These coconut gluten and dairy free macaroons are a perfect light and fun flavorful treat to bring to any sort of Summer soiree. The fun pops of color are 100% natural and come from the fresh blueberries and strawberries that dye the coconutty goodness that make up the base of the cookies. These are a bit creamier than your traditional macaroons thanks to the coconut butter that helps hold them together.
To save steps, rather than making the cookies two tone, you can either food process both berries together or just choose one kind. You can also eliminate the chocolate- they taste great plain as well! A few tricks I learned are: don't food process them too much, the ones with some little chunks of berry are really good, don't overcook- they are really good a little gooey, but set and make sure to dry the berries completely- you don't want any extra liquid making the batter watery.
Try to buy berries organic since conventional strawberries contain some of the highest levels of pesticides in conventional produce
The color comes completely from the berries- which is shocking how hot pink they come out!
Swirling the two separate batters makes the swirl look, but save a step and use just one
Try making the cookies plain or with the extra step for chocolate lovers
Ingredients:
Macaroons
5 cups coconut flakes
2 tbsp Artisana coconut butter
1 1/3 cup granulated sugar
4 egg whites
1/2 tsp almond flavor or extract
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/3 cup cut up strawberries
1/3 cup blueberries
Chocolate Dip
1 bag chocolate chips of choice- I like Enjoy Life soy/dairy free semisweet chocolate chunks
1 cup coconut flakes
Method:
Macaroons
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and line at least 2 sheet pans with parchment paper
Add the coconut flakes and butter to the food processor and pulse until they have begun to blend together well
Add the sugar and continue to pulse until well combined
Add the almond flavor, salt and eggs. Pulse until well combined (see photo with white coconut batter and berry pieces on top)
Now remove half of the coconut batter from the food processor and reserve. Add strawberries to the half that remains in the food processor. Pulse until the dough has strawberries evenly distributed. It is okay if there are some little bits- it is best a little chunky and not too smooth.
Remove the finished strawberry batter and put aside in a bowl. Rinse and dry the food processor before adding the reserved second half of the batter.
Add the blueberries and once again pulse until they are evenly distributed, however leaving chunks and not making it too smooth.
Fill a tablespoon with half strawberry and half blueberry batter and use your finger to give it a little swirl as you plop each cookie onto the tray (see photo above)
Bake the cookies for 15-20 minutes. Check after 15 to see if they are ready. You want them set but do not want the edges getting too crisp.
Chocolate Dip
Once the macaroons have cooled all the way, you can prepare to do the chocolate dip.
Melt chocolate over a double broiler or if you don't have one like me- bring a little bit of water to a boil in a saucepan and place some sort of heat safe bowl on top to melt the chocolate in!
Be sure the bowl doesn't actually touch the boiling water. Help the chocolate melt by stirring.
Once melted, dip the cookies into the chocolate then lay them on parchment paper. Sprinkle them with some coconut flakes.
Allow the chocolate to harden and flakes to set, then enjoy or store in an airtight container at room temperature and enjoy later!
Coconut butter is the trick to making these creamier than usual macaroons