HappyTummy              

Egg whites! Too many egg whites. Five, to be exact, left over from making Dorie Greenspan’s Banana Cream Pie and Chocolate Cream Tart (I halved both the recipes). They’d been sitting in my freezer until this weekend (Did you know you could freeze them? Oh yes you can!) when I decided to turn them into cookies.

Coconut macaroons were in order, as I had already had all the other ingredients the recipe called for: shredded coconut, almonds, powdered sugar and chocolate. Because every good cookie should have some chocolate, no?

I got this recipe from the most incredible cookbook, which my mother gave me a few weeks ago. Best of Baking was published in 1978, and features more than 100 recipes for the most amazing baked treats, most all of them European—things like Shrewsbury Biscuits, Hungarian Chocolate Roll, Nougat Slice, Aniseed Chräbeli, Viennese Vanila Crescents, Russian Mazurka, Charlotte Royal, Sachertorte, Prince Regent Cake, Malakoff Cake, Dobostorte… you get the point. And every recipe has a picture to go with it. My mother has a penchant for scouring thrift stores, estates sales and the like, and bought the cookbook on a whim. I fell in love with it the moment I saw it.

These cookies were so tasty. Chewy, nutty, and with a the addition of a little rum, slightly boozy. I dipped them in chocolate, but in all honesty, they would have been fantastic without. I’m one of those people who love coconut!

Recipe: Coconut Macaroons
Adapted from Best of Baking by Annette Wolter and Christian Teubner
Makes about 25 cookies using a medium-sized cookie scoop

• 5 egg whites
• 2 cups (250 g) powdered sugar, sifted
• 2 cups (225 g) ground almonds
• 2 2/3 cups (225 g) shredded coconut
• Grated peel of 1/2 lemon
• 1 1/2 tablespoons rum
• Additional powdered sugar, sifted
• 4 ounces (100 g) semisweet chocolate

Line baking sheets with rice paper. Preheat oven to 300°F (150 °C).

Beat egg white in a large bowl until stiff. Fold in half the powdered sugar and ground almonds. Add coconut, remaining powdered sugar, lemon peel and rum; work into a sticky dough. Put mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a large plain nozzle; pipe walnut-size drops onto rice paper. Sprinkle macaroons with additional powdered sugar. Bake 20 minutes. Macaroons should have a golden crust on the outside but remain soft inside. Cool on a rack.

Melt chocolate in a double boiler over low heat. Dip cooled macaroons in melted chocolate to coat about a third of each one. Let chocolate set before serving.