From the Kitchen....Macaroons

The day I discovered coconut macaroons from Trader Joe's was a great day. Actually, I believe my business school roommate Bethany introduced the wonders of them to me - 100 macaroons and 1 million calories all for about $4. Could life be better? Then I loved to St. Louis and for some reason Trader Joe's stopped carrying them. So, my husband suggested I make my own. (Genius!) They were super easy and crazy delicious.

What You Need:

4 Large Egg Whites at Room Temperature
1 Cup White Sugar
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
1/2 Cup Cake Flour, Sifted
3 Cups Sweetened Shredded Coconut

What You Need to Do:

In a stainless steel bowl, placed over a saucepan of simmering water, whisk together the egg whites, sugar, and salt. When this mixture is warm to the touch, and nice and creamy, remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract, flour, and coconut. Cover and refrigerate for about one hour, or until firm.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper (not to be confused with wax paper...believe me you only need to make that mistake once as you take out the burning piece of paper and the smoke alarm is blaring.)

Place small mounds (about 1 tablespoon) of the batter on the parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing several inches apart. Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes and then place on a wire rack to cool.

Makes about 2 dozen Macaroons.

*Recipe courtesy of Joy of Baking

To make my macaroons a little more "Au Bon Pain"ish I dipped some of them in chocolate half way. I melted a mixture of baking chocolate and milk chocolate in the microwave and dipped away.

For an added touch, I melted some white baking chocolate and drizzled it on top of the milk. I made a mess doing this...but they turned out quite pretty and very delicious. My one comment about the entire order is the chocolate did not harden very well. I stuck them in the fridge and that helped, but honestly I think I should have used a mixture of chocolate and paraffin wax like they do in candy making....definitely going to look more into this.