Chewy Coconut Macaroons that look like a hula dancer.

I had this urge to bite into a chewy coconut macaroon. Food urges are unpredictable, and when I knew I had no macaroons at home, I just had to make some. Rummaging through my cupboards I found a bag of shredded sweetened coconut and a can of sweetened condensed milk. Once I had those, I breathed a sigh of relief and began putting the recipe together. I followed my Chewy Coconut Macaroon recipe from Baking in America. It’s a foolproof recipe that I’ve made oodles of times. The recipe calls for 2 ½ cups of lightly packed sweetened shredded coconut. Now, what exactly is that? How does one lightly pack coconut? And your packing might be different from mine. So I looked on the bag, which when full weighs 14 ounces and saw printed on the label that the bag contained 5 1/3 cups. That comes to about 2.6 ounces per cup, an amount that doesn’t come close to filling a 1-cup dry measure. Hmmm. I checked my notes when I originally wrote the recipe—more than ten years ago—and found that I used 3.5 ounces of coconut per cup. So rounding up, I decided that 2 ½ cups of lightly packed coconut should weigh 9 ounces. And that’s what I used.

My recipe also calls for ½ cup of cake flour, measured by dipping the cup into the flour container, filling to overflowing, and sweeping off the excess. This amount of cake flour weighs 2 ounces.

Now I was ready to begin making the macaroons. It’s a very easy recipe. I put the coconut and flour into a bowl and combined the two thoroughly with my fingertips. I scraped the sweetened condensed milk over the coconut, added the vanilla, and stirred everything together to make a thick batter.

Next, I lined a baking sheet with a silicon baking pan liner and made 20 evenly-sized mounds using regular teaspoons—one to form a mound and the other to push it off—onto the pan liner leaving an inch or two of space between the cookies.

Then I baked them according to the recipe. In the past, the mounds stayed perfectly round. This time, and I do not know why, each cookie formed an “apron” or “skirt” at its base. “Oh, my” I thought, what the heck happened? Not one to accept defeat lightly, I looked carefully at the cookies and decided they looked like hula skirts, with flared bottoms. Aha! Not a problem after all. I’ll call them Hula Macaroons!

Now, if you want your macaroons to look like classic macaroons, then here’s what to do: Add 2 tablespoons more cake flour and a generous ½ cup (2 ounces) more sweetened shredded coconut to the basic batter.

Here’s the recipe.

Chewy Hula Macaroons

The macaroons in this recipe contain no egg white. Instead, they’re held together with sweetened condensed milk and cake flour. They’re crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. And they’re loaded with coconut. They must bake at 2 temperatures, first low then moderate. Beware! These cookies can be addictive.

1/2 cup (2 ounces) cake flour

2 1/2 cups loosely packed sweetened shredded coconut (9 ounces)

1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1. Adjust an oven rack to the center position and preheat the oven to 250˚F. Line a large heavy (14 x 17-inch) cookie sheet or baking sheet with cooking parchment or silicone baking pan liner.

2. In a large bowl, combine the flour and coconut, tossing well with your fingertips to insure each flake is coated with flour. Add the sweetened condensed milk and vanilla, and stir with a wooden spoon or spatula until well combined. The mixture will be very stiff. Spoon rounded regular teaspoons of the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing the mounds about 2 inches apart and making 20 mounds in all.

3. Bake at 250˚F for 30 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet front to back once during this first baking. Then increase the thermostat to 350˚F and bake 6 to 10 minutes more, only until the macaroons are a golden brown color all over. Do not overbake or the macaroons might burn. Carefully transfer the macaroons to cooling racks with a wide metal spatula and cool completely. Serve when very fresh.

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By Blogsdna

Tagged as: Chewy Coconut Macaroons, Chewy Hula Dancer Macaroons, Chewy Macaroons, Coconut Macaroons, Greg Patent's Hula Dancer Macaroons, Hula Macaroons

{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

Jason January 28, 2013 at 5:56 pm

Love it! Maybe you could make us some “hula macaroons” next time we’re with you in Montana!

Greg Patent January 28, 2013 at 5:57 pm: Yes, i will. And we can all do the hula!

Liz February 2, 2013 at 6:47 pm

Aha…I was wondering how you got that hula shape! I love macaroons in any shape available. And nice to hear I’m not the only one who doesn’t like those butterscotch chips…they taste nothing like their name…such a shame.

Greg Patent February 3, 2013 at 10:31 am: I’m in San Diego for a few more days–escaping Missoula cold and gray–and as soon as I get back into my own kitchen I’m making those brownies!

marcellina February 3, 2013 at 9:17 pm