Macaroons

I recently read the delightful culinary memoir A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg of Orangette. I have always enjoyed cookbooks that contain anecdotes about the recipes’ provenance and I also adore cooking memoirs, most of which I’ve read just have a handful of recipes. This book was the ultimate combination of both: it had a recipe for each story.



Amongst many wonderful recipes (I’ve already made several and they’ve all been outstanding), was one for Coconut Macaroons With Chocolate Ganache. I think I felt an affinity towards this recipe because it derived from a deli just a stone’s throw from my house. I enjoy coconut desserts every now and then, but since my boyfriend does not like coconut, I rarely make them. However, I was forced to buy a bag– really, sweetened coconut does not come in the bulk section – several weeks ago when TWD made Coconut Butter Thins. I had the good part of the bag of coconut left after making a half recipe of the cookies and then after making the Banana Cream Pie a week later, I had an excess of egg whites, so I knew it was time to make macaroons.



I had never made macaroons and it was quite simple: just four ingredients for the cookie portion, plus two more for the ganache. I gave this recipe a 2 for Effort and a 7 for Deliciousness, giving it an EDR of 3.5. You can find the recipe here on Orangette, in addition to a slightly different version of the tale. I only glazed about half of my cookies, and I actually found I preferred them without the chocolate. They are nice, sweet, chewy cookies – very hard to stop eating, especially since I made them small. Since Mr. Penpen doesn’t like coconut, though he did say he could get behind chocolate-covered coconut, I froze a good portion of them and will bring them when I see my family next week.