How to Make Coconut Macaroons! | Bake Along w/ Anna Olson

Recipe below for chewy coconut macaroon cookies!
Not to be confused with colourful French macarons, these sweet and chewy macaroons also rely on egg whites at their base. These cookies are easy to make and instead of whipping the egg whites into a meringue, I prefer to cook them with the other ingredients, ensuring a chewy centre and pleasantly crackled exterior.

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Makes about 30 cookies
Prep time: Under 10 minutes
Cook time: 35 minutes

The macaroons will keep for up to 5 days.

* For chocolate macaroons, replace the flour with ¼ cup (30 g) of natural or Dutch process cocoa powder. For gluten-free macaroons, replace the flour with the ¼ cup (34 g) of brown rice flour.

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• Ingredients •

4 large egg whites
1 1/3 cups (267 g) granulated sugar
1/3 cup (85 g) sweetened condensed milk
2 ½ cups (250 g) sweetened shredded or flaked coconut
¼ cup (37 g) all-purpose flour or brown rice flour*
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp almond extract
¼ tsp fine salt

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• Directions •

1. Whisk the egg whites, sugar and condensed milk together in a medium saucepot. Stir in the coconut and flour. Cook this while constantly stirring on medium heat for 3 minutes, to warm up the batter, then increase the mixture to medium high and continue to cook for 5 minutes more, stirring constantly until you feel the batter pulling at the bottom of the pot and the batter is bubbling. If the batter starts to stick or brown as you cook it, reduce the heat slightly.

2. Transfer the batter to a container to cool uncovered for about an hour, then cover and chill completely before baking.

3. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C) and line two baking trays with parchment paper. Use a #40 scoop or 2 tablespoons to drop the batter onto the trays, leaving about 2-inches (5 cm) between them. Bake the cookies for 20 to 25 minutes, until they just begin to brown at the edges. Allow the macaroons to cool on the trays on racks before removing to store in an airtight container.

hi everyone now you know something interesting i have made French macaron so many times here on O Yum but you know what i’ve never made coconut macaroons yes today I’m getting retro with this chewy coconut cookie my secret is to cook the batter first to guarantee you get a chewy center and then after I chill the batter I scoop and bake at my leisure i know you’re going to love this recipe for coconut macaroons when I was first taught to make macaroons I was taught to whip egg whites make a meringue fold in the coconut and then bake your cookies and I found for some reason the cookies always came out kind of dry often crumbly so I’ve come up with a method that involves cooking the macaroon batter first and that really melts the sugar sets everything so you’re guaranteed to get a chewy macaroon every time so I’m adding my granulated sugar to the pot and I’ve got four egg whites here these are large egg whites if you’ve saved egg whites from another project maybe you were making a pastry cream or a custard you want to weigh your egg whites out to 120 g so those go right into the pot and then here’s the sticky secret to those macaroons a little bit of sweetened condensed milk i got excited the first time I was playing with this recipe and I put in the full tin of sweetened condensed milk well that just made one giant chewy mess on my baking tray not a success at all and I give this a little whisk together and get some of my sugar on the burner not the intention there we go i just like to whisk everything together before I turn on the heat that way the raw egg whites aren’t directly exposed to the heat from the bottom of the pan there we go all right well while I’m whisking I can also add my flour it’s just a small measurement and here are two great substitutions for you if you want to do a gluten-free coconut macaroon replace this with the same amount of brown rice flour it absorbs as you’re cooking your batter base you’ll never know you’re using rice flour as opposed to allpurpose flour and if you want to make a chocolate macaroon replace this with the same volume of cocoa powder now I’ve got both those conversions below for you so you can go ahead and you add if you’re doing the chocolate version you stir in the cocoa powder just like I’m stirring in the [Music] flour i can start putting this on low heat now just to start melting everything it’s kind of a stretchy mess right now but once the heat starts melting the sugar there already it’s starting to change okay now I’m done with the whisk and I’m going to switch to a spatula because it’s time to add all that coconut now I’m using sweetened shredded coconut you can use sweetened flaked coconut too which has sort of a wider grain to it is that what you call wider shred flake it’s a flake it’s flatter but I like to use sweetened even though there is so much sugar i mean it’s a macaroon it’s going to be sweet uh but I find the coconut is more tender as opposed to using an unsweetened shredded coconut it can be just a little tooth that way so what I like to do is for about the first 3 minutes that I’m cooking the macaroon batter is I’m slowly introducing heat to it so that way I don’t overcook the egg whites before the sugar has had a chance to fully melt and once the batter warms up and it really is about 3 minutes you don’t need to use a thermometer to gauge this i’m going to increase the heat to medium high and continue to cook it to really cook out the condensed milk and without making a Swiss mering it’s the principle of making a Swiss mering heating egg whites and sugar together to get them to bond and strengthen and essentially create a bit of a syrup in there but it will tighten up as it cooks so I can see right now I’ve kind of got when I move the spatula it’s very it’s becoming runny so I know it’s warming up but it’s not cooking and I’ll turn it up a degree if I were to try and bake this mixture without cooking it first I would end up with really flat thin uh just unappealing macaroons a macaroon should have some substance to it a little bit of height be a little bit crispy on the outside and nice and chewy in the center all right now I’m going to increase my heat to medium high and I’m waiting to see two key visual clues i’m going to see some bubbles break the surface because it is going to get that hot but then this batter is going to start to pull and stick at the bottom of the pot so that’s why you want to stir it constantly so you don’t cook the sugar at the bottom of the pot but you’re also feeling as you’re pulling and you’ll hear a little hiss or sizzle as you pull your spatula and you know you’re getting very very close all right we’re about there i’m starting to see some bubbles i have to keep the macaroon batter moving but you can hear it every time I pull the spatula through you can hear that hiss and that’s how I know this batter is ready to come off the heat if you find when you’re cooking your macaroon batter you get browning or sticking at the bottom of the pot it’s just your heat is too high turn it down one degree so now my finishing ingredients a little bit of flavor vanilla extract almond extract and just a little bit of salt and I add that at the very end because salt can interfere with what is essentially a a gradual candying process and I add my extracts at the very end so that they don’t cook away had I added them at the beginning they would have evaporated and I wouldn’t have tasted the flavor so now I’m going to transfer my macaroon base to a heat proof dish and you want to let this cool and then chill before you scoop so I leave it on the counter for about an hour then I pop it in the fridge give it a two hours if you can this is totally a make ahead recipe you can make this a day or two ahead and then it’ll be ready to scoop and bake and here’s the macaroon batter once it’s set and you can really see how it does tighten up so that cooking really makes a big difference but it’s got even you can see it’s kind of got a sticky chewiness to it you could eat it at this point don’t forget it’s been fully cooked but we’re going to bake it i’ve preheated my oven to 300° and I’ve got my baking trays lined with parchment you can use two spoons or I’m using a number 40 is it a number 40 it’s a number 40 scoop that’s right to drop my spoonfuls of macaroon batter oh these are going to be so nice and chewy they will spread a little bit they don’t retain this round shape so you do want to leave a couple inches space around each of the cookies there perfect 24 i bake these until they’re lightly browned at the edges they will brown on the bottom and this can take between 20 and 30 minutes and that time difference is truly because everyone’s oven is different especially if you have a convection fan that you don’t have the capacity to turn off it could be more like 20 minutes if it’s a still oven it could take closer to 30 it’s also how toasty do you like your macaroons it’s up to [Music] [Music] you it’s time for the macaroons to come out oh yes nice [Music] so you can see how they puff up just a little bit but they’re also going to have that dense chewy center to them you can leave them on the tray to cool there’s no problem i’m just getting a couple off oh they’re a bit fragile in fact let me suggest that let them cool on the tray i just want a couple to cool down quickly so I can give them a bit of a taste oh yeah these are the macaroons to admire while they’re cooling on the tray they’ve got that bit of gloss a hint of a crackle just a little bit of browning so you get that toasted coconut flavor and you know they’re going to be nice and soft and chewy all the way through i really hope you’ll give this recipe a try it’s a bit retro so let’s bring it back in fashion you’ve got some awesome variations to work with and I look forward to seeing you again for another delicious bake along oh yes this is going to be [Music] hot it’s what happens when you cook sugar chewy chewy chewy