Mocha Coconut Macaroons

My post yesterday morning was pretty lazy, do I decided to make up for it with, well, a lazy day recipe. 

#fail

Sure, these might be for lazy days when you don't feel like doing much, but they don't taste lazy!  They are loaded with rich flavors like coconut and chocolate and coffee!  The coffee adds another level of flavor and makes these a little more sophisticated. I mean, ok, these aren't very pretty :) but coffee was always  an adult thing here at our house.  Now we "underage drinkers" can enjoy our coffee in these little cookies. 

(Actually, most of my siblings don't like coffee, buuuuut {most of them ;) } do like these!  I think it's the chocolate ...)

I've been wanting to try these chocolate macaroons from the Cake Boss cookbook for a while, but because I can never make a recipe exactly as written, I was waiting until I had something a little special to mix it up. I know, it is just coffee, but I personally think coffee is very special.  I have major cravings for it and I always have a mug first thing in the morning or when I'm cold. Which is a lot of the time right now.

I only used a teaspoon of instant coffee, and while there was coffee flavor, I would add more next time, probably 1-1/2 to 2 teaspoons. Coffee has this delicious quality of enhancing chocolate flavor, so in small quantities, coffee just helps the chocolate flavor be stronger. There is a little of that going on here; 1 teaspoon is enough to give some coffee flavor, but not a robust addition. Play around with it; the goal is to have both the chocolate and coffee flavors shine. 

And then there is the coconut … need I say more?  There is no flour or oats in these cookies, just coconut shreds. I will confess, I used 2 cups sweetened shreds and 1 cup unsweetened because we ran out of sweetened. It worked incredibly well!  If you don't have enough sweetened (ahem) I wouldn't suggest using more than half unsweetened, because it isn't as sticky or sweet.  The coconut adds all the body to these cookies and makes them addictive my chewy. 

Lazy days, don't go away!  I like you when you bring me mocha coconut macaroons.  Lazy or not, I hope you all are having a great weekend! 

 

Mocha Coconut Macaroons

Recipe Source: Adapted from Cake Boss Family Celebrations Cookbook.

Yield: 2 dozen

 

1/2 cup chocolate chips

4 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon instant coffee

2 eggs

3 cups sweetened coconut shreds

Preheat oven to 325.
Melt chocolate chips, either in the microwave or on the stove.
Mix sugar and instant coffee. 
Beat in eggs.
Add melted chocolate to sugar, coffee, and egg mixture, stirring quickly.
Add coconut shreds and stir until all coconut is coated.
Form in tablespoon sized cookies (mixture will be sticky!)
Bake for 15 minutes.
Remove from pan after 5 minutes of cooling.
Enjoy!