I love coconut – and growing up we did eat an abundance of it. Goa has an abundance of coconut sweets. Where does one start – Doce, Coconut Ice, Bibinca …. the list goes on and on. We use it in curries (vegetarian and non-vegetarian). In Goa we are not big on vegetables so we mainly had them two ways – veggies with freshly grated coconut or veggies with a green coconut gravy. I grew up disliking vegetables – (which can be pretty true of most kids except kids of vegetarians then I guess you do not have a choice 🙂 – Not like you were missing out on something that you never had).
So I was looking for recipes that had coconuts and came across this one. It looked like a breeze to make and I had a lot of dried apricots. Adding rum gives it just that little something.
I did take a few that were left to the office and they were gone really quickly. I even got two requests for the recipe. So I am finally getting down to writing it. Hope you enjoy it just as much as they enjoyed it.
In addition, this is gluten free!!!
Ingredients
Total time : 1.5 hour
- 3 large egg whites
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon dark rum (optional)
- pinch of salt
- 14 oz sweetened flaked coconut
- 1/2 cup soft dried apricots, coarsely chopped (stirred with rum if using)
Method
Preheat oven to 325F. Use a silicone mat on your baking sheet or line it with parchment paper. Whisk your egg whites and sugar until frothy and thick. Do not overwhip as it will dry out the whites. Stir in the coconut and apricots.
Using a cookie scoop (medium) shape mixture into rounds. Place on baking sheet half an inch apart. Bake for 30-35 minutes until lightly golden, rotating he sheet halfway through the baking. Place baking tray on a rack and let the macaroons cool. Store in an airtight container.
It lasted all of 2 days (as I took a whole batch into work and they were gone).