It has been a crazy week! On top of getting everything ready for Passover, I decided to purchase my blog address. It was the right move and a very exciting step in my blogging, but it has created headache after headache. For three days I couldn't figure out how to get access to my blog. It sent me into a bit of a funk, so I didn't even take pictures of most of the dishes I prepared for my Passover Seder. I did however take picture of these macaroons that I made. I am glad I did, because they disappeared so fast that they were definitely worth posting.
For those of you who are not familiar with Passover, there are many traditions and customs involved, lots of food and wine. The difference about Passover food, is other that special Passover Matzoh, Matzoh Meal and Matzoh Cake Flour, you can't use any other wheat or grain for cooking. So no barley, spelt, rice, and corn. You also can't use any leavening agents, so no yeast, baking soda, baking powder or cream of tartar. That is for eight days so you have to get creative with cooking.
Macaroons are one of the traditional cookies that are made during passover, there are a variety of different flavors that come in round tins and are very tasty. I always buy a couple of cans every year. By the time I got to the store to do my passover shopping the shelves were a bit cleared out and the only flavor available was almond. I love the chocolate macaroons and I thought I could make them myself. I stumbled upon a recipe on Oh! You Cook!'s blog for plain coconut macaroons, it seemed easy enough to use this as a base to make chocolate macaroons.
1 1/3 cup Shredded Unsweetened Coconut
1/3 cup Sugar
2 Tbs Potato Starch
2 Tbs Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1/8 tsp Kosher Salt
2 Egg Whites
1/2 tsp Vanilla
1/3 cup Chocolate Chips
- Preheat oven to 325 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl mix all the dry ingredients (except the chocolate chips).
- Add in egg whites and vanilla. Stir until well combined.
- Fold in chocolate chips.
- Drop rounded spoonfuls (enough for about two bites per macaroon) of the mixture on the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake between 15-20 minutes, macaroons should be firm on the outside but squishy to the touch at the same time.
- Cool on baking sheet for about 5 minutes.
This was the first time I had ever eaten/made fresh macaroons. I don't think I will ever buy another can of them again. I made one batch while I waiting for something to set on another recipe. They were half gone before dinner had even started, so I made another batch. They were all gone today. These little morsels disappeared faster than any other cookie I have made so far. These are really easy and also Gluten-Free.
I am happy that I am now able to post again. It was only a few days but it felt like forever. I still need to figure out how to mesh my blogspot with my new site cookwithaltitude.com. I will save that frustration for another day.
For me, Passover is not complete without macaroons and chocolate covered ring gels. What foods remind you of the holidays?
