Coconut-Chocolate Chip Macaroons

Today I am making the international cookie. I had no idea that it had such a huge following until I began researching it. Lots of countries have their own versions of macaroons, though coconut macaroons, the ones most commonly found in America (and the ones that I decided to tackle), come from the traditional Scottish macaroon.

The original macaroon is from Italy, and is called a maccarone. These cookies are made primarily of crushed almonds. 'Maccarone' comes from the word, 'ammaccare', which means to crush or beat. Macaroons may come from an Italian monastery in the 1500s. The baking monks brought the recipe to France with the pastry chefs of Catherine de Medici, the wife of King Henri II. Italian Jews started eating macaroons during the eight days of Passover since they don't have any wheat in them. This spread around to all European Jews, and became a staple treat all year round. There are recipes for macaroons in cookbooks as early as 1725 in Robert Smith's Court Cookery. Many different countries have developed their own macaroons like France, Scotland, Spain, India, North America, Ireland, Turkey, and Australia. Each make theirs a little differently.

I decided to make these for a bit of a funny reason. I was going to make flan today (look forward to it tomorrow), but every Tuesday movie tickets are six dollars all day. So, Xochi and I are going to the movies. We decided that I should make something that we can snack on in the theater. Macaroons are the perfect little bites of tastiness for the movies, though we may make some popcorn to bring too!

This recipe is really easy, and running your hand under cold water before shaping the cookies is a really helpful hint. There aren't very many wet ingredients in this recipe, so the balls are a little hard to shape in general. But when your hands are damp, it is a lot easier.

Coconut Macaroons

3/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
2 large egg whites
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips (optional) (Ghirardelli are my favorite)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Pinch or two of salt

1. Preheat oven to 325 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, combine sugar, coconut, egg whites, chocolate chips, vanilla, and salt. Using your hands, mix well, completely combining ingredients.

3. Dampen hands with cold water. Use 1 1/2 Tablespoons to form mounds; place on prepared baking sheet, space about an inch apart.

4. Bake until golden brown, 15-17 minutes, rotating halfway through. Let cool on a wire rack.