Recipes

I love coconut and especially coconut macaroons. I hadn’t thought about them in while but this morning while getting coffee there were beautiful macaroons, stacked beautifully in little pink boxes, near the register. I gave in and had one with my morning coffee and then spent the day scouring the internet for recipes to make my own. I decided on a recipe from Cooking Light for chocolate macaroons and eliminated the cocoa because I prefer them in all their plain coconut glory. They didn’t quite turn out like macaroons, and hence the title coconut cookies, but they are delicious – chewy like a great macaroon but the addition of the flour gives them a little bit of a cookie feel. The boyfriend tried one when he got home and immediately asked when I was making them again (even though we currently have 36 of them, well now maybe 30…)

Speaking of loving coconut – I would love to hear about your favorite ways to use coconut!  Comment with your favorite coconut uses.

Healthy Coconut Cookies
Servings: 36 servings
Serving Size: 1 cookie
Nutritional Info: 75 calories, 2.8 g of fat, 11.8 g of carbohydrates, .6 g of fiber, 1.5 g of protein * 2 P+

Ingredients
1 can (14 oz) non fat condensed milk
2.5 cups shredded sweetened coconut
1 tsp vanilla or almond extract
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sifted all purpose or cake flour

Instructions
1. Preheat your oven to 250 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, combine the coconut, sifted flour, almond or vanilla extract, condensed milk, and salt.  Mix together until combined.  Place in the fridge for 15 minutes so the dough can firm up which makes it easier to scoop out.

3. Scoop out using a small ice cream scoop or teaspoon and place rounded scoops onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

4. Cook for 45 minutes until the bottoms brown and crisp up.  Enjoy!

Tip:  According to the recipe these cookies freeze well although I haven’t tried it yet.