Coconut Macaroons

(about 60 cookies)    

from Room for Dessert, David Lebovitz

You won't go back to canned! 

• 8 egg whites
• ½ cup flour, (or matzo meal)
• 2 ½ cups sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ tsp salt
• (4 oz. bittersweet chocolate-for final dipping)
• 2 T honey
• 5 cups unsweetened dried coconut

1. Position 2 oven racks in the center and upper part of oven.  Preheat oven to 350.

2. In a large pan with a heavy bottom, warm the egg whites, sugar, salt, and honey, stirring over medium heat.

3. When the egg whites are warm to the touch, stir in the coconut, flour/matzo, and vanilla.  Continue cooking over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is slightly dry and the bottom has just begun to sizzle and scorch.  Cool.  You can refrigerate the mixture at this point for up to a week.

4. When cool enough to handle, form the mixture into 1 ½ - inch mounds with your fingers or scoop and space them evenly on parchment-lined baking sheets.

5. Bake for 18-20 minutes, rotating the baking sheets and switching racks midway through baking so the macaroons brown evenly.  cool.

6. cover a baking sheet with waxed paper, or plastic film

7.  (If dipping) Melt the chocolate in a double boiler and dip just the bottoms of macaroons into chocolate.  Do less chocolate than you think on each cookie.  Just coat the bottom and be done.  Otherwise it seems the balance is thrown off, and you can barely taste the coconut