Coconut Macaroons (#Eggless)

Have you ever got into a situation where you were flipping through a recipe book and your eyes struck on a recipe which is perfect for the season, involves the use of bare minimum ingredients you already have in your pantry and is super quick. What would you do? 

Would you still flag a post-it on the recipe to fall under "to-make" list or would you go to the kitchen and start preparing for the recipe? What did you say? You want to start preparing for the recipe...Yeah, that's what I did! And see in less than half an hour I have my first batch of these coconut macaroons out of the oven. Its Yummmm.... still warm from the oven, crisp on the outside and perfectly chewy on the inside and the coco-nutty smell. Ahhh! Nothing can beat this.

All this needs is just 4 ingredients. Yeah, you heard me correct, just 4. The good part is no butter... I don't even feel guilty after having 4 cookies by the time I write this part of my post and the second batch is still in the oven.

Hey, where are you planning to go? What...you also heading to the kitchen to make these cookies. Atleast wait to see all the ingredients.

Here's what you would need to make these Eggless Coconut Macaroons:-

Makes: 24 cookies

1/3 cup/ 40 gms all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

3 cups/ 225 gms unsweetened shredded coconut

3/4 cup/ 170 ml sweet condensed milk

Here's how you could make it:

Preheat your oven to 180°C (350ºF). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or grease them with butter.

• In a bowl, sift all purpose flour and salt and whisk it.
• Add shredded coconut and whisk them until it gets mixed properly into flour and salt.
• Add condensed milk and whisk it until it becomes a thick paste. That's it, we're done!
• Using 2 tablespoons, drop the cookies into baking sheet keeping a gap of 2 inches between each cookie.
• Bake for about 15-18 minutes until the cookies turn golden from the sides.
• Let it cook completely on the baking sheet placed on a wire rack. 

Variation:-

Temper the chocolate. Drizzle the melted chocolate over the cookies making zig zag pattern or simply dip the cookies in chocolate and place them on the parchment paper to cool.Enjoy the chocolate coconut macaroons.

Hope you would also enjoy making these cookies as much as I did!

Happy Baking.

ANZAC Cookies

Sometimes the simplest of things give you the most pleasures in life! That's how I felt when I had the first bite of freshly baked still warm ANZAC Biscuits. It was love at first bite! I made these cookies as yet another baking experiment in my kitchen of the 'eggless' and 'pick me up anytime' category. The texture of these biscuits (cookies) is crunchy on the outside and chewy inside. 

An Anzac biscuit is a sweet biscuit popular in Australia and New Zealand made using rolled oats, flour, desiccated coconut, sugar, butter, golden syrup, baking soda and boiling water. As a history, ANZAC biscuits have been associated with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) , established during World War I. It has been claimed the biscuits were sent by Army wives to soldiers abroad because the ingredients do not spoil easily and the biscuits kept well during naval transportation. 

One notable omission from any Anzac biscuit recipe is eggs because of the scarcity of eggs during the First World War (as most poultry farmers joined the war) and also so that the biscuits would not spoil when shipped long distances. Check the Wikipedia page here for more details on ANZAC biscuits.

For me, these biscuits represent the love and affection of the Army wives for their husbands. I packed my love and affection for my brothers and sister snd sent these biscuits tn Indore and I was delighted to know that they were finished the day they reached them. 

So, without taking much of your time, lets get straight to baking.

Here's what you would need to make these ANZAC biscuits:-

Makes 28 cookies

1 cup/ 90 gms rolled oats
1 cup/ 130 gms all-purpose flour
⅓ cup/ 150 gms caster sugar
¾ cup/ 60 gms  desiccated coconut
2 tbsps golden syrup ( I substituted corn syrup for golden syrup)
1/2 cup/ 115 gms butter
1 tsp baking soda
2 tbsps hot water

Here's how you can make these biscuits-

Preheat oven to 160°C (320ºF). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and keep it aside.

• Mix the oats, flour, sugar and coconut in a bowl. 
• Place the golden syrup (corn syrup) and butter in a saucepan over low heat and melt. 
• Mix the baking soda with the water and add to the butter mixture. 
• Add to the dry ingredients and mix well. 
• Using a ice-cream scoop or with the help of two tablespoons place the mixture on to the  baking tray, leaving space between each one for spreading and flatten slightly with the help of your finger tips. 
• Bake for 8–10 minutes or until the cookies are deep brown on the sides. 
• Cool on trays for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. 

These cookies can be stored for a long time(more than a week).

Variations:-

Sandwich one scoop of vanilla ice-cream with two ANZAC biscuits and you are good to go for a perfect dessert!

I hope you would also enjoy making these biscuits as much as I did!

Happy Baking!