Whenever mum and I have some extra egg-whites or time on our hands, or we just feel like baking or making snacks for our friends, we do macaroons! We took a batch to my daycare Christmas party and no one could believe that they were so healthy when we told them the ingredients. That’s how yummy they are.
Mum used to beat the egg whites for ages, trying to get them into stiff peaks. Now we have an electric hand whisk, so she’s much keener to make macaroons now! You can do it either way, but just warning you that it’s an arm workout without the electric thingy. 🙂
NOTES:
– Use the best ingredients you can find. Then your macaroon desserts will be super nutritious. Nutritious desserts = happy kids and happy parents. That means raw unpasteurised honey, organic vanilla essence, unsweetened coconut, unprocessed sea salt, and organic pastured eggs.
– The thicker your honey, the better your macaroons will stay together in nice little haystack cookie shapes.
– Let the macaroons cool thoroughly before eating. This is the hardest part of the recipe – waiting to eat them while they stare at you from the kitchen counter!
– Add extra ingredients to jazz up your macaroons if you like. For example, you can use cacao/cocoa powder for chocolate macaroons and natural food colouring for colourful treats.
– If you need something to do with your yolks, make homemade icecream or put them in your primal shakes!
Coconut Macaroon Ingredients
– 6 egg whites
– 1/4 tsp sea salt
– 1/2 cup honey
– 1 tbsp vanilla
– 3 cups shredded coconut
Oops, that’s 5 ingredients. Forgot about the salt! 🙂
Coconut Macaroons Recipe
Step 1: Preheat oven to 180C (350F).
Step 2: Put egg whites and the salt into a large bowl and beat them with a whisk or beaters until they form stiff peaks. This means the egg whites will get really foamy and form tiny mountains when you move the foam upward. It takes at least 5 minutes of high speed whisking so don’t rush.
Step 3: Add the honey and vanilla carefully, so you don’t lose your stiff peaks. Beat again for a little bit to make sure your egg whites stay foamy with the peaks.
Step 4: Gently mix in the shredded coconut one cup at a time.
Step 5: Use a tablespoon to scoop heaping spoonfuls onto an oven tray covered with baking paper. Form them into same size ‘haystacks’.
Step 6: Bake in the oven for 15-18 minutes until the coconut starts to brown a bit. Don’t wait for all of it to brown, or the bottom will get burned.
Step 7: Let cool completely, so the macaroons get nice and chewy. They cool faster on a wire rack. Leave the kitchen or you will be tempted to eat them all before they cool!
Amaze your family and friends with how tasty healthy treats can be. Remember that they are still snacks or dessert food, and you only need to have a couple a day. Then the pleasure lasts longer!
How did your macaroons come out? Was everyone impressed?!
4-Ingredient Macaroons – Cooking with Kaiya – November 2013