What do you get when you bring cocoa (cacao), coconut, and almonds together? In this case, very decadent chocolate macaroons. And while I’m not a huge consumer of shredded coconut, I enjoy a few macaroons every now and then, including these lemon, vanilla, chocolate-coated macaroons.
I’ve been playing around with coconut oil and cocoa butter for this recipe, mostly to see how well each works in place of chocolate. In the end, I came up with three recipes for chocolate macaroons. I love all three, but, since one of them uses semi-sweet chocolate chips with sugar in the chocolate, my preference is the two sugar-free macaroons recipes. The even-better-news is that they’re all gluten-free, if you’re after that.
The macaroons made with cocoa butter are firmer than the coconut oil macaroons at room temperature. The macaroons made with semi-sweet chocolate are as firm as the cocoa butter macaroons, which makes sense because cocoa butter and other cocoa solids are ingredients in chocolate. I prefer to store all three kinds in the refrigerator, but you can store them at room temperature as well.
Feel free to use the raw version of the cocoa butter and cocoa, if you have it. I had cocoa butter chips on hand that I found on Amazon, so I gave them a try and they did well (although they’re mighty pricey). But you can buy a block of cocoa butter as well, and chop it up.
This recipe was inspired by the Coco Choco Clusters from 101 Cookbooks. The recipe calls for finely ground espresso beans, but I’m thinking that there’s more than enough caffeine for me in the chocolate or cocoa. Just an idea though. Another idea is to add ground vanilla bean to the recipe.
Chocolate Macaroons
Makes about 24 macaroons
Ingredients (using cocoa butter)
- 2 cups of shredded unsweetened coconut
- 3/4 cup/60 grams of cocoa butter (cocoa butter chips work well)
- 1/4 cup of cocoa powder, unsweetened
- 4 tablespoons of maple syrup
- 1/3 cup of blanched almonds, finely ground
- about 1/4 teaspoon of coarse salt for sprinkling a few grains for each cluster (optional)
Ingredients (using coconut oil)
- 2 cups of shredded unsweetened coconut
- 3/4 cup (about 8 ounces) of coconut oil
- 1/4 cup of cocoa powder, unsweetened
- 4 tablespoons of maple syrup
- 1/3 cup of blanched almonds, finely ground
- about 1/4 teaspoon of coarse salt for sprinkling a few grains for each cluster (optional
Ingredients (using semi-sweet chocolate)
- 2 cups of shredded unsweetened coconut
- 1 cup (about 8 ounces) of semisweet chocolate
- 1/3 cup of blanched almonds, finely ground
- about 1/4 teaspoon of coarse salt for sprinkling a few grains for each cluster (optional)
Method
- Spread the shredded coconut across a baking sheet. Bake at 300 °F/10° C for about 8 minutes, or until the coconut is lightly browned.
- Cool the shredded coconut and set it aside.
- Over simmering water in a saucepan, set a bowl and add the cocoa butter, oil, or chocolate to slowly and completely melt. If you’re using semi-sweet chocolate, skip to step 6.
- Turn the heat off and whisk in the cocoa powder.
- Next add the maple syrup and whisk until well blended.
- Add the shredded coconut and finely ground blanched almonds to the chocolate mixture and blend with a fork or spoon.
- Drop a tablespoon or so of the mixture onto a non-stick surface, using a fork or spoon to tidy them up a bit. If you’re using your fingers, lick them at the end.
- Optionally, sprinkle a tiny bit of course salt over the macaroons. About 3 or 4 grains of salt for each macaroon is enough.
- Place them in the refrigerator to solidify faster. Store in the fridge, or at room temperature.
- Enjoy!
holy yum. Love the choco-coco combo.
Wow. This looks like a really good recipe. Thanks for including all the variations for us. Very thoughtful of you. Is there any particular reason that you grind your own almonds instead of using almond flour? Just curious. Thanks for the recipe.
Sheila, not really. I just like the freshness of the ground almonds, and the crunch. They are not as processed as almond flour.
i happened upon your website a couple of weeks ago while searching for a birthday cake made with almond flour. i’ve pored over every recipe since & am so excited to go make these macaroons in a few minutes. love your blog & how you feed your family!
These are dangerous! Way too good. Lost all control : )
My wife just brought a few of these back from a Christmas party and I could eat roughly 80 if I had the means! Looking forward to making them this week.
Wow – I just popped over from NomNomPaleo and think I am in love with those macaroons (and your site)! Can’t wait to make these!
Is it necessary t have blanched almonds, or are regular ok? How would it be to have soaked and dried the almonds…any difference?
Sorry, I’ve only used blanched so they don’t have skins and are crunchy.