Macaroon: Journey to the Forbidden Countertop

To what lengths is a cat willing to go for a coconut macaroon? 

If the cat's last name is Mitchell, it will brave water pistols to nab one off the cooling rack on the counter, it will hop into the microwave in pursuit of the now relocated cooling rack, it will wade through a soapy sink to score a few crumbs and it will hop up onto the stove. 

Who would have guessed that cats liked macaroons? I mean, really - there's nothing in there but sugar and coconut and vanilla extract, and they were acting like I was baking mouse-muffins. So in honor of an evening of thwarted attempts, here is the recipe for "Phot and Vesp's Forbidden Macaroons" (from "Sally's Macaroons" in The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper, which is fantabululous by the way). 

Ingredients:

- 1 14oz package sweetened, shredded coconut (about 3 cups tightly packed)

- 2 eggs well beaten

- 1 tsp vanilla extract or almond extract (make sure to use the real thing and not imitation - there are so few ingredients in there that imitation anything gives the cookies a nasty chemical aftertaste. Ask me how I know....)

-1/2 cup granulated sugar

- 1/3 rough chopped almonds (optional)

Process:

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper (don't skip this - the cookies get sticky during baking and will stick to anything but parchments paper)

2. Beat the two eggs and the extract in a small bowl with a fork. Set aside.

3. Put coconut and sugar into a large mixing bow. Stir until roughly incorporated. Add the almonds at this point if you're using them.

4. Pour the egg/extract mixture into the coconut and sugar. Mix until roughly combined. This shouldn't look like batter so much as clumps of coconut.

5. Put generous tsp. sized dollops of mixture onto baking sheet - roughly 15  cookies should fit roomily. Make sure that you pack each cookie down a bit - they should look like compact little haystacks when you put them in to bake. 

6. Put one sheet in and bake for 20 -25 min. until golden brown and toasty looking.

7. Pull them out and cool on a rack while the second sheet goes in. 

8. Allow them to cool as much as possible before eating them - the texture improves the cooler they are. They can be stored at room temperature for 3-5 days in an airtight container. The Splendid Table ladies also recommend freezing them (they'll last for months that way) and eating them straight out of the freezer, which I'm definitely going to try. These macaroons also beg for vanilla ice cream if you have any on hand :)

Variation Idea:

I'm going to try doing a Tropical Macaroon by replacing the extract with lime juice and adding a bit of lime zest. If it works, I'll post a little progress report and then try it with orange - or if someone else wants to give it a try, let me know how it goes!