thing, I assure you.
In fact, I once baked a batch of them for a friendâs party, and I heard later that one of the guests actually hoarded some inside a plastic cup and sneaked them home in her purse. I donât blame her. I canât be left alone with these things, not even when theyâre hidden in the freezer. Each time I walk into the kitchen, I feel like Odysseus, during the part of the story when he is sailing past the Sirens. For my own good, I sometimes think that I should ask my husband to remove the macaroons from the houseâto secure me to something solid and heavy, like the dishwasher, and to ignore my screams as he tosses them into the trash can outside. Coconut and I have come a long way.
COCONUT MACAROONS WITH CHOCOLATE GANACHE
m y favorite chocolate for this recipe is Valrhona Manjari 64%.
Â
3 cups lightly packed sweetened shredded coconut
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup egg whites (from about 5 large eggs)
1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
½ cup heavy cream
Â
Place the coconut, sugar, and egg whites in a heavy 2-to 3-quart saucepan and stir well. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, 10 to 15 minutes. The mixture will look very creamy as it heats, and then it will slowly get a bit drier, with individual flakes of coconut becoming discernable. Stop cooking when it no longer looks creamy but is still quite sticky and moist, not dry. Remove from the heat, and stir in the vanilla. Scrape the mixture into a pie plate or small baking sheet, spread it out a bit to allow it to cool quickly, and refrigerate until cold, about 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 300°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
Using your hands or a small, spring-loaded ice cream scoopâI like to use one with a capacity of 2 tablespoonsâscoop and firmly pack the coconut mixture into small domes. (If youâre using an ice cream scoop, keep a bowl of warm water nearby. The scoop will need a quick swish every now and then to keep it from getting gummed up.) Space them evenly on the baking sheet.
Bake the macaroons until evenly golden, about 30 minutes. Cool completely on the pan on a wire rack. Then remove the macaroons from the baking sheet, and set them on the rack. Set the rack over the baking sheet.
Put the chopped chocolate in a medium bowl. Heat the cream in asmall saucepan over medium heat, swirling the pan occasionally, until it is hot and steaming. Do not allow it to boil. Remove the pan from the heat, and pour the cream over the chocolate. Let sit for 1 minute, then stir until smooth. Spoon the warm ganache generously over the macaroons, shaking them gently, if needed, to coax the ganache down their sides.
Refrigerate the macaroons on the rack until the ganache sets, at least 2 hours. Transfer them to an airtight container, and refrigerate or freeze.
Â
NOTE: Macaroons will keep in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Frozen, they will keep for a month or two.
Â
Yield: 14 to 18 macaroons
WHAT FRANCE WOULD TASTE LIKE
I am one of those people for whom college was just okay. I liked my classes and my professors and the people I met there, but I never felt completely at home. I always imagined college as a place where I would tumble, not unlike Alice falling down the rabbit hole, into some sort of lovely, wacky, self-contained world: a close-knit group of friends, a fully-formed post-teens family of sorts. Instead, I found myself living in on-campus theme houses with people who largely kept to themselves, and where the cook put a padlock on the freezer so we wouldnât eat the Otis Spunkmeyer cookie dough he kept there. I learned a few things, but it wasnât quite what I wanted it to be.
So when the opportunity arose to study abroad during my junior year, I pounced on it. I applied to my universityâs Paris program, writing a breathless essay about le Quartier Latin and that visit when I
In fact, I once baked a batch of them for a friendâs party, and I heard later that one of the guests actually hoarded some inside a plastic cup and sneaked them home in her purse. I donât blame her. I canât be left alone with these things, not even when theyâre hidden in the freezer. Each time I walk into the kitchen, I feel like Odysseus, during the part of the story when he is sailing past the Sirens. For my own good, I sometimes think that I should ask my husband to remove the macaroons from the houseâto secure me to something solid and heavy, like the dishwasher, and to ignore my screams as he tosses them into the trash can outside. Coconut and I have come a long way.
COCONUT MACAROONS WITH CHOCOLATE GANACHE
m y favorite chocolate for this recipe is Valrhona Manjari 64%.
Â
3 cups lightly packed sweetened shredded coconut
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup egg whites (from about 5 large eggs)
1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
½ cup heavy cream
Â
Place the coconut, sugar, and egg whites in a heavy 2-to 3-quart saucepan and stir well. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, 10 to 15 minutes. The mixture will look very creamy as it heats, and then it will slowly get a bit drier, with individual flakes of coconut becoming discernable. Stop cooking when it no longer looks creamy but is still quite sticky and moist, not dry. Remove from the heat, and stir in the vanilla. Scrape the mixture into a pie plate or small baking sheet, spread it out a bit to allow it to cool quickly, and refrigerate until cold, about 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 300°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
Using your hands or a small, spring-loaded ice cream scoopâI like to use one with a capacity of 2 tablespoonsâscoop and firmly pack the coconut mixture into small domes. (If youâre using an ice cream scoop, keep a bowl of warm water nearby. The scoop will need a quick swish every now and then to keep it from getting gummed up.) Space them evenly on the baking sheet.
Bake the macaroons until evenly golden, about 30 minutes. Cool completely on the pan on a wire rack. Then remove the macaroons from the baking sheet, and set them on the rack. Set the rack over the baking sheet.
Put the chopped chocolate in a medium bowl. Heat the cream in asmall saucepan over medium heat, swirling the pan occasionally, until it is hot and steaming. Do not allow it to boil. Remove the pan from the heat, and pour the cream over the chocolate. Let sit for 1 minute, then stir until smooth. Spoon the warm ganache generously over the macaroons, shaking them gently, if needed, to coax the ganache down their sides.
Refrigerate the macaroons on the rack until the ganache sets, at least 2 hours. Transfer them to an airtight container, and refrigerate or freeze.
Â
NOTE: Macaroons will keep in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Frozen, they will keep for a month or two.
Â
Yield: 14 to 18 macaroons
WHAT FRANCE WOULD TASTE LIKE
I am one of those people for whom college was just okay. I liked my classes and my professors and the people I met there, but I never felt completely at home. I always imagined college as a place where I would tumble, not unlike Alice falling down the rabbit hole, into some sort of lovely, wacky, self-contained world: a close-knit group of friends, a fully-formed post-teens family of sorts. Instead, I found myself living in on-campus theme houses with people who largely kept to themselves, and where the cook put a padlock on the freezer so we wouldnât eat the Otis Spunkmeyer cookie dough he kept there. I learned a few things, but it wasnât quite what I wanted it to be.
So when the opportunity arose to study abroad during my junior year, I pounced on it. I applied to my universityâs Paris program, writing a breathless essay about le Quartier Latin and that visit when I
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