Need a Holiday ‘Knock Your Socks Off’ Cookie? Coconut Macaroons, busting at the seams with tender, sweet coconut, then drizzled on top with chocolate might do the trick. The chocolate drizzle on top was my favorite way of putting these together…that was, until, during a fit of laziness, I discovered dipping the cookie rumps into a big vat of chocolate = new favorite. …And then while cleaning out the kitchen cupboards one day, I found some half-used packages of butterscotch chips. Being a huge fan of anything butterscotch, then figured, “Put it on a cookie why don’t you?” So I did, and now can’t decide which I like best, so am eating them all without preference. Rustic or fancy, these guys go anywhere, and come together in minutes. Let me show you!
The cookies themselves are a total cinch – coconut, egg whites, sugar, and a little flour and salt. Done. The only little trick is to make sure you get all the liquid incorporated into the coconut – keep stirring up from the bottom as your scoop out your cookies. That way you don’t have pools of goo attempting an escape out of the cookies as they bake. My inner Scrooge does not appear when putting these guys on the the baking sheet – a big whopping two tablespoons go into each cookie. If you would prefer to opt for a more dainty portion, just use one tablespoon instead of two and bake for a shorter amount of time. Jam them on the baking sheets – they won’t spread out during baking.
Bake until the tops start to turn golden brown, which should be right around the fifteen minute mark. Check it out – golden and still moist looking is the objective.
They need to cool for about 20 minutes or so before you get to glazing. Please make sure they are totally cool to the touch or your topping will puddle all over the place. But hold on a second, we’ve got options here! You can do a drizzle kind of thing over the top, or opt for a more intense chocolate or butterscotch hit and dip them, rump first, in a bowl of your choice of melted chips. For the drizzle option, you can either put your melted chips into a squeeze bottle (drizzle first one way and then the other) or just use a wire whisk and wave it back and forth over the top of the cookies.
Method #2 is what I like to refer as the ‘Rump Dipping’ mode. Actually, it’s more like a ‘Rump Dip and Swirl’ mode. Dip the rumps in, twist just a little, and you will be rewarded with a pretty wave pattern on your cookie rump.
Coconut Macaroons with Chocolate or Butterscotch
Ingredients
- FOR THE MACAROON COOKIES
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 8 large egg whites
- 12 tablespoons unbleached flour
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 6 cups shredded coconut
- FOR THE CHOCOLATE or BUTTERSCOTCH GLAZE
- 8 ounces 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips or butterscotch chips
- 2 tablespoons canola or other neutral oil
Instructions
- FOR THE COOKIES
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a Silpat mat or parchment paper.
- In a large bowl or electric mixer bowl, combine sugar, egg whites, flour and salt. Beat until well mixed, about one minute in an electric mixer.
- Mix in the coconut. Continue to fold until all liquid is absorbed, and when you run a rubber spatula along the bottom of the bowl, you don’t see liquid pool. (If you skip this step, you will have a gloppy puddle at the base of your cookie when it bakes – yuck).
- If you have an ice cream scoop, use one scoop per cookie. Arrange on baking sheet. You can place these cookies pretty close together, since they do not tend to spread during baking.
- Bake for about 15 minutes. The best way to tell they are done is to look at the tops of the cookies; they should begin to turn golden brown.
- Remove from oven and allow to rest for at least five minutes on the baking sheet. Place on cooling rack and cool completely.
- Place sheets of waxed paper under cookies/cooling rack to prepare to drizzle chocolate.
- FOR THE GLAZE
- Combine chocolate or butterscotch chips and oil into glass measuring cup or other microwave-safe bowl.
- Melt chocolate chips in microwave. Processes on high at 20-second intervals until nearly melted, then remove from microwave and stir until entire mixture has melted.
- Place chocolate in squeeze bottle OR use a wire whisk to drizzle melted chips over the cookies, OR dip the cookie rumps into the bowl of melted chips OR dip half of the cookie into the melted chip mixture and drizzle the other half, OR…(you get the idea – use your imagination!)
- If drizzling: Working in a zigzag motion, drizzle chocolate over the top of cookies, first one direction, than the other.
- Allow to sit at room temperature until chocolate has set (this can take quite a bit of time). To speed up the process, I place the cookies on a plate or cookie sheet if they fit, and place in the freezer until the chocolate sets up.
- Cooks Notes
- If you freeze these cookies in layers, be sure to place waxed paper between each layer to prevent chocolate from smearing and chipping.
- If your chocolate seems too runny, let sit for a while to firm up before drizzling, or add additional chocolate chips if mixture is still warm enough to melt them.