Salted Caramel Coconut Macaroons

My friend Thu is in town for the summer (she’s going to school in Boston) so today we decided to try making macaroons.  I found the recipe from the blog Cookies and Cups.  Although ours didn’t turn out quite like the original recipe, they still tasted amazing. 

In case you don’t know the difference, macaroons & macarons are actually separate types of cookies.  The ones we made today are macaroons – chewy cookies made with shredded coconut.  Macarons are French meringue cookies sandwiched together with decadent fillings.  It seems like in the past few years, macaron shops have been popping up all over Tampa – from Le Macaron to the new dessert shop Chocolate Pi. 

These Salted Caramel Coconut Macaroons are sugar bombs, so you have to like SUPER sweet desserts if you plan to make these.  With the combination of coconut, chocolate, and caramel, they tasted a lot like Samoa Girl Scout cookies.  We actually headed to the gym afterwards for back-to-back BodyPump & BodyFlow classes to make up for our afternoon of baking…

We slightly altered the original recipe since I couldn’t find the caramel bits at our grocery store, so we used dulce de leche instead.  The recipe below makes around 30 cookies (we halved it an only made 15).

Salted Caramel Coconut Macaroons:

Ingredients:

• 1 (14 oz) can Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 1 (14 oz) can Dulce de Leche
• 1 cup flour
• 2 (14 oz) bags shredded sweetened coconut flakes
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 container (7 oz) Baker’s Dark Semi-Sweet Dipping Chocolate  

 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325°

2. Lightly spray cookie sheet with cooking spray (I used Trader Joe’s coconut oil spray) and set aside.

 

3. In a small bowl, melt half the dulce de leche. 

4. In a large bowl combine the flour, sweetened condensed milk, and melted dulce de leche. Add in coconut and 1 tsp of sea salt. Stir until combined.

 

5. Drop dough by rounded tablespoon on baking sheet about an inch apart.

6. Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden. 

 

7. Let cool on baking sheet for 3 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to continue cooling.

8. Melt the chocolate in 30 second increments until melted, stirring after each interval.

9. When cookies are cooled dip the bottoms of the cookies into the melted chocolate and place on wax paper.

10. Melt the remaining dulce de leche and drizzle over the cookies.