Dairy-Free Coconut Macaroons

Not to be confused with the French cookies called macarons, macarOOns are a delicious chewy coconut cookie.

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Prep Time 15

Cook Time 35

Ingredients

4 ½ cups sweetened shredded coconut
¾ cup coconut milk canned – it’s thicker
¼ cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoon almond extract
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
2 egg whites

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 °F.
Pulse the coconut in a food processor until it is shredded into small bits like confetti.
Add in the coconut milk, sugar, almond extract and cornstarch and pulse until it’s well combined.
(Note: if you do not have a food processor, chop the coconut into fine bits with a knife and mix with the other ingredients in a large bowl).
In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with an electric mixer until white and foamy but not to the point of stiff peaks (check out my Facebook page for a thrilling video detailing the process).
Add to the coconut mixture and stir gently to combine.
Drop the macaroons by heaping Tablespoonfuls onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper (they do stick REALLY badly!). They will not spread so you can place them fairly close together, but try to shape them the way you would like them to look when they are baked.
Bake for 30-35 minutes until the tops are beginning to brown. Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

I hope you enjoyed our cookie mini-bonanza- in case you missed it, The Ultimate Chocolate Cookie and Sugar and Spice Cookies were the other two recipes featured this year. Have a Merry Christmas – no blog post next week, I’ll see about the week of New Year’s. Here’s the video I mentioned detailing the egg whites (warning: it’s a super exciting video. As thrilling as watching paint dry. Use caution.)

Obligatory Fictional Backstory

Every year, kids around the world leave out milk and cookies for Santa, and carrots for the reindeer. A little known secret that I am about to share is that reindeer don’t actually like carrots – they like COCONUT. And they LOVE these coconut macaroons. They say that coconut reminds them of the snow back at the North Pole. How do I know this? Well, I interviewed Santa’s reindeer one year!

You know the song “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” and how it starts by listing the eight mains, then says “but do you recall, the most famous reindeer of all”? Doesn’t that strike you as a little bit odd? If he’s the most famous, then obviously you would know his name better than the names of the Main Eight. I had a theory…Rudolph is not actually famous. He gained fame and popularity through his excellent PR manager, who wrote and published the song. I talked to the Main Eight to get their thoughts:

Question: Why wouldn’t you let Rudolph join in any reindeer games?

Blitzen: Dude it had NOTHING to do with his nose. But he was just SUCH a sore winner, y’know? It wasn’t any fun to play with someone who would get up and dance around and flash his nose while saying “I won you lost I’m a winner you’re a loser nah nah nah nah”….well okay I guess it had a little bit to do with his nose.

Dancer: Oh gosh we tried. We really, really tried. But the dude was just SUCH a cheater!!! He would skip some of our turns, move pieces when we weren’t looking, you name it, he did it. It got to be that no one wanted to play anymore.

Comet: I dunno, it just wasn’t any fun if Rudolph was playing. He would whine until we played what HE wanted to play, and we never got to play what the rest of us felt like playing, then he would throw a fit if he didn’t win and say he didn’t want to play with us ever again, so we just kind of…stopped inviting him to play.

Question: Did you laugh and call him names?

Vixen: Well we all have nicknames. Blitzen is “Farter Christmas” (he eats too many beans), Prancer is “Riverdance”, and Rudolph was “Blinker”. We didn’t realize it bothered him, we all have nicknames and he never said anything about it.

Donner: I think the only time we laughed at him was when he tried dying his whole body red to match his nose. Did NOT turn out well, let me tell you – he looked like he was in a bad 1960’s horror movie.

Question: What really happened that foggy Christmas eve?

Cupid: Well, it was kind of foggy, so Santa thought that Rudolph could go out in front and maybe his nose would be bright enough to cut through some of the fog. It really wasn’t, but it did keep us from getting hit by other air traffic.

Prancer: I wouldn’t even call it “fog” per say. It was more like “heavy mist”. But you know how those of us with big egos *AHEM* like to exaggerate. It wasn’t even like it was a special thing for him to be the leader, we take turns every year and it was his turn in the rotation.

Dasher: Ooooh, that year! Yeah, that was the year that kid left us coconut macaroons! Man, that was the best year! Huh? Rudolph? Yeah he likes coconut too! You got any macaroons?

Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer could not be reached for comment.

You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen
Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen
But do you recall
The most famous reindeer of all?

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Had a very shiny nose
And if you ever saw it
You would even say it glowsAll of the other reindeer
Used to laugh and call him names
They never let poor Rudolph
Join in any reindeer games

Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Santa came to say
“Rudolph, with your nose so bright
Won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?”

Then how the reindeer loved him
As they shouted out with glee
“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
You’ll go down in history”

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Had a very shiny nose
And if you ever saw it
You would even say it glows

All of the other reindeer
Used to laugh and call him names
They never let poor Rudolph
Join in any reindeer games

Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Santa came to say
“Rudolph, with your nose so bright
Won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?”Then how the reindeer loved him
As they shouted out with glee
“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
You’ll go down in history”

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Johnny Marks

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