Coconut Macaroons

I'm gonna be honest here: I've never made macaroons before. I'm really not sure if I've actually ever eaten a macaroon. But, see, that's the point of Tasty Thursdays. It gives me the chance to find ingredients, find recipes, and test them out.

This is definitely one of those times.

Tropical Traditions gave me a chance to product test some shredded coconut and I figured coconut macaroons were the way to go.

Spoiler alert: We'll have another coconut recipe for you next week. And it won't be something baked [[what it is, though, is a surprise]].

You only need five ingredients, so that's great: sweetened condensed milk, salt, coconut, vanilla, and flour. Aside from the coconut, these are things that you probably have on hand. 

Add the flour and coconut [[which seriously needed a shovel to get out]] into a bowl. Me, I have a gallon tub of coconut, so I measured using that shovel/spoon. You need five-and-a-half cups for this recipe, and I really honestly have no idea how much is in a bag. If anyone knows, let me know.

Add a bit of salt. Not a pinch. The recipe calls for 1/4 teaspoon. And thank goodness for that because I don't get the whole "pinch" thing, especially since I can't take the top off my salt and get in there to pinch it.

Add the sweetened condensed milk, which is something I always think will taste delicious and then I get so disappointed when I realize it isn't all that great.

Mix. I say use your hands. You gotta get in there in order to incorporate everything. And, just a little look into my life: I took this photo twice. The first time, the beads on my bracelet were all the wrong way and you couldn't see them. But then this time, it kinda looks like my hands are feet, so I settled.

Roll into balls. Which gets kinda gross because the mixture gets caked on. I wasn't able to bend properly so the balls weren't uniform. But whatever. There are worse things in life.

How'd they taste? A little dry. It might be because I packed them really tightly because I didn't want them to fall apart. One that wasn't packed as tightly bit the dust ... or, well, turned into dust. Kinda.

What I was thinking about doing was dipping them in melted chocolate, but I didn't have any on hand. Dipping anything in chocolate is equally delicious and helpful. It tends to keep the moisture inside and these need to retain as much moisture as possible [[since they're lacking]].

What You'll Need:

• 2/3 cup flour
• 5 1/2 cups shredded coconut
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 can of sweetened condensed milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract [[you could try hazelnut too if you have that on hand, or anise extract]]

What You'll Do:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Mix together the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients and blend.
• Mold into balls, put on parchment lined paper.
• Bake for about 15 minutes until they're browned. They will brown more on the bottom, since it's touching the cookie sheet, but I advise against trying to flip them halfway through so they don't get too dark on the bottom. Then you'll end up with two brown spots instead of one. 

Recipe adapted from All Recipes.