Flaherty Wines

Ed doesn’t particularly care for coconut desserts or creamy custards. He finds them too rich, too unctuous, with no acidity to balance them out. That’s exactly why I adore them! So with Ed off in London for the London Wine Fair, the boys and I decided to make a crème brûlée for our Sunday dessert. That left a bowlful of egg whites from fresh farm eggs, which are increasingly scarce this time of year and which I thus couldn’t bear to toss out. A quick look in the pantry unearthed a couple of packets of shredded coconut, so we decided to make macaroons for an afternoon snack. A brief problem arose when my cookbooks refused to offer up a simple recipe, but rather insisted on adding in almond paste or hazelnuts or candied fruit or even browned butter. We just wanted to use up our egg whites! I wound up cobbling together my own recipe, and the result was spectacular: light and airy, yet rich and creamy. And they were really easy to whip up with an electric mixer.

Coconut macaroons

6 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar, divided
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons flour
3 cups shredded unsweetened coconut

Preheat the oven to 275 F (120 C). Generously grease and flour your baking sheets.

In an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites and salt on high until reasonably stiff peaks form. With the machine running, add the lemon juice and vanilla, and then gradually add in 1/2 cup sugar. Continue to beat until the mixture is quite stiff and the sugar is fully incorporated. In a separate bowl, combine the remaining sugar, flour, and cocount. Gently fold it into the egg whites.

Gently spoon the batter into mounds on the cookie sheets. The recipe makes 40 cookies; I find it helpful to cut the dough in half and then use each half to make 20 cookies, to ensure a uniform size (and thus even baking). Bake for half an hour, then cool on a rack.