to a soft and chewy interior. These delicious cookies are bursting with shreds of sweetened coconut and can be eaten warm from the oven, at room temperature, or even cold.  For the chocolate lover you may want to add 1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips to the batter or, better yet, dip the bottoms of the baked and cooled cookies in melted chocolate (as I have done for these Coconut Macaroons). Another idea would be to make the Coconut Macaroons in miniature and then take two macaroons and sandwich them together with melted chocolate. 

There are a lot of recipes for Coconut Macaroons, and I have some of my favorites on the site. While they are all bursting with sweetened coconut, they differ in both technique and ingredients. This recipe starts by warming egg whites with white granulated sugar until nice and creamy, just like a Swiss Meringue. This step stabilizes the whites and gives the Macaroons a crisp outer crust. Then pure vanilla extract is folded in, along with a little cake flour and lots of sweetened coconut. Although not often used in Coconut Macaroons, adding flour gives these cookies a wonderful dense texture and a dome-like shape. Sweetened coconut, not to be confused with unsweetened coconut, is made by combining coconut with powdered sugar and is packaged either in plastic bags or cans. I like to use shredded sweetened coconut. Now, this batter does need to the chilled until firm and then the cookies are baked until golden brown. Coconut Macaroons store very well. In fact, sometimes I think I like them better after a day or two, when their flavor and outside crust has softened, yet they are still wonderfully moist and chewy.