Coconut and strawberry macaroons
These little gems came to life after I was reading my grandmother’s recipe book (old fashion way, all the recipes written by hand and some of them paper cuts from newspapers and magazines) and since there was not much else to do – it was rainy and miserable outside – and I had all the necessary ingredients, I gave the recipe a go.
What you need :
– Condensed sweetened milk, 200 grams
– Desiccated coconut, 200 grams
– 1 tsp vanilla essence
– 1 egg white, beaten to form soft peaks
– Strawberry jam (the original recipe says raspberry; I didn’t have any so I used strawberry instead)
– For the chocolate : 200 grams dark chocolate (I used Bourneville)
– To preheat the oven at 150 C, gas 2 (that is very low oven, not as if you were baking meringue but that sort of low).
– A baking tray, lined with baking paper.
Get a large bowl, and mix the coconut with the condensed milk and the vanilla essence until it resembles a thick paste. You may have to add just a tiny bit more condensed milk to get the consistency; but you don’t want it to be too liquid or almost runny. Add the beaten egg white and fold it, gently until everything is well mixed.
Get a spoon – or use your hands – and dollop the mix evenly on the baking tray, forming balls and then pressing them to get a round biscuit shape. Once you used up all the mixture, use your thumb to make little wells in the middle of the macaroon. In that well, add a teaspoon of strawberry jam (or raspberry jam).
Once finish put the baking tray in the preheated oven, and leave them for 15 minutes (perhaps a little more, depends on each oven) until they are golden.
Leave them to cool on the tray.
You can eat them like this (I know I did!) but the chocolate at the bottom adds a completely different flavour to it.
Once the macaroons are cold, melt the chocolate – whatever method you use it will be fine as soon as is melted. I normally melt chocolate the old way, putting the chocolate in a bowl and the bowl inside a pan with hot boiling water, stirring the chocolate until is completely melted).
Now, dip the base of the macaroons into the melted chocolate. what I did is I left them upside down (with the base covered in chocolate looking up!) to dry overnight.
The macaroons keep really well for a week or so in a airtight container. What I noticed is as the days passed by they became sweeter.
In any case, enjoy!
Motherhood. And... 