I’m not much of a macaroon person (or a macaron person, for that matter), but the recipe for chocolate macaroons on the back of Guittard’s canister of unsweetened red Dutch- process cocoa powder caught my attention a couple of weeks ago. Mostly because the recipe called for cocoa, almond flour, and confectioner’s sugar, three ingredients I was trying to use up in advance of a move, but also because I love Guittard products. Guittard’s red cocoa is very dark and very rich, one of the rare unsweetened cocoa powders you can almost eat on its own. (It yields excellent hot chocolate.) If anything could make a macaroon more enticing, I theorized, it was this cocoa.
The recipe is pretty much a grocery list plus the instructions to stir and bake, a true one-bowl experience. The most challenging thing about it is separating egg whites from yolks. The former get mixed with almond flour, cocoa, confectioner’s sugar, and sweetened shredded coconut, though I only had unsweetened coconut flakes and they worked well enough. The recipe calls for using a teaspoon to portion the macaroon batter onto a baking tray, so I did that, and then baked it for the recommended time, about 15 minutes.
The macaroons emerged from the oven looking very much as they did when they went in — baking doesn’t expand or puff or otherwise noticeably improve alter their appearance, so there’s no great miracle of transformation to behold. The finished macaroons are not, as the above photo attests, particularly attractive. But since I like a homely cookie — lumps and crags often equate with gr flavor — this didn’t deter me.
What did was the fact that this is still a macaroon, and even the addition of Guittard cocoa powder cannot change that. Macaroons are fine! But they’re not really a cookie you can lose yourself in; you’re always aware that you’re negotiating a mouthful of shredded coconut, which is personally not my thing. That said, these are not bad. They’re quite chocolatey and not too sweet, and because they’re small they’re easy to eat by the handful, should you want to do that. Stored properly, they last for several days at room temperature. They also travel well, and as a cyclist, I’m always looking for treats that meet that criteria.
Would I go out of my way to make these again, to track down a canister of Guittard cocoa powder for the purpose of consuming macaroons? No. But they do make a very good way to use up a bunch of ingredients, and sometimes, that’s a treat in and of itself.
