Almond and Coconut Cookies are a lovely chewy cookie. They are a cross between a coconut macaroon an almond macaroon, since they are made with both ingredients.
The cookies have that familiar chewy texture of macaroons. That feels so good in the mouth. The flavours, too, complement each other.
The cookies are very easy to make since the mixture only uses a few ingredients that can be stirred together in no time at all.
The basic version needs only ground almonds desiccated coconut, sugar and egg whites. A more luxuriant version can have other ingredients added. For mine I added some almond extract and lemon zest for extra flavour, and glacé cherries, for flavour and look.
All the ingredients, except for the glacé cherries are stirred together into a paste. Then that is chilled while the oven is preheated. Once chilled, for ease of shaping, the paste is divided into 18 equal portions of about 20g. The portions are rolled into a ball and placed, with a gap between each, on a lined baking tray. Then they are flattened slightly by pressing half a glacé cherry onto the top of each.
All that remains is to bake the cookies for 12 to 14 minutes, until they just begin to colour a little. Then they can be removed from the oven and, after a couple of minutes, transferred to a rack to cool.
Desiccated coconut can come in different size grains. Mine were quite fine, but if you have a larger grained version, similar to rice, you can put all the dry ingredients in a food processor and blitz them to reduce the size of the coconut grains, if you wish.
My Cookies
I baked my cookies for 13 minutes. Just enough time for them to take on a light colour. Then I took them out of the oven and left them for a couple of minutes. I transferred them to my wire rack to cool. Once they had cooled I had a taste. What a great taste it was too. The coconut was the first flavour that I tasted. Then the almond extract came through along with a little hint of lemon. The cherry on the top added another subtle layer of flavour.
The texture was just perfect too, soft and chewy just as they should be.
Another very easy cookie recipe is Easy Coconut Sables.
Almond & Coconut Cookies
Course: Biscuits, CookiesDifficulty: Easy18
servings10
minutes14
minutesIngredients
150g(1 1/2 cups ) ground almonds
50g(1/2 cup + 2 tbsp) desiccated coconut
100g(1/2 cup) caster sugar
2 medium eggs whites(large in USA)
grated zest from one lemon
1.25ml(1/4 tsp) almond extract
9 glacé cherries, cut in half
Directions
- Rub the lemon zest into the sugar to release the lemon oils for extra flavour.
- Place the sugar, lemon zest, ground almonds and desiccated coconut into a large bowl and stir to combined.
- Add the almond extract to the egg whites and whisk briefly until slightly frothy.
- Pour the egg whites into the dry ingredients and stir until everything combines into a paste, which may be slightly crumbly.
- Chill the paste in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/3250F.
- Line a baking tray, or two, with parchment paper, or silicone mats.
- Divide the paste into 18 portions of about 20g, rolling each into a ball and placing them on the baking tray, leaving a good gap between them.
- Press half a glacé cherry onto the top of each ball. That will flatten the balls a little too.
- Bake the cookies for 12 to 14 minutes, until they are just beginning to colour slightly. Then remove them from the oven and, after 2 minutes, transfer them to a rack to cool.