Sac Foodies

By Kim Bedwell

I love everything about cookies. Admiring recipe photos, shopping for ingredients, carefully scooping each teaspoon of batter onto the baking sheet, and of course, eating them. So you can image how excited I was to attend a Christmas cookie swap with some of Sacramento’s finest (and funniest) foodies this weekend. Not only did we swap cookies, but I also got the scoop on some of Sacramento’s new restaurants as well as tips for incorporating more coconut in my home cooking (my coconut obsession was revealed very early into the party). Big thanks to our host Garrett for corralling such a fun group of folks and bringing some Christmas cheer to this cookie enthusiast.

So what does the new blogger on the block bring to such a foodie-studded affair? Well, it was something I debated for weeks, but in the end it came down to my two favorite cookie ingredients…coconut (of course!) and chocolate. For the coconut part I turned to my culinary inspiration, Ina Garten, and her sinfully sweet coconut macaroons. For the chocolate, I looked no further than the good people at Guittard.

Chocolate-Dipped Macaroons

Makes 20 cookies

14 ounces sweetened shredded coconut
14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla (as Ina would say, “good vanilla”)
2 extra-large eggs whites, room temperature
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 bag Guittard semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, combine coconut, condensed milk and vanilla. Whip egg whites and salt with an electric mixer on high until it makes firm peaks. Fold egg whites into coconut mixture. Drop batter on sheet pan lined with either parchment paper (or Silpat) using two teaspoons. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until golden brown. Let sit on pans for five minutes transferring cookies to wire rack for cooling.

Using a double boiler, melt chocolate chips. Dip edge of completely cooled cookie in melted chocolate and place dipped cookie on parchment paper until set.