I trust you all had a lovely Passover, or a beautiful Easter. Maybe you were lucky enough to celebrate both, as I did. Life is short, holiday food is wonderful, celebrate everything!

I wanted to bring a special dessert to our hostess for Easter Dinner – she’s allergic to eggs – so I decided to make coconut macaroons sans eggs. I love experimenting, and after reading quite a few eggless versions on Pinterest, I created my own.
It varied from all the others because I feel that using sweetened condensed milk AND sweetened coconut flakes is just TOO much sugar.
And, since I’d be eating them, I also made them gluten-free.

I chose to use unsweetened coconut, and let it soak in the sweetened condensed milk for 15 minutes because these flakes tend to be a bit drier than typical commercial shredded coconut. Then I added the remaining few ingredients, and using two spoons, scooped blobs onto my parchment lined baking sheet. With damp fingers I pushed them together and mounded them.

The recipe couldn’t be simpler:

• 10 oz. bag Bob’s Red Mill coconut flakes (Whole Foods, Amazon, maybe even Trader Joes)
• 14 oz. can Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 1/2 Cup gluten-free Cup-4-Cup (or similar) OR all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 almond extract
• 4 ounces chocolate chips, or any other semi-sweet chocolate, chopped for melting and drizzling over top.

First: I let the coconut sit in the condensed milk for 15 minutes. Then I added the two extracts, stirred, and sprinkled in the flour and salt. Stir this all till thoroughly combined.

Second: Using a cookie scoop, or two tablespoons, place mounds of mixture on prepared cookie sheet. Dampen fingers and press up into mounds.

Third: Bake 18 – 20 minutes until lightly golden brown. Remove from oven and let sit 5 mins on cookie sheet, then gently move to wire rack to cool completely. You can eat them now, as is, but I think they were better the next day after softening-up a bit.

OR: You can melt the chocolate in the microwave in 15 second bursts, stirring each time creamy and liquid, maybe a minute. Using a teaspoon, I filled it with the melted chocolate and let it fall off the edge of the spoon as I’d wave the spoon back and forth, zig-zagging it onto the cookies while they were on the wire racks.

It took a couple of tries to get them looking the way I envisioned them. ( I ate all of the messy evidence of my learning curve! LOL)

And here they are fresh from the oven! If you put chocolate on them, put them back on the cookie sheet and in the fridge for 10 minutes to harden the chocolate. Then plate them and cover with plastic wrap. These keep in a Ziploc type bag for four days, if they last that long!

It is always nice to find simple treats to prepare for friends and family that can accommodate multiple food allergies and taste so good that everyone enjoys eating them. Maybe you can make them for Mother’s Day? And if you do, please let me know what you thought.
Thank you for reading, I appreciate you!

XO Donna