Last week, while reviewing this week's schedule, I decided to take a couple of glorious days off, before I went bonkers. (Well more so than I already am) I headed up to NH where my family stays for a week every year. This was the PERFECT opportunity to make something yummy. It was also my parent's wedding anniversary and my Dad's Birthday this past weekend, so I knew I had to bring up something yummy.
I may have mentioned this before, but my Dad is a sweet fiend....which he has passed onto me. I had to make something extra good. After thinking for a bit, I decided I wanted coconut macaroons. Not sure where the idea came from, it sort of just popped into my head. I researched a few recipes online and in dessert books and settled on one, that I modified a bit. I wanted it to taste like an Almond Joy candy bar. My mouth just watered thinking about it. Simple simple ingredients, but boy did it come out sooooo well (if I do say so myself) They were a HUGE hit.
I started off by toasting the coconut. (The smell was HEAVENLY)
Now I'm no dope when it comes to egg whites. Its one of the only things on the planet I can't consume much of...NOPE no omelets, or souffles, etc etc....However, I do know what to do with them. Room temp egg whites puff up the best, so after toasting the coconut, I made my meringue and folded in the rest of the ingredients, including chopped almonds, a vanilla bean and some sugar.
Before
And after.
I scooped (God I love my spring loaded scooper) and baked these babies at a low low temp for the better part of an hour. At this point it was probably around 1030 at night. I knew I wasn't getting up EXTRA early before my trek to NH to finish them off, so I melted some semi-sweet in a double boiler and Voila!
They were so good. Just enough sweetness. The outsides were meringue-y and crunchy, with a soft coconut center. Pretty impressive for a quick thrown together treat. Oh and did I mention I had consumed a couple of glasses of wine before I made these babies? Yup. Even red wine influenced, they were delicious. Go Me.
I had a wonderful time up in NH....and thank goodness I took a day or two off before this never ending work-stoppage started, where I'm currently putting in over 70hrs a week. No wonder I've been slacking on the blogs! No time!
