- Hey, I'm John Kanell.
And today on Preppy Kitchen
we're making easy, amazing coconut macaroons.
So let's get started.
First off, set that oven to 325,
grab a baking sheet and line it with parchment paper
or a Silpat, important, and I'll tell you why later.
Into a large bowl, I'm adding a 14 ounce bag
of one of my very most favorite things in the world,
sweetened, shredded coconut.
I love coconut.
And this recipe is one of my favorites.
So plop that right in, just break up those big clumps.
You'll be able to mix things in more easily later.
On the blog, I get so many questions
about macaron versus macaroons.
A macaron is a finicky French cookie that is delicious,
and click up here for my video on how to make them.
a macaroon is actually closely related,
but so much easier to make.
You're gonna see this today.
Into this bowl, I'm adding 14 ounces
of my second favorite ingredient in the world,
sweetened, condensed milk.
This is amazing in your coffee in the morning.
This with some espresso, it's a chef's kiss of delight.
And this stuff is very thick.
Every batch I've gotten this year of this stuff
has been like, super thick,
so I'm gonna grab a spatula.
Today we're making coconut macaroons.
There are many, many types of macaroon recipes,
or macaron recipes, it really depends 'cause it gets murky.
They come from the 14th century,
and originally it was ground almonds just like in a macaron.
Over time, various things were added.
Some of them have like, candied fruit,
some of them have chocolate,
some of them have coconut,
and then eventually there's a variety like this
where there's no almond, just coconut.
They became very popular among Jewish people
because they have no grains,
so you can have them during Passover.
And they're so delicious, they became a year round treat.
1/2 a teaspoon of salt in here,
this will give us some contrast.
I'm also adding in about a teaspoon of vanilla,
this gives you a little extra flavor.
We're gonna stir this up.
I really just wanna make sure that sweetened condensed milk
is coating everything.
And I have a confession to make.
I used to think I didn't like coconut macaroons
because they were dense, they were dry.
I was just like, ugh, these are garbage.
But then I found out that much like concasse
and many other goods that you can buy,
they were just old and stale.
They were old stale macaroons.
Of course they weren't delicious,
they were still sweet, but they weren't great.
When you make these at home?
They are light, chewy, amazing soft delicious treats.
I swear you're gonna be hooked on these
and just finish off the whole batch in no time.
This is like, a can't go wrong recipe
As long as you don't over bake them.
Go ahead and add things that you love.
Do you love, like pecans?
That would work why not?
Do you want some extra spices?
Sure.
A drop of Brandy?
Why not?
It all works out.
And if you want to go even more traditional,
yeah, you can add in some ground almonds in here too.
This is all mixed up.
If I just plopped this onto a baking sheet,
well, it taste good,
but we need to have volume in here,
light amazing dish.
So we're gonna grab a clean bowl
(tray scraping)
and some room temperature, eggs.
I also wanna mixer, you could use a hand mixer like this,
or a stand mixer,
they're both gonna work fine.
I also need a little bowl for my yolks.
So here's the deal,
I'm gonna separate my eggs now
So the egg white goes into the big bowl.
Oftentimes I'll just use that, this yolk broke.
So I got away with it by the skin of my teeth,
I'm just gonna do what I should.
Sometimes you get eggs
that just wanna fall apart on you like this.
So you have yolk that's breaking,
and this can't have any yolks in it
if you want them to be as amazing as possible.
There we go, one at a time, I only needed two eggs for this.
These macaroons are way easier than a macaron,
but there is the same trick for both of them.
One of the things that can happen
when you're making a French macaron,
is like, if you don't whip the egg whites up,
they're just gonna spread out and become little blobs,
which is so frustrating.
They're still gonna taste good, but the texture's off,
they don't look right.
It's like, oh, it a whole thing.
These macaroons are like full proof,
but you really do have to whip your egg whites up
because they're also gonna give you some body.
If you just introduce runny egg whites in?
They'll spread out,
and they won't have that classic mound shape.
We're gonna beat these egg whites for about three minutes
until we have stiff peaks.
And I'll show you what that looks like.
In Puerto Rico, these guys are called besitos de coco,
coconut kisses, little coconut kisses, which are so cute.
And then in Turkey, their version uses almonds specifically,
they use bitter almonds as well.
They're really popular all over the world
with so many variations.
It reminds me of Mexican wedding cookies.
Also known as kourabiedes in Greece.
If there's a variety of macaron that you grew up with,
please let me know in the comments.
I am so eager to try all the different varieties out.
They're all delicious. I tell ya.
These guys look nice and stiff, and I can tell two ways.
One, you can see the meringue is just up nice and vertical.
I could also, without fear, lift this over my head,
it's not gonna fall.
It is a stiff peak, and this is what we want to fold in
so our macaroons really maintain their shape
and have a beautiful mound, because with in that mound,
is a wonderful light chewy texture.
(bowl scraping)
Sometimes you gotta know when to hold 'em
and know when to fold 'em.
I'm full of these horrible jokes, I'm here all day.
Gonna fold the egg whites into this mixture.
I will do this in two batches.
Whenever you have a really thick mixture like this,
and light fluffy egg whites,
and you can see how stiff they are.
They just hold their shape.
Adding them in batches is a good idea.
The first batch is somewhat sacrificial
because it's gonna lighten your mixture up.
And in doing so, the second batch
will preserve a lot more
of this volume and those air bubbles won't be crushed
because the mixture is now not so dense.
If anyone is a science teacher out there watching
and wants to have a little lesson on density,
this could be kind of fun.
Just gonna put that out there.
Or conversely, if you have a science teacher
and class is a little boring,
you could ask them to bake some recipes
and talk about density and volume.
Just gonna put that out there too.
Now my second batch is getting folded in
and you'll see a lot more volume will be preserved.
And these egg whites are what give our macarons,
or macaroons that wonderful texture.
Stored in an airtight container,
your macaroons will last about a week,
but you can freeze them for up to three months.
Just make sure they are completely sealed
so there is no freezer burn involved.
They are though, in my opinion, best fresh.
Oh my gosh, look at this texture, it totally changed now.
Do you see how it can just slide around?
That is like a coconut cloud of deliciousness.
You're gonna grab a 1 1/2 tablespoon triggered scoop,
or you could use spoons too, I'll show you how to do that.
We're gonna scoop these out onto our baking sheet.
I wanted to line this with parchment or Silpat,
one, that could stick, and honestly,
if you can get a Silpat or a silicone mat,
like, any kind of brand,
they are so handy, nothing sticks to them
and they really give you a little bit of insulation
so you don't get that browning on the bottom
of your cookies and treats like coconut macaroons.
There are a couple different ways
that you could finish these.
I'll show you after they bake up.
But they are all delicious.
There's not much spreading.
So you don't have to worry about them oozing together.
What you do want, is to have air flowing in between them
so they bake evenly.
So don't crowd them up too much.
I don't wanna pack them into the scoop too much
because then you'll lose a lot of that volume
from your beautiful egg whites.
Okay, now I'm just gonna use my spatula
to corral them back into shape.
There we go.
Just clean 'em up a little bit
so they're not hanging out.
If you have a lot of flyaways, they can get too crispy
or even burn in the oven.
For our second tray,
I'm actually gonna plop these out onto parchment paper
just to show you how they bake differently.
And you can see if it's worth it or not
to get a silicone mat for your baking.
Fill that scoop up, but don't press it down.
I wanna maintain my clouds, my little coconut clouds.
We're gonna bake these guys up one tray at a time
at 325 Fahrenheit for 20 to 25 minutes
or until the tops and edges
are taking on a beautiful golden color,
then let them cool in the pan.
And you really wanna avoid over baking these macaroons
because they will dry out and lose
that wonderful soft cloud-like chewy texture.
So just until they're taking on some color,
and getting a light golden color, keep an eye out.
I wanna show you what could go wrong with the macaroons
if you didn't whip your egg whites enough.
And I know this because I scraped my bowl down
with a spatula to get every last drop out,
and I had this little partial over here.
So you can see that blob here, it's like oozed out,
it's deflated flat.
This one's tall and proud, the rest are really nice.
While our macaroons are baking,
I'm gonna melt up about six ounces of chocolate.
I'm using semi-sweet chocolate today,
Brian's favorite, but if you want things extra chocolatey,
use a bittersweet chocolate and milk chocolate,
or even a white chocolate if you want things ultra sweet.
It is totally an option too.
I'm simmering about an inch of water in a pot.
I'm using a double boiler
for gentle steam heat to melt the chocolate.
It's the safest way
to not waste expensive ingredients like chocolate.
If you want things really quick?
Go ahead and use the microwave.
50% power in like 45 to 30 second bursts,
stirring in between.
I actually find this is easier
than like, opening the microwave and closing it
over and over, but both work totally fine.
All right, it'll melt up pretty quickly.
And you can use more or less chocolate.
Like they could be completely coated in chocolate,
or just a light drizzle, it's up to you.
Once your chocolate's almost melted through,
take it off heat, stop microwaving at whatever you're doing.
Those remaining pieces of chocolate will melt
with the residual heat in the surrounding melted chocolate.
If you keep heating it up to melt everything?
Chances are you will burn the chocolate and be sad.
No, don't be sad.
We're gonna keep this nice and warm,
just over our pot of hot water, off heat,
until everything's ready to dip.
Once they're out of the oven and cool,
you have a couple choices.
These guys are delicious plain.
I am going to drizzle some with chocolate,
and I'm gonna dip some with chocolate too.
Look at that beautiful, golden bottom one here.
They both baked up equally golden, by the way,
on silicone and on parchment paper.
This guy is my little dud.
When I scraped all the remaining batter up
and I deflated all my egg whites,
it just kind of like oozed out.
Has like, kind of burnt edges.
That's why we need to whip those egg whites
until they are nice and stiff.
Just plop that in your chocolate,
then we pull it out like that.
And I use my spatula to wipe some of the excess off
'cause I do not want that much chocolate on here.
That's gonna overpower the delicious coconut flavor.
Place it on and let it set completely.
Repeat for the remaining macaroons.
So spin it around in the chocolate
just to pick some up on the edge,
and the extra chocolate you can just remove.
And that can go right onto your baking sheet.
Instead of, or in addition to dipping,
you can also drizzle chocolate over the top.
You can either use a spoon or a piping bag like I am.
It looks really pretty and you get less chocolate,
more coconut flavor, which I like.
Once your chocolate's set,
these macaroons are ready to enjoy.
(macaroon crunching)
That is delightful,
a chewy light cloud-like confection of coconuts
with a little bit of chocolate.
I hope you get a chance to make this recipe.
And if you like this video, check out my coconut playlist.