Strawberry and chocolate a pair made in heaven. These cookies just popped up in between my search for a certain strawberry dessert. And I would have never tried it if it wasn't the beautiful picture that caught my attention and had me drooling. Believe me I somehow have this fear of making macaroons..... (Mageroonophobia, haha). But these beauties just had the better of me, thanks to Alyssa, author of "Mysequinedlife.com", whose easy recipe got me baking these chewy macaroon version. Like I said, pair made in heaven! so I started off with invoking the king of heavens and fingers crossed.
Ready to go in the oven!
Only element to be cautious about and taken care of is the moisture content. Since the fresh strawberries are loaded with moisture, and the recipe calls for egg white too, make sure you blot out enough moisture from the strawberries after chopping them, by placing it on kitchen towel and gently pressing it over with another towel..
These macaroons are chewy and soft inside,(so don't worry if they don't harden even after cooling time). With a light golden crust on top and not to forget, bursts of fresh strawberry flavor, they are a good start for a macaroonathon. At least for me, it help build that little soft confidence, I should have before going for those hard- brittle- melt in mouth macaroons.
Ingredients
- Dessicated coconut- 1 cup
- Sugar- 1/4 cup
- Egg white-1 large
- Salt -a pinch
- Vanilla essence- 1/4 tsp
- Strawberries- 3/4 cup roughly chopped and blotted dry as much as possible* (see notes)
- Dark chocolate chips- 1/2 cup approx
Directions
- 1Add dessicated coconut and sugar in food processor and pulse it once once or twice. (don't over grind, we want it to be coarse). Add egg white, salt and vanilla essence and process for 2-3 pulses just till the mixture gets combined. Transfer this mixture into a bowl.
- 2Put the strawberry chunks into the processor. Process for few short pulses, till small pieces remain.(coarse mixture) Do not puree it.
- 3Fold the strawberry mixture into the coconut-sugar mix.
- 4Scoop 1 1/2 tbsp and using a spatula press gently to ensure it is densly packed. Place it on the greased and flour dusted baking tray. These macaroons don't spread much so they can be placed near each other.
- 5Bake for 25-30 mins, or until the bottom edges and top begin to turn golden brown. Remove from oven and let macaroons cool in the pan for at least 10-15 mins.
- 6Once cooled place the macaroons in the fridge to harden up a little, to get them ready to dip in melted chocolate.(about 20 mins)
- 7Melt Chocolate in microwave for 20 secs, or just until they loose their shape and become smooth on stirring. (be careful not to over heat, as it may burn the chocolate)
- 8Take macaroons from fridge and dip bottoms of cookies into chocolate, and place on plate lined with aluminium foil. Put the remaining chocolate in a plastic bag and snip one corner. Pipe the chocolate over the macaroon cookies. Place it in the fridge again for 15-20 mins until chocolate hardens.
- Notes:-
- 1Roughly chop the strawberries and with the help of a kitchen towel, gently press over the strawberries to remove extra moisture and blot it dry as much as possible. This step is important or else you may end up with a watery mixture. The mixture must be moist enough and cohesive to be able to retain its round shape, once scooped onto the baking tray.
