Chocolate Chip Macaroons

This recipe is tricky because it’s so simple. You ever have one of those cooking/baking moments? You know, when you look at a recipe and it looks so easy to make? And then you’re in the middle of making whatever it is and something you never even thought of happens that complicates the entire dish? Yeah, that happened to me with this recipe from Favorite Brand Name Cookies (Publications International, Ltd.).

The recipe is only four ingredients—flaked coconut, mini semisweet chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla. You mix everything, slap little dough balls on a cookie sheet and bake them. Easy enough, right? Well, almost. I had two problems. The first was that these cookies break apart easily when they’re not cooked. Getting them out of the spoon and on the cookie sheet was a bit more difficult than I would have liked. Then you have to flatten them with the back of a spoon which sometimes causes them to separate. But even though both issues were nuisances, the major issue I had was with greasing the cookie pans. Or, in my case, not greasing them. I usually ignore greasing pans because most types of cookies I make don’t really need to be baked that way. It turns out macaroons really need to be made on greased cookie pans (or greased aluminum foil—that’s what I usually line my pans with). You could also use parchment paper as my friend and co-worker Ashley suggested. If you don’t use any of these techniques, you will spend quite a bit of time peeling macaroons off your cookie sheets or aluminum foil and breaking some of them in the process. Which you don’t want to do because they taste like Mounds bars and that rules.

Consider yourselves warned. Now, on to the recipe!

2 ½ cups flaked coconut (I used generic sweetened coconut)
2/3 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheets. Combine ingredients and mix until well blended. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonful 2 inches apart onto greased cookie sheets. Press dough gently with back of spoon to flatten slightly. Bake 10-12 minutes or until light golden brown. Let cookies stand on cookie sheets 1 minute. Remove cookies to wire racks and cool completely.