Coconut Macaroons

Two years have passed since I last made Coconut Macaroons. You might remember my Eggstravaganza post from 2010 that featured a link for a delicious version of this guilt free cookie.

 This morning I tried a different version of this traditional Passover/Easter cookie. Both recipes are delicious in their own way.

I have been on this kick of reducing my sugar intake, hence my baking pantry is less than stocked. In fact, all I had was individual packets of Raw Sugar and an artificial sweetener that Mister uses in his tea. Hey, I am good at improvising so I rolled with it.

Yesterday, while wandering around at the flea market, I walked into my favorite grocery outlet store. I found Eggbeaters 100% egg whites for 99 cents. This started the Macaroon wheel turning in my hamster like brain.

This is what I did.

Coconut Macaroons

3/4 cup of egg whites only
1/3 cup raw sugar
1/3 cup of artificial sweetener
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract
pinch of salt
10 ounces sweetened coconut

In a heavy bottom saucepan mix, egg whites, sweeteners, salt, and coconut. Over low to medium heat, cook this for about 10 minutes, stirring often. This mixture should still be moist and just holding together in a complete batter like form. Remove from heat, add the two extracts and stir well. Transfer to a bowl, and allow to cool for about 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line bake sheets with parchment paper. Firmly pack coconut mixture into a tablespoon measure to create a nice tight ball. Place the cookies on bake sheet about an inch apart, they do not spread. Bake for about 25 minutes or until lightly golden brown.

I will tell you, the use of artificial sweetener, resulted in cookies which didn't hold together as tightly as cookies made with hot sticky sweet sugar. A small amount of squishing them after the cookies came out of the oven fixed this problem.

This is an easy, virtually mess free, cookie to make.

My version was inspired by and adapted from  www.skinnytaste.com