I’ve been on a baking binge for the holidays and I can’t seem to stop. It may be the four pounds of dark chocolate I bought at Jacques Torres that is giving me the choco-pneumonia and the coco-loco flu. These decadent macaroons are another installment in the parade of chocolate creations (see: Chocolate Salted Caramels, THE New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookie, and Coconut Oatmeal Lace Cookies) for this holiday season. Making macaroons for yesterday’s Hanukkah dinner with Brian’s family seemed like a no-brainer, as Brian insisted that they are his mother’s favorite. I had not originally intended for them to be chocolate, but after a little goof on my part, it became necessary. With that said, these were really very good.

With macaroons, the egg whites are the glue that hold everything together. The eggs will go from the foamy liquid that you see above to…

…a stiffer foam that holds medium peaks in the bowl. You’ve beaten them too much if they resemble cotton balls that a light breeze could carry away.

No yolks in this recipe, but do try to do all of your baking together, as you may have an opportunity to use them for something else. I save mine covered in tupperware in the fridge.

Add sweetened condensed milk to sweetened coconut flakes and mix well. The mixture will get very heavy and sticky.

Carefully fold in the beaten egg whites.

Drop the raw macaroons onto parchment or silicone-lined baking sheets. Note the ring of liquid around the base of mine – this is more liquid than you want in your macaroons. The reason that this is happening here is that I was about a cup shy on the coconut and tried to compensate by using complimentary ratios of the other ingredients. I was slightly off, which caused some egg and condensed milk to cook around the edges. I decided to try to salvage the batch by baking these almost all the way, then cutting the edges off and returning them to the oven to bake. This worked perfectly and the macaroons came out moist and just right. (sorry, it was an emergency situation that I didn’t photograph).

Unfortunately, the end result looked less than pretty around the base. And so, when faced with ugly macaroon bases, the answer became clear.

What’s good for stress, PMS, and pairs perfectly with Cabernet also does wonders for ugly macaroons.

Be sure to put these on a parchment lined baking sheet in the freezer to set the chocolate. They were delicious and a huge hit at dessert time.

Chocolate-Dipped Coconut Macaroons
Adapted from Ina Garten’s recipe for Coconut Macaroons in Barefoot Contessa Family Style

Ingredients

14 ounces sweetened shredded coconut

14 ounces sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon pure almond extract (original recipe uses vanilla)

2 extra-large egg whites, at room temperature

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

6 oz 60% cacao chocolate