Super Easy, Super Moist Coconut Macaroons

I admit it, I’m a bit of a Macaroon snob. I just don’t like them much when they aren’t really moist inside. The challenge is always to get them to stay moist beyond that first hour out of the oven with other recipes.
Years ago I stumbled upon this recipe and we’ve enjoyed super moist macaroons ever since! And they are the easiest to make too – gotta love that!

For the basic recipe you need only 3 things!

Ingredients:
- 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk (for german readers: Baerenmarke Milchmaedchen in der Dose)
- 13 oz of desiccated coconut (also called coconut powder sometimes, even though it looks nothing like powder) If you can only get shredded coconut, that works too, you will however need closer to 15-16 oz.
- 1 tsp vanilla extract

I like to dip our macaroons in chocolate once they are baked, so here are the optional ingredients for that:
1 large bar of chocolate (any flavor or brand you like)
1/4 tsp coconut oil (optional)

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Add the sweetened condensed milk, the coconut and the vanilla extract in a mixer bowl and combine thoroughly with the paddle attachment.

Let it sit for 5 minutes. Then come back and gage the consistency. If you scoop some out, can you easily form it into a ball and does it hold it’s shape without looking crumbly or falling flat? Then you are right on!
If it seems a little wet, add a little more coconut, like 1 tbsp at the time, mixing in between.
Scoop them onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.

You will know when they are done when you see the edges just catching some color on top and the bottoms are golden brown.
 
Let them cool on a cooling rack.
Melt the chocolate and the coconut oil.
Dip the bottoms of the macaroons into the chocolate and let the excess drip off.

Once all bottoms are dipped, dip a fork in the remaining chocolate and lightly drizzle chocolate over all the macaroons. Long strokes help.

Let the chocolate set and store the coconut macaroons in a cookie tin.
This recipe makes 20 large ones (as in regular ice cream scoop size) or 34 small scoop size macaroons.
Enjoy!