This month has absolutely flown. First we were on vacation in Scotland and Ireland for two weeks. The following two weeks we had back to back weddings, then my birthday (yay!) then family time. Needless to say, I haven’t had nearly as much time in the kitchen or with my blog as I would have liked. The lazy part of me, said it’s okay, just skip a month of the Secret Recipe Club. No one will care… But I would care. The Secret Recipe Club is a wonderful opportunity to explore other blogs. Too often do I find a wonderful recipe on a friend’s blog, thinking I’m going to make that right away! Months go by and the recipe still sits on Pinterest, still to be attempted. But SRC forces me to at least once a month, try something new. This month I was assigned to Heather’s It’s Yummy to My Tummy. Like me, Heather uses the kitchen to escape. There were so many great recipes to try, but again, the time thing.
Usually when I’m short on experimentation time, I go straight to baked goods. Something I can do blindfolded with my hands tied behind my back…almost. However, I’ve recently put myself on a gluten-free diet for health purposes. Long story short, I get a lot of strange symptoms and illnesses (the thought of Ebola coming to NYC scares the crap out of me, but I digress…). One of my biggest problems has been chronic inflammation in my body and joints. I’ve finally gotten fed up with too many doctors appointments handing me a list of drugs with every visit. One drug may fix one issue, but then I need one or two more drugs to deal with the first drug’s side effects. There has to be a better solution, so I’ve taken matters into my own hands. So far, cutting gluten seems to have improved my health tremendously. Step two is to experiment with a full elimination diet but after Christmas. I don’t want to be that house guest.
I have yet to experiment with gluten-free baking and it wasn’t something I wanted to attempt with my tight schedule. I scanned through Heather’s desserts, assuming everything would be gluten filled, until I stumbled on her perfect macaroons. Exactly the recipe I needed after my new (most) dessert deprived state. I literally made these on a Friday night, between finishing laundry and cleaning our apartment (yeah, my life’s pretty exciting) and putting myself to bed way too late. Amazingly delicious and actually not that bad for you. Coconut, honey, eggs and a little cocoa powder. The recipe seems to make a lot, but trust me, they go fast!
Dark Chocolate Glazed Macaroons (Adapted from It’s Yummy to My Tummy)
For the macaroons:
- 2 cups of unsweetened, shredded coconut
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tsp. of vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup of honey
For the dark chocolate glaze:
- 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp melted coconut oil
- 1 tsp honey
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk eggs until they are pale yellow. Whisk in honey and vanilla until fully combined. Sprinkle wet ingredients with shredded coconut and mix with a spatula until coconut is evenly saturated.
Drop tight, rounded teaspoons of batter onto parchment lined baking sheet, leaving about 1-inch of space on each side. Bake 15-18 minutes until macaroons are golden brown and the tips are speckled deep brown.
Meanwhile, mix together cocoa powder, coconut oil and honey until smooth. If the glaze is too thick, add 1 teaspoon of cold water at a time to thin.
Remove macaroons from the oven and let cool at least 10 minutes. Drizzle with chocolate glaze and serve. Store leftovers (if there are any) in an airtight container at room temperature.
Brooklyn Locavore 
Perfect Halloween Treat!
definitely!
🙂
These look perfect! Baking gluten free is quite a challenge. Lots of my friends are gluten free and most of my attempts are failures. It didn’t even occur to me that Macaroons were gluten free. Yeah! They’re going to be so happy.
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Haha, glad I could help. I’ve only made naturally gluten free desserts like flourless chocolate cake and panna cotta. Both good options 🙂
The macaroons look delicious. Good luck going GF, so glad doing this has made a difference in your health. Nice to see you back, Ireland and Scotland, lucky you!!
Thanks Suzanne. It’s funny. I thought I’d miss bread so much. I can usually put away a full loaf of Bread Alone, but as long as I have other good food in front of me, it’s not an issue.
Macaroons are one of our favorites here. My husband is now begging me to make these! 🙂
Haha, they’re so easy. 10 min tops to prep, 15 minutes to bake. Letting them cool seems like the longest stage 🙂
Yeah! How fun that we had each other’s blog. Glad you found something that worked well with your dietary needs, I know how hard that is with a multiple allergy household. Hope you get to check out my post on how my first attempt at canning applesauce went!
That is funny. I don’t know that I’ve ever had a 1:1 pairing before. I’m SO glad you made the applesauce! One of my favorite fall treats (still have 20lbs of apples waiting to be turned into sauce on my counter) and I know a canning recipe takes so much more effort. Looks like they turned out well!
Love coconut, especially with some chocolate! Perfect accompaniment. My favorite GF recipes are those that are naturally that way and don’t require weird ingredients. Big score on this one!
I agree. I do want to learn to make some substitution items, like muffins (I’ve had some pretty amazing ones) but most food I make is naturally gf. It’s just easier and the way the food was intended. Otherwise you get into way overprocessed foods that are probably worse for you than eating a bit of gluten!
You know I’ve never had a macaroon and always get them mixed up with macarons lol. Love the chocolate drizzle to top it all off!
Haha, I do the same thing and then order a macaron and am disappointed when its not filled with coconut flakes. Both are good, when you remember the difference 🙂
Yeah, lots of times the meds are worse than the problem!! These are so easy to make. And yours look great with the drizzle.
Thanks!
Reblogged this on Easy Dessert Recipes.
These seem easy enough and I love macaroons. Will definitely have to try!
They really are super simple but quite impressive to those not in the know 🙂