Coconut macaroons have always been an easy go-to recipe in my house. They’re tasty, light, and hard to mess up. For this reason, I decided to experiment with them for this blog post. There are various aspects of this recipe that we have learned about in class, including whipping egg whites into foam. There are also various ways in which this recipe could be adapted to yield a particular product. For instance, this recipe requires you to whip egg whites with salt into stiff peaks and fold in the coconut, condensed milk, and vanilla mixture. There are ways to experiment with this process by tampering with the temperature of the egg whites or the amount of sugar
Coconut macaroons are a seemingly simple product to bake. All you need is coconut flakes, condensed milk, egg whites, salt, and vanilla to make them but rarely do we consider the roles of the various ingredients in making this product. As a former vegan, as soon as I saw the whipped egg whites in the recipe, I wanted to experiment with how the replacement of the egg whites with aquafaba would affect the recipe. Aquafaba or “bean water” is becoming a more common egg white replacer in many vegan recipes. For this reason, I have decided to investigate how the recipe would need to be modified with the replacement of egg whites.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325ºF. Set two oven racks near the center of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Why? Baking the macaroons at a higher temperature (325ºF instead of 275ºF) contributes to a slightly browned color that you want on the edges of the cookies.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the coconut, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla extract. Set aside. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Why? Combining these ingredients allows the coconut flakes to be completely coated by the condensed milk and form a mixture that can be folded into the egg whites. By combining these ingredients before folding in the whipped egg whites, it makes it less likely the egg whites will deflate, allowing them to somewhat keep their shape and structure.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the egg whites and salt until stiff peaks form. Use a large rubber spatula to fold the egg whites into the coconut mixture. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Why? The whisked egg whites are folded into this mixture to contribute to the lightness of the cookie. Whisking into stiff peaks is ideal for meringues, but over whisking could lead to dry peaks which will not rise as well. The reason you want to gently fold in the ingredients is because you want to keep as much of the egg white foam in tact.
- Using a mini ice cream scoop or two spoons, form heaping tablespoons of the mixture into mounds on the prepared baking sheets, spacing about 1 inch apart. Bake for 23 to 25 minutes, rotating the pans from top to bottom and front to back, until the tops and edges are golden. Let cool on the pans for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
A full bibliography can be seen on the Recipe at a Glance page.
Click here for the science behind each ingredient
Click here to learn about the adjustments made