This Saturday I borrowed two books from the library on baking cookies. The following macaroons recipe is based on Key Lime Coconut Macaroons, from Jill Snider's Cookies book.
That recipe caught my eye because it was eggless originally when the macaroon recipes I've seen so far used egg whites and I had all the ingredients at home.
Since I don't like lime/lemon flavoring in cookies/cakes, I omitted it. The original recipe called for key lime juice, so I substituted it with milk. Then only I realized that how similar it was to the South Indian "thengai-coconut burfi". So to get that taste I decided to add some cashews and cardamom powder.
I also ended up using a lesser amount of coconut and all-purpose flour, so the final batter was watery. Then I remembered how my grandmother used to add rava (semolina) while making the burfis, so I also added a couple of tablespoons of it, to make the dough firm. In spite of all these changes, the end product tasted perfect.
I think the mistake I did was adding milk to replace the lime juice, which resulted in a watery batter or not following the actual measurements. But it was a very lovely experience trying out various combinations. So what I would do the next time is, combine condensed milk and coconut to form a firm dough, drop it on a cookie sheet and bake it. I'm confident that this will also bake correctly.
Recipe
Eggless Coconut Macaroons Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Sweetened Condensed Milk
- ¼ Cup Milk
- ¼ Cup All Purpose Flour
- 2.5 Cups Sweetened Shredded Coconut
Optional Ingredients:
- 3 Tablespoons Semolina
- ¼ Cup Cashew Nuts, Broken Into Pieces
- 1 Teaspoon Cardamom Powder
Instructions
- Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 350F (180C) for 15 minutes.
- In a large bowl, combine sweetened milk and milk, whisking until blended.
- With a wooden spoon, stir in flour, mixing until thoroughly blended.
- Stir in coconut, cashews and cardamom powder.
- After combining all the ingredients, the batter was a little bit watery. So I test baked just 1 tablespoon and the cookie spread so much.
- So I added 3 tablespoons of semolina (sooji/rava) to the batter and combined it well and now the batter was nice and firm. Again I test baked another tablespoon of the dough and the macaroon came out perfect.
- Then I went ahead and dropped tablespoonfuls of dough about 1 inch apart and baked it in the oven until it was golden around the edges (which approximately took 15 minutes). I got 24 (plus 2 test bake) macaroons for the above measurement.
- Cool for 10 minutes on the sheet. This point is very important. Don't try to remove the macaroons from the sheet once it is out the oven because it will be very flimsy. Again don't put it back in the oven to harden it. Just leave the macaroons on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes and it will harden by itself.
- Then transfer to a rack and cool completely.
Deepa says
Thanks for the immediate response, Madhuram. All your recipes are very innovative and the photos just make me think I have to try them immediately.
The whole blog is delicious I would say....
Deepa.
Thanks Deepa. The credit for the pictures goes to my husband.
Deepa says
Hi Madhuram,
Can i use dry shredded coconuts or the frozen ones. Also am not sure if I have seen sweetened ones in the Indian stores.
I usually make coconut ladoos with dry desicated coconuts & condensed milk.
I am planning to make these macaroons for this evening. Thanks.
Deepa.
You can get sweetened shredded coconut in the baking aisle of American grocery stores. That's where I got it. I wouldn't recommend using frozen. I think it should work fine with the Indian desicated coconut.
Tejal says
Hey these looks where yummy!!!
Will try them soon... 🙂
Pigpigscorner says
They are beautiful!!
Thanks.
Muneeba says
These look so easy to make, and absolutely divine! Will make these soon and let you know how they turn out.
Thanks Muneeba.
priya says
Baked these goodies today.It came out well.Thanks.
Thanks for your feedback Priya.
Smitha says
Sure I will. I will also let you know if I try first though I guess it is a remote possibility 🙂
Madhuram says
Smitha, believe me or not I did think about Vignesh while making these and was also telling myself that I should try it with shredded carrots the next time. Either you try it or I'll try it the next time I get condensed milk. Let's see how it comes.
Smitha says
Madhu,
The macaroons look really yummy. Vignesh is allergic to coconut, do you think of anything else to subsitute for it?
Swati: Sugarcraft India says
Delicious Macaroons ... love the smell when they are cooking..
Madhuram says
TBC, Bharti, I've also not come across eggless macaroons, so I wanted to try them immediately. I guess the all purpose flour does the job of binding the ingredients, instead of egg whites.
Divya Vikram, I did not know that coconut macaroons are famous in Tutucorin.
Jude, thank you very much.
Divya, are you talking about the coconut which is available in powdered form? I'm not sure how it will come out. But if unsweetened shredded coconut is available you can use that as well, because I used the sweetened coconut and the macaroons were very sweet.
Divya says
Yummy macaroons madhu..eggless makes it more special!!can i use normal dessicated coconut for this?
Roma says
I have never had macaroons but it sounds delicious.
Jude says
Gotta say that I love the recipes and the premise of your blog. This is what I call a NICHE 🙂
DivyA Vikram says
coming from tuticorin,macaroons are my fav..Thanks a looooot for this recipe madhu..