Easy, and gluten free: coconut macaroons

We are now deep into the cookie baking season. As I wrote, last week, it's going to be a haul this year, but Annalena has decided to give it her level best. It won't kill me, but it will be tough. The year, the surgery, etc, etc, etc, have taken their toll, and the old lady gets tired. The days (and nights) of ten cookie varieties at a clip are over. So we plod on, looking for easy and tasty. And here's one such cookie, courtesy of Ina Garten. I didn't realize it when I looked at it, but this one is also gluten free. In fact, all of Annalena's "cooking" today was gluten free. So, anyone want a recipe for white chocolate/pistachio/cranberry bark?

This recipe is , in many ways, vintage Ina Garten. It's somewhat lush, and it's also somewhat easy. In fact, it's absurdly easy. Simple ingredients, simple techniques, and it makes a lot. There's one caveat from my experience of it, but I think it's handleable. Here we go.

Your ingredients, and you can double them: one package of sweetened coconut (a 14 ounce bag). One can of condensed milk (also fourteen ounces). Two egg whites from large or extra large eggs, and a teaspoon of vanilla.

Preheat your oven to 325. Line a couple of baking sheets with parchment. Now, let's get going. In a bowl, mix the coconut, the condensed milk and the vanilla and put it aside. In a mixer, or, if you feel like showing off, by hand, beat the egg whites until they form a soft peak. What's a soft peak? Lift the beater blade, and if there's a little "curl" that folds down, you're there. Fold those into the mix you've already made.

You can spoon out the cookies a million ways. my way of doing it was to wet my hands (the stuff is sticky), and roll small balls, about 3/4 of an inch in diameter. Spread them on the baking sheets. You should get about 30 to a sheet. Then bake them for 30 minutes or so. Check on them. If they're not brown enough for you, bake them five minutes more.

And that's it. Almost. What I found, with mine, is that some of the condensed milk and egg white flowed out of the cookie, making an ugly rubbery ring around the cookie. When they cooled, I just cut that stuff off. I must admit, it tasted good, but it made for an ugly cookie.

Now, how hard was that? Not at all. And we ALL love macaroons, don't we? So, if you are not going to get a couple fro Annalena when she starts making her tins (more on this idea below), make em. It's an hour out of your life, and people will love you.

What I want to add about these, is that if you put together mixed tins, as I do, these are very moist cookies. Moisture moves away from a moist cookie to a drier one, so your biscotti will soften if they are in a tin with these. The way to minimize this is to leave the tin of cookies open, to let the moisture escape to the air. Of course, this makes you more amenable to stealing a cookie or two, but hey, it's the holidays, right?

Go for it. You'll be glad you did.