Chocolate Cherry Macaroons

The easiest cookie of the bunch!

Dec 22, 2023

As I cleaned up the cookie lab this morning, I made a second batch of these sinfully good and insanely simple coconut macaroons, just to streamline the recipe a bit. Of course I couldn’t resist eating one more, just to make sure they were really as good as I remembered from the night before when I ate three of them just before bedtime. Oops.

I initially decided to include this cookie in the lineup when I heard requests for a gluten-free cookie. This is incidentally gluten free of course, because macaroons never contain any flour. It is also a great cookie for those who don’t consider themselves bakers, because they are so simple and there is really no chemistry involved. Just stir everything together and scoop them out onto baking sheets, and yes, bake them. These are hard to mess up, and make a great last-minute baking project. The macaroons keep very well, so you can make some now and have them on hand for guests throughout the holidays or to bring to a party, or just hog them all for yourself.

If you’re finishing up some last-minute shopping, might I remind you that you can gift a subscription to Susanality? It’s a gift that will keep on giving year-round, and is perfect for the home cook or baker in your life, especially those who have enough STUFF. You can even choose the date and time it lands on their inbox!

Gift Susanality

Macaroons are usually one note, with coconut being the primary ingredient. I decided to add some mix-ins, which make these truly irresistible and perhaps just a bit over the top. Dried sour cherries are the star here, but walnuts make a subtle appearance, and the addition of chocolate chips is the over-the-top part. They are already pretty chocolatey, but gooey melty chips inside make them even chocolatey-er.

This is a humble and somewhat homely cookie, compared to some of my others, but believe me when I tell you that what they lack in physical beauty, they more than make up for in scrumptiousness and craveability.

I’m tired, and I’ll bet you are too, so I’ll be taking a short break until the New Year — but keep reading for a few recipes I recommend making between now and 2024.

Thanks so much for following along for Cookie December! We will be going back to our regularly scheduled programming (and a more balanced diet!), but cookies will always find their way in throughout the year. I’d love to know: do you have a favorite from this year’s cookie menu?

I wish you all a very happy and peaceful holiday, and I’ll see you in 2024!

xx
Susan

Special Dishes for the Holiday Season

Here are a few recipes to keep in your back pocket now until the end of the year!

Loaded Chocolate Macaroons

Makes about 2 dozen

1 (14 ounce/396 g) can sweetened condensed milk
4 ounces/113 g unsweetened chocolate, broken or chopped into pieces
Pinch of kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (7 ounce/198 g) bag sweetened coconut (like Angel Flake)
1/2 cup dried cherries
1/2 cup roughly chopped walnuts
1/2 cup bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350℉. Combine sweetened condensed milk, chocolate, and salt in a medium metal bowl and set over a saucepan with 2 inches of simmering water — AKA a double boiler. Heat, stirring, until chocolate is completely melted. The mixture will also thicken a bit as the chocolate melts.
Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla and coconut until well combined. Stir in the cherries and walnuts. Stir in the chocolate chips, but just until they’re well-distributed. The mixture will still be warm, so you want to avoid melting them.
Use a small cookie scoop or a soup spoon to measure out approximately a heaping tablespoon of the coconut mixture onto two parchment-lined sheet pans. They don’t need much space around them, as they won’t spread.
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until set and dry-looking on top, switching the positions of the pans from top to bottom and front to back halfway through baking.
Let cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes and transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for at least a week.