Will Run For Coconut Almond Macaroons

Sometimes your Farmer just needs a macaroon (and sometimes regardless of how hard you try the spacing on your blog is just a little off). 

You can tell that she needs a macaroon if she announces that she is going to change into something comfortable before she settles in for a night of homework when she's already wearing elastic waist pants and has eaten several plates of fried frozen perogies (6 dozen for $1.99) with dijon mustard.  Did I mention that those pants are Oscar The Grouch green hospital scrubs?


You can tell that your Farmer needs a macaroon when you pick her up from her placement and you ask how her day went and she proceeds to gag for the next 3-5 minutes (Farmer is working on becoming a nurse.  Currently,  she's about 1/4 quarter of a nurse.  If you need your vitals taken, you need someone to help you with basic hygiene or you need an enema she's your girl) 


You can tell that you might need a macaroon when your Farmer is about 30 days away from the end of her first year of nursing, she needs to write about her feelings (when she only has one feeling) on a regular basis and her second day of placement is tomorrow and her teacher has suggested that her goal for tomorrow should be working on her gag reflex (is that even appropriate?).


About those macaroons....


Check out Choosing Raw for some delicious raw macaroon recipes or drop by in about 16 hours (a ridiculously long time to wait but totally worth it) once our macaroons have finished dehydrating.  These macaroons are crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside.  Most of them were eaten directly out of the dehydrator or out of the freezer.


I tried a second variation once I saw that Farmer & I both obviously needed a macaroon and not in 16 hours from now. 


The first batch I tried I added 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, 1 T of ground cocoa nibs & 1/4 tsp of cardamom, I dehydrated the macaroons at 115 for about 16 hours.  DO NOT try baking them in the oven as the recipe suggests.  That was a disaster!


The second batch I added 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, 1 T of ground cocoa nibs, 1/4 tsp of cardamom and I used date paste (1 C of dates + 1/2 C of water heated until dates can be stirred into a paste + 2 T of agave nectar).  This batch only took about 3 hours to become crunchy on the outside and still soft and chewy on the inside.


Enjoy.  Remember not to ask your Farmer or your favourite nursing student how her day went unless you have a puke bag in hand.

Coconut Macaroons

let the waiting begin

16 hours later

Or if you aren't quite that patient or if you just love date paste (yes, there are people who love date paste).

you could totally eat these raw

and you could totally eat the whole bowl

If you aren't up for all off that waiting and dehydrating check out vanilla almond snackaroons by Laughing Giraffe Organics (try Homesense).

Will Run For Not Your Mother's Macaroons

Sometimes a girl needs chocolate, lots and lots of chocolate!  Even better than chocolate is frozen chocolate.  When I think of frozen chocolate I think of eating macaroons that have just come out of the freezer and are ready to be put in tins full of holiday baking (assuming that they actually make it that far).

Since my mother makes the most delicious chocolate macaroons I thought that I would call her and ask for the recipe.  Who knew that chocolate bunnies + oats + coconut + vanilla extract = macaroons.  She was able to dig me out an actual recipe but sometimes you don't really need to know about the 2 cups of sugar or 1/2 cup of butter that are in your dessert.

Trouble makers with my silicone bowl while I  was getting the recipe from my mother!

After all of that I decided to try something a little different.  These aren't my mother's macaroons but I can't promise that won't go directly from the freezer into my belly.

chocolate macaroons

Not Your Mother's Macaroons

(12 + 5 (for tast testing) )

ingredients

* 1/4 C date paste 

3 Tbsp cocoa

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

1/2 C unsweetened coconut

1 C rolled oats

2 Tbsp melted coconut oil

* You can make date paste by soaking 1 cup dried dates in water for 4-6 hours, draining the dates and then blending them into a smooth paste.  If you are impatient you can soak them for an hour or so, save 3 Tbsp of the water that they were soaking in and microwave them with reserved date water for 1-2 minutes and then blend into a smooth paste.  As you might imagine I used the impatient version.  

Add cocoa, vanilla bean paste and melted coconut oil to date paste.

Add coconut and rolled oats.

Drop by the spoonful onto a lined (with wax paper or silicone mat) baking sheet or plate.  Place in freezer for 5 -10 minutes.  Best enjoyed directly from the freezer.  Yum!