Recipe: Coconut Macaroons   Source: Nana’s handwritten recipes

Hubby and I were craving something sweet last night but there was absolutely nothing in the house that met that description (I offered to make hubby a smoothie but he turned me down - good, but not really a “dessert”).    Then it was Nana’s recipes to the rescue with this very simple recipe for Coconut Macaroons.  (yes, it is as hard to read as the photo shows)

I love anything with coconut so I was really excited to make these.  And I liked the fact that the recipe just made a dozen – perfect for a family of two to share.

Coconut Macaroons

• 4 oz coconut ( the recipe actually say 4 oz or one package, but there was a HUGE difference between my package and 4 oz.  I used my scale and weighed the coconut)
• 1 egg well beaten
• 1/2 cup sugar (I used turbinado)
• 1 tsp almond extract

Mix coconut and sugar well.

So far, so good.  Easy peasy, right?

Beat egg thoroughly until stiff, then add to coconut mixture.

Ok…so I know I am not the most advance cook or baker, but I’m pretty sure that you can’t beat a whole egg until stiff (and then I googled it just to make sure that I was right about that…I was…) So…did this mean that I was supposed to separate the egg and beat the egg white until stiff?  Did the term “stiff” in regards to the egg not mean what I think it means?  Or was this just another one of Nana’s…um…”typos” (what do you call that when it refers to actual writing?)  As I had already started to beat the egg, just in case it surprised me and actually did become stiff (it didn’t) I just beat it really well until it was nice and frothy.  Cooking is an art, not a science, right?

Add flavouring and blend well.

Drop by teaspoon onto greased baking sheet.

Bake in moderate oven (350) for 15 – 20 minutes. 

15 minutes was too long for these in my oven.  They were definitely a little more brown than they should have been (that didn’t stop us from eating them though…).  I would add to these instructions to remove them immediately from the pan onto a wire rack, otherwise they kind of stick to the pan, and in the process of trying to get them off they get all squished and some of them might fall apart and the sticky goo might make your spatula really hard to clean.  Of course, you have to eat the sticky, gooey, fallen apart ones right away – that’s just the way these things go. 

If you have any left, store them in an airtight container.  I found them to be crunchier the second day, but, then again, they were a little dark around the edges to begin with.

The recipe makes 12 absolutely delicious coconut confections.  Yum!