Chocolate coconut macaroons recipe

Chocolate Coconut Macaroons

If I am going to eat dessert, it better be good.  It better be worth falling off the wagon for.  Usually Passover desserts do nothing to tempt me from my sugar abstinence and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  But I cannot in good conscience be the bringer of a sticky, heavy honey nut cake or one of those Maneschewitz Passover cakes from a mix.  I want to share a dessert that I would be happy to eat any time of the year, not just on this 8-day hiatus from flour and other ingredients crucial to baking.  Enter coconut macaroons!

I have tried more coconut macaroon recipes than I care to admit (about 5 pounds worth on the hips and thighs), but this is truly the best.  This recipe is adapted slightly from pastry chef and cookbook author, David Lebovitz.  It is exactly what I want in a macaroon — toasted on the outside, dense and chewy on the inside, but not so sweet that it will make your teeth ache (probably because I cut the sugar a bit.)  I use almond meal instead of flour so that they are Passover-ready and gluten-free, because these days everyone knows someone who is not eating gluten.  I have a news flash — don’t be put off by the use of almond meal.  It’s nothing more than blanched almonds ground up (in the food processor, if you wish) to a fine meal.  My natural foods supermarket even sells almond meal in the bulk bins.

I happen to love coconut and I am a believer in all the health benefits that coconut has to offer.  It is rich in good fats, especially lauric acid which is an immune-boosting fat otherwise only found in breast milk.  The key is to start with unsweetened, shredded coconut which you can find in the bulk bins at the natural foods supermarket or in bags.  I try my hardest to use unrefined sweeteners whenever possible, but only if it makes for the best result.  In this case, granulated sugar is best here, so let’s make these cookies small, ok?

If you would like to bake these for Passover, or for your child’s mock Seder in religious school this week, then you can start cooking lickety-split.  You all know how I love a do-ahead!  You can make the macaroon batter a week ahead and keep it covered in the refrigerator or even freeze it.  The cookies can be baked a few days in advance and kept in an airtight container far away from recovering sugar addicts, especially if they’re dipped in dark chocolate.  Stay tuned for another fabulous Passover-appropriate or all-around yummy dessert later this week!

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Chocolate Coconut Macaroons
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Serves: makes 30 cookies
 
Ingredients
  • 2 ½ cups unsweetened shredded coconut
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon raw honey or Grade A maple syrup
  • ¼ cup almond meal or flour
  • ½ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
  • 4 large egg whites
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 4 ounces, bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, chopped (optional)
Instructions
  1. In a large skillet combine coconut, sugar, honey, almond meal, salt, and egg whites. Please do as I say and COMBINE everything BEFORE placing over heat, otherwise you will end up with a coconut frittata. I'll give you one guess how I know this. Place over medium-low heat on the stove, stirring constantly. When the mixture just begins to stick to the bottom of the pan, almost about to scorch, remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. You are going for sticky, not dry and pasty.
  2. Transfer to a bowl to cool to room temperature. You can refrigerate the dough for up to one week or freeze up to one month.
  3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
  4. Using a small ice cream scoop, form the dough into little mounds and space them evenly on the prepared sheet pans. Shape them into little pyramids, if desired.
  5. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
  6. If desired, melt chocolate in a heat -proof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, aka a double boiler. Dip cooled macaroons in chocolate (wherever you like -- tops, bottoms, sides) and allow to cool completely on cooling rack or on a parchment-lined baking sheet if you dipped the bottoms. If history repeats and you need to make like an Isrealite, stick the chocolate covered macaroons in the fridge to harden the chocolate quickety-quick.
Notes
You can also add some mini-chocolate chips to the cooled macaroon batter, then shape and bake.

 

Molasses-ginger cookies recipe

Molasses-Ginger Cookies | Pamela Salzman

Just in time for your cookie exchange!  These cookies are chewier than a gingersnap, but still wow you with that sweet and spicy kick.  I love rolling them in unsweetened, shredded coconut instead of the traditional granulated sugar, but they are just as good without the additional adornment.

Molasses-Ginger Cookies | Pamela Salzman

Let’s discuss some of the sweeteners used in this recipe.  I used organic brown sugar as my first sweetener.  I wouldn’t call brown sugar a high-quality sweetener, but it provides the flavor and tenderness I am looking for.  I choose the organic version to avoid the high concentration of pesticides found in regular brown, but this ain’t health food.  The other sugar is called Rapadura or a similar product goes by the name Sucanat, short for sugar cane natural.  These are minimally processed organic cane sugars which still contain the vitamins and minerals naturally found in the sugar cane plant.  The molasses is still present in these granules, which make it a perfect sweetener for these cookies.  If you can’t find them, use all dark brown sugar.  Lastly, I have used blackstrap molasses in the past, hoping my family will like it as much as regular unsulphured.  But alas, we will sacrifice less iron for less bitterness.  If you enjoy the stronger flavor of blackstrap, by all means use it.  You will be rewarded with a much more mineral-rich cookie.  But the end of the day, we should enjoy what we make and my family and friends adore these cookies with regular unsulphured molasses.

As with most cookie dough, this can be made several days in advance, if kept refrigerated and well covered.  You can just bake the quantity that you need when you need it.  This is especially helpful when your daughters tell you their charity league cookie exchange is on Friday at 4:00 pm and school gets out at 3:00 pm.  Grin (and bake it!).

Molasses-Ginger Cookies | Pamela Salzman

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molasses-ginger cookies recipe
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Serves: 4 dozen 2½ inch cookies
 
Ingredients
  • 2 cups whole grain pastry flour, all-purpose flour, or spelt flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon ground cloves
  • ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
  • ⅔ cup chopped crystallized ginger (optional)
  • 1 ½ sticks unsalted, organic butter, room temperature
  • ½ cup dark brown sugar
  • ½ cup Sucanat, Rapadura (whole cane sugar) or dark brown sugar
  • ¼ cup dark unsulphured molasses (not blackstrap)
  • 1 large, organic free-range egg
  • ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup dried, unsweetened shredded coconut or turbinado sugar
Instructions
  1. Mix together the flour, baking soda, spices and salt. Add crystallized ginger.
  2. With an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and both sugars until fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add molasses, vanilla and egg and beat until well blended.
  3. Add flour mixture and mix until just blended.
  4. Chill, covered, until firm, at least several hours.
  5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
  6. Place the coconut in a small bowl. Form the dough into 1 to 1 ¼ inch balls (an ice cream scooper is helpful) and roll them in the coconut or turbinado sugar. Place them 2 inches apart on the cookie sheets. You should fit 12 per sheet.
  7. Bake the cookies in the lower third of the oven for approximately 10-12 minutes or until the tops start to crack. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 2 minutes. Transfer to wire racks.

 

Healthy brown rice pudding recipe

Brown Rice Pudding | Pamela Salzman

Brown rice is a staple in my home.  A simple bowl of steamed brown rice, whether it is short-grain, long-grain, basmati or jasmine is utterly satisfying to me.  I love the nuttiness and wholesomeness of brown over white.  Keeping the rice whole, with the bran and germ layers intact, gives you loads of fiber as well as protein, minerals and essential fatty acids that are stripped away if the grain is polished to white.  Just as those layers protect the kernel of rice, they’ll protect you, too.

Brown Rice Pudding | Pamela Salzman

Sure, brown rice takes 45-50 minutes to cook, as opposed to 20 minutes for white, so that’s why I make a huge batch early in the week and have it on the ready for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.

Brown Rice Pudding | Pamela Salzman

Are you skeptical about the use of bay leaves in rice pudding?  When my Puerto Rican mother-in-law suggested it to me, I was too.  But it really adds an interesting earthy, floral note to the creamy rice.  It’s definitely not a deal-breaker, though.  Please make this whether you have bay leaves or not.  One ingredient my M-I-L did NOT suggest was using brown rice syrup as a sweetener.  That’s my addition and one of my favorites in the “less refined sweeteners” category.  Brown rice syrup is made by cooking down soaked and sprouted brown rice with an enzyme that breaks the starches into maltose.  It is light and honey-like, but not as sweet with a butterscotch undertone.

Brown Rice Pudding | Pamela Salzman

This brown rice pudding started off as a snack/dessert, but I realized it could do double duty as weekday morning breakfast, especially when everyone is looking for something warm other than oatmeal for a change.  Like I do when I make a big pot of oatmeal for a family breakfast, I set up a “topping bar” for the brown rice pudding.  Each person can choose his or her own favorites add-ons.  There is always fresh seasonal fruit, such as berries or peaches;  dried fruit like Goji berries or blueberries; raw almonds or walnuts; raw cacao nibs; maple sugar and ground cinnamon.  This beats a cold bowl of processed cereal any day!

Brown Rice Pudding | Pamela Salzman

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healthy brown rice pudding recipe
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Serves: 4 for a snack, 2 for breakfast
 
Ingredients
  • ½ 13-ounce can coconut milk or ¾ cup
  • ¾ cup almond milk, rice milk or hemp milk
  • ⅓ cup brown rice syrup
  • 2 cups cooked brown rice (short or long-grain)
  • ½ vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 bay leaf
  • pinch of salt
Instructions
  1. Whisk together coconut milk, almond milk and brown rice syrup until blended.
  2. Place the cooked brown rice in a medium, heavy-bottomed pot. Add coconut milk mixture, vanilla bean, bay leaf and salt. Bring to a gentle boil and simmer until most of the liquid has been absorbed by the rice, but is still creamy, about 20 minutes.
  3. Turn off heat and remove vanilla bean and bay leaf. Serve warm or room temperature. Pudding will thicken as it sits.
Notes
Other additions: cinnamon stick or cardamom, dried fruit, chocolate chips or chocolate almond milk, pureed pumpkin and pumpkin pie spices, orange or lemon zest

 

Sweet potato-coconut soup recipe

 

sweet potato-coconut soup|pamela salzman

We are a family of soup lovers, which is great since soup is generally easy to prepare and I can put leftovers into a stainless thermos the next day in the kids’ lunchboxes (ok, just the older girls; my 7-year-old son won’t be caught dead at school with a thermos.  More on him in future posts.)

sweet potato-coconut soup|pamela salzman

 

Given how much soup I make during the school year,  it says a lot that this sweet potato-coconut soup might have been last year’s favorite.  It is silky and sweet with a rush of orange color that gets me emotional.  But the best part is a little kick of cayenne that is just the perfect way to balance the sweet.  I know, I know.  Those look like yams.  At least that’s what the supermarkets would have you believe and it seems everyone these days is using “yams” and “sweet potatoes” interchangeably.  But technically they are sweet potatoes (either Garnet or Jewel, I can’t remember), and furthermore, “Yam Soup” doesn’t sound very sexy.

Before you think this soup is just another pretty bowl of goodness, allow me to toot the horn of the sweet potato.  This delicious root vegetable is outrageously high in Beta-carotene, a phyto-nutrient that has powerful anti-cancer properties, as well as iron, fiber, potassium and Vitamin C.  In addition, sweet potatoes are excellent vanguards against heart disease.  And yeah, the color is so … well, sweet.

sweet potato-coconut soup|pamela salzman

 

For the vegetarians and vegans in the crowd, feel free to use vegetable stock or water in place of the chicken stock.  You might also note the coconut milk in the ingredient list.  There seems to be a lot of controversial information about coconut products.  My opinion is that you would be wise to consume coconut products the way you would any other high fat food – in moderation.  But there is a lot of interesting evidence which supports coconut’s anti-viral, anti-bacterial properties since coconut is super high in Lauric Acid, a fatty acid found in breast milk with immune-boosting properties.  But nutrition aside, the real reason to enjoy this soup is because it’s just like a cozy hug on a cold night!

sweet potato-coconut soup|pamela salzman

 

5.0 from 1 reviews
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sweet potato-coconut soup recipe
Serves: 6
 
Ingredients
  • 1 Tablespoon unrefined, cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
  • 2 pounds sweet potatoes (often labeled yams –red-skinned Garnet or Jewel), peeled and cubed or roasted and peeled
  • 3 cups chicken stock, vegetable stock, or water
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • ¼ tsp nutmeg
  • 2-3 Tablespoons 100% pure maple syrup
  • ½ 13-ounce can coconut milk*
  • several dashes or more of cayenne or to taste
Instructions
  1. In a large pot, heat the olive oil and butter until melted. Add the onion and garlic and sauté over medium heat until tender and translucent, about 6 minutes.
  2. Add the cubed sweet potatoes and toss to coat with the oil, butter and onions. Pour in the chicken stock or water, sea salt and nutmeg. Bring to a boil and lower the heat to a simmer. Cook partially covered until the sweet potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.
  3. Add the maple syrup, coconut milk and cayenne. Cook until heated through. Puree soup with an immersion blender or in batches in a blender. Taste for seasoning. Serve immediately or allow to sit off the heat to thicken slightly.
Notes
*If you prefer to use more coconut milk, use a full can and use 1 cup less chicken stock.