When I have a mad craving for homemade cookies but have no desire to spend a lot of time baking, I turn to Coconut Macaroons. These are by far the easiest cookies you’ll ever make. You can go from assembling the ingredients to sitting down and enjoying the Coconut Macaroons in less than a half hour.
Preheat the oven to 350°.
If you decide that you want both almond- and chocolate-flavored Coconut Macaroons, melt the chocolate over hot water, and set aside.
Melt the chocolate.
I like to use Lindt Excellence 70% chocolate bar for this. Not only is it of the highest quality, but also it requires no measuring for this recipe.
The preferred chocolate/
In a large bowl, mix together sweetened angel-flake coconut, condensed milk, almond extract, and vanilla.
Mix the ingredients.
I use a very ample 2 tablespoons of almond extra because I like the heavy almond flavor. Adjust this amount to your own taste. If you want both almond and chocolate cookies, remove one third of this mixture to another bowl, and stir in the melted chocolate—otherwise skip this step.
Add chocolate to part of the batter.
Using an ice-cream scoop, fill it about one half full with the coconut mixture, then drop it on heavy ungreased baking pans.
Drop the macaroons.
Drop the chocolate macaroons.
Bake for 15 or more minutes. To get a slightly toasted look to the white macaroons, move the cookies to a higher rack in the oven for the last few minutes of baking.
Bake the cookies.
Let the Coconut Macaroons cool a little, then remove them carefully with a thin-bladed spatula. They may lose their shape, but you can reshape them with your fingers while they are still warm.
