Vegan Chocolate Dipped Toasted Coconut Macaroons

I have a brand NEW VIDEO to share with you today!! One of my favorite cookie recipes just dying to be baked for the holidays! These Macarooons are GF and vegan and better than the original!

I love the irony of kicking off the Holiday season with cookies and then finding that I am slaving away in the gym. Somehow those Holiday pounds piled on REAL early this year (wahhhhhh!!!) and now I am trying to banish them in time to eat more cookies and simultaneously fit into tight Holiday cocktail dresses.

It’s all about balance! right? I figure my new routine of boxing (you can catch me and the girls hitting the boxing gym a couple days a week on insta-stories! The rest of the time I go at 5:30 in the morning and trust me, you will catch ZERO glimpses of what that looks like- but I can tell you, it’s not pretty.) will help balance the weeks of naughty binging that proceeded, and then I can even things out for the rest of the holidays. Like eat cookies, then go to the gym. Not eat all the cookies that ever existed and then go on a juice cleanse, you know?

Speaking of cookies….

We haven’t done a lot of serious Christmas cookie baking in years. That was how long ago we discovered the allergies and changed our diet. I think things have just been so busy the last few years that I didn’t make the time to figure that piece out. But this year things have changed! I have spent so much time figuring out a whole host of amazing cookie recipes for you this year and they are all totally allergen free!

We are starting with these Vegan Chocolate Dipped Toasted Coconut Macaroons.

Chocolate Dipped Coconut Macaroons are my mom’s favorite variety of Christmas Cookie. They always have been and I seem to have followed in her footsteps with a deep love these light and chewy coconut cookies- preferably dipped in chocolate!

I learned how to make the most glorious version when I was a pastry chef in San Francisco, the trick being to warm the egg whites while dissolving the sugar. Well I made a recipe utilizing that trick, only there are no eggs. I used aquafaba– canned chickpea liquid and they are AMAZING. You really cannot even tell they are missing the eggs.

I wrote a whole article explaining Aquafaba 101 over on the The Pioneer Woman’s Website if you are curious about how it all works!

These are so elegant and delicious and would be a wonderful addition to your cookie tray for Christmas or anytime that you are having guests over this Holiday Season.

Vegan Chocolate Dipped Toasted Coconut Macaroons

Author: Heather Christo

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 25 mins

Total time: 30 mins

Serves: 12

Ingredients

Toasted Coconut Macaroons
½ cup aquafaba (canned chickpea liquid)
1 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons coconut oil
4 cups shredded unsweetened coconut
Chocolate Coating
⅔ cup vegan chocolate chips
2 teaspoons coconut oil

Instructions

Preheat the oven 350 degrees. Spread the coconut over a bare sheet pan and toast for about 5 minutes until lightly golden. Set aside.
In a medium saucepan over medium heat combine the aquafaba, the white sugar, vanilla, salt and coconut oil. Bring to a simmer and whisk until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture has slightly thickened. Add the coconut and use a spatula to mix the coconut in until you have a thick cookie batter. Remove from the heat and let the coconut mixture cool to room temperature.
Use an ice cream scoop to make tightly packed mounds of cookie dough. Set them on a sheetpan lined with parchment or a silpat and bake them at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Let the cookies cool and then dip them in the chocolate.
For the Chocolate Coating
Assemble a double boiler (a small bowl above a small pot with water) and add the chocolate chips and coconut oil to the bowl, melting slowly. Or you could microwave the chocolate and coconut oil until melted. Whisk the mixture until smooth and shiny and let cool to room temperature. Dip the cookies and wipe excess chocolate back on the edge of the bowl. Set on a sheet of wax paper while they set up.
Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature or in the freezer.

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