Grand Marnier-Double Chocolate Macaroons

These are Smitten Kitchen's dark chocolate macaroons with one important exception: they contain booze. Grand Marnier was what I had on hand, but rum would have done just as well. You can see some non-chocolate stragglers here: we'll get to those in another blog post. In the meantime, these are soft, fudgy, and even more brownie-like than a brownie itself. You will never crack open a carton of Manischewitz again!

yields about 25 macaroons

Ingredients

4 oz unsweetened chocolate
400 grams sweetened, flaked coconut
2/3 cup sugar
6 Tbsp cocoa powder
3 egg whites
dash of salt
dash vanilla extract
prolonged glug of Grand Marnier or another spirit

Process

Preheat your oven to 325. Line a baking sheet or two with parchment paper.

In a double boiler or the Tipsy Crumpet's very own pan-in-a-bigger-pan-of-heated-water, melt half of the chocolate (two ounces). Break up the other half. When the first half is melted, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the other half. It will soften like the dulcet tones of a wood thrush.

In a food processor like the Tipsy Crumpet's brand-new Cuisinart, blend the coconut for one minute.

Pour in the sugar and cocoa powder (no need for sifting). Blend for another minute. This will look really cool as you'll see the white and black layers, separate at first, mix into one. The chocolate macaroon: a metaphor for racial harmony!

Add the salt, vanilla, Grand Marnier or other spirits, and egg whites (I crack the whites into a bowl separately first to make sure there are no shells). Blend until combined.

Pour in the chocolate. Scrape the pan to get as much out as you can. When the river of chocolate has flooded the craggy mound of coconut goo, blend again.

Either empty the batter into a bowl or remove the blade from the food processor and shape the batter from there. You can scoop out the batter with an ice-cream scoop, but what's the fun in that? Using your bare hands like the Tipsy Crumpet, plop golf-ball sized mounds of batter onto the baking sheet. No need to shape them.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or, if you have a more sluggish oven than mine 15.

Remove and keep in the pan for 10 minutes, then cool on a wire rack.

Notes

• Remember, unsweetened chocolate; sweetened coconut.
• It would be delightful to grate an orange peel into this.
• Rum would be just as good as Grand Marnier. So would whiskey.
• You could add some sliced almonds and almond extract for chocolate-almond macaroons.

 

Verdict

5 stars. I would make these even if it weren't Passover, and I don't even like coconut.