I like turtles. I like the saying, "Behold the turtle. He only makes progress when he sticks his neck out."
This turtle is in my garden. It isn't real, but in the Spring, we sometimes see painted turtles when we go for a walk. The females come up from the water to lay eggs somewhere. This year I was driving my car home from grocery shopping when I spotted a fairly large turtle crossing the road. It was not a major road, and there were no cars behind me, so I stopped, put on the emergency flashers, and scooted the turtle off, into the grass. My good deed for that day.
When we first needed to have gluten free treats, I thought about what things are naturally gluten free. I investigated a bunch of coconut macaroon recipes and tweaked/combined them to make my own. Go ahead and stick your neck out on this one.....coconut has never been my favorite food; it rather ranked with cauliflower and celery as things that I don't love but don't hate, either. Until I tried these. These are moist and chewy. I think my technique keeps them from being too crumbly. I have since tried coconut macaroons from the store and there is no comparison, even if you don't need to have them gluten free.
HH's Coconut Macaroons
Preheat oven to 350.
Take one 14-oz pkg plus one 7-oz pkg of Baker's Angel Flake coconut.
Mix it with one 14-oz can of Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk,
and 1 tsp vanilla.
You need a nice sturdy spoon for this! (Remember....slow and steady wins the race!)
Line your cookie sheets with parchment paper. Yes, do it. You will be glad you did!
Use a spoon to pull out 1" glops of mixture. Mold it with wet fingers and put it on your parchment. I tend to get 46 cookies. They look like little wooly white turtles, all lined up.
It's fun to get creative here and sprinkle some of the macaroons with cinnamon or cocoa powder. The cocoa powder adds a nice touch! Some recipes suggest putting mini chocolate chips in the mixture; I topped a few with a single Baker's semi-sweet chocolate chunk piece.
Bake 11 minutes. Allow to cool on parchment in pan. Consume. Store remainder covered in the refrigerator. John says they also taste good frozen.....
