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Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Macaroons: Vive la noix de coco and almonds

I've yet to eat a French macaroon. I plan to rectify that at some point, but Pierre Hermé' isn't delivering to the US and I don't see the point in changing my macaroon alliances until I've had the best example that the other camp has to offer.   Until my next trip to Paris or Tokyo, I'm sticking with these: 



Coconut Almond Macaroons

  • 1/2 cup plus two egg whites
  • pinch of cream of tartar
  • pinch of salt
  • 7 ounces chilled almond paste
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon good vanilla extract
  • 2 cups confectioners ( powdered ) sugar
  • 14 ounces shredded sweetened coconut
Preheat oven to 325F. Grate almond paste in food processor.  Place it in the fridge to keep it from clumping while you beat the egg whites, and cream of tartar until the eggs are firm, but not dry, add the vanilla, beat until the vanilla is incorporated.
In another large bowl, combine the coconut, salt, sugar  Break up the almond paste if it's settled into larger clumps and sprinkle into the bowl.   Combine well and then fold in the egg white mixture.  Scoop out into desired sized cookies,  approx 1 1/2 tablespoons. This is a forgiving mixture. I use a cookie scoop, but have formed them by hand with the exact same result.  
Bake for 22 minutes.  Eat one.  Give the rest away.  People love it when you do that...


FYI:
When I want to guild the lily, I dip the bottoms in Scharffen Berger's 62% though any good dark chocolate will do, but the chocolate will be a dull  brown unless you're good at tempering it which I am not, and I have tried Ms. Garten's method, microwave carefully, slowly, leaving "seed" bits of unmelted chocolate to provide structure that will later provide "snap" and "shine".  It's physics and beyond my patience.  However, if you're serious about shiney black bottoms, Sharffen Berger does make a mean couverture.  It really does help, but you're going to have to buy close to seven lbs of it and having that amount of good chocolate in my cabinets is 180 degrees from the direction of  my weigh loss goals. I ,like Oscar Wilde, cannot resist temptation,  not seven pounds of it.


4 comments:

  1. I love macaroons! Never have dipped in chocolate but sounds so good. I'll post my pecan praline macaroon sometime.

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  2. Me too! I would love to borrow your pecan praline macaroon recipe for the cookie baking sprees I'm asked to go through once in a while.

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  3. I'll let you know when I post it-- don't hold your breath-- I've been planning to post it since last summer-- cooking was supposed to be a big part of my blog but I never seem to get around to posting-- I take pics even but time and life intefer. Here is one cookie I did post that you might like especially with fall coming up: http://dustyus.blogspot.com/2010/01/chocolate-dipped-cranberry-cookies.html

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  4. That one looks good, I'll try it while I wait..and breathe

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