Chocolate Covered Macaroons

 Our spring has sprung two weeks behind schedule. Its pretty depressing. For as long as I can remember it has always been hot for my birthday at the end of May. The strawberries wont be ready for my all time favorite birthday dessert, strawberry short cake, and I just covered the garden because the forecast called for frost tonight. We have been making due with the in-climate weather and some parts of the garden have popped up. 

However bad the weather, I am thankful we are not going through what so many other families are going though due to floods, tornadoes, and drought. We have been blessed.

I have really been wanting to make coconut macaroons for a long time. I don't know what stopped me? They are really quite easy. I chose to cover them with chocolate. Next time I think I will leave them in for another minute of two longer. I followed Martha Stewart's recipe for the macaroons.

Macaroons

2.5 C of unsweetened coconut

.75 C of sugar

2 egg whites

1 tsp. of vanilla

pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix the sugar, egg whites, vanilla, and salt together in a large bowl. I always find that when you mix sugar and eggs and let them rest the egg helps emulsify the sugar which gives you a less grainy end product. I let the egg and sugar mixture rest for about 10 minutes until the oven heated up. Then mix in the coconut. Make sure all of the coconut is incorporated into the egg and sugar mixture.

Lay a piece of parchment on a baking sheet. With wet hands mound a tablespoon and a half of the coconut mixture into tall "hay stacks" on the baking sheet. The recipe will make about a dozen or so. 

Bake them for 17 minutes. As I said earlier, I wished I had left them in for a minute longer as I really like the taste of deeply toasted coconut. 

Ganache

.5 C of heavy whipping cream

8 oz of premium semi sweet chocolate chips such as Guittard

Place cream in a small sauce pan and place over low heat. Place chips in a medium heat proof bowl. Once cream barely comes to a simmer, pour over chips and let stand for a minute or two. Begin whisking the chocolate. Whisk your LIFE away friends, as the ganache will only get shinier the more you whisk it. You want the ganache to be shiny as it will stand out due to the pale macaroon. If the ganache starts to get stiff, place the bowl in some hot tap water and continue to whisk.  Let stand out at room temp.

When the macaroons have cooled to room temperature spoon the ganache over the macaroons. If its too stiff, again, place the bowl in hot tap water to warm the chocolate. 

Some more pics of the yard life.

Arlo.