Recipes From the Porch: Coconut Macaroons

When I went looking for a good macaroon recipe, I looked no farther than The Food Network, and Ina Garten's version of the cookie. I read the reviews on the recipe, and made one small tweak that was recommended by other folks and the end result has been very well received (I took the excess cookies to work yesterday and got rave reviews from my staff and several of our partners who were in the house for interviews).

The recipe is fairly simple and requires only five ingredients (six, if you include the minor tweak I made to the recipe, which, you should).

The ingredients:

14 oz. sweetened shredded coconut

14 oz. sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp vanilla

2 extra large egg whites, at room temperature

1/4 tsp kosher salt (I used regular 'ol Morton's, because that is what I had on hand)

1 tsp flour (optional, but helps keep cookies from spreading too much)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine shredded coconut, condensed milk, and vanilla (and flour, if you're using it).

Mix, thoroughly. Mixture will be extremely sticky.

Set aside and whip egg whites until stiff peaks form.

Fold egg whites into coconut mixture, being careful not to over-mix.. Using a large scoop, drop dough onto parchment-lined cookie sheets. 

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown (mine got a titch too dark). Allow to cool on cookie sheets. Store in airtight containers.