raw chocolate macaroons

During my April visit to Vancouver Jonathon told me about some chocolate macaroons. He said they were amazing and I had to have some. uhummmmm. I must admit that although I love a good treat they just didn't sound that compelling. Not compelling enough to drive across town for one little cookie. I was sooooooo wrong! Last week we made that drive over a bridge or two and bought a macaroon for me and another for him and.... tada! first-bite quick trip to another dimension. I am publicly repenting my ridiculous judgement. The first thought I had after the 'oh my this is incredibly good' thought was that I would need to learn to make raw chocolate macaroons myself as the distance between Calgary and Vancouver is indeed prohibitive - at least when one is considering a single macaroon. Happily, they are about the easiest treat under the sun. Happier still there is a lot of merit in a single cookie. 

I chose to make my macaroons mini-sized. I was feeding some mini-sized people for one thing and for another, I feel more decadently indulged when I can have more than one. 

The macaroons were an unqualified success. Not too sweet but sweet enough. Richly, intensely, darkly chocolate. Absolutely satisfying. The perfect punctuation to a happy Sunday supper.

*update: upon reflection I figured that these would be better with more coconut oil - creamier -and a little less coconut. So I tried it and they are much better.  The changes are reflected below. The bonus is that you get more of the MCTs now! In order to form the cookies you will need to let the 'dough' firm up a little - about 30 minutes in the fridge should do the trick.

raw chocolate macaroons

1 3/4 cups fine flake unsweetened raw organic dried coconut

3/4 cup raw cacao powder

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/3 cup extra-virgin coconut oil

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/8 tsp Himalayan sea salt

Add all ingredients to the bowl of a food processor and process until combined. (Or simply beat together in a bowl.) Using a scoop, form balls and put on a parchment lined tray. Freeze for about 15 minutes before serving. After the initial freezing, these can be kept in the fridge.

Note: I happened to have some exotic sounding coconut so I used it in an effort to duplicate as closely as possible the deliriously delicious treat I had in Vancouver. I also had the cacao so I used it. That said - these would be ridiculously amazing even made with cocoa and any unsweetened coconut. If  you can't find fine flake (and it can be a bit hard to source - and really isn't worth the effort) just process regular flaked coconut in your food processor until it is quite finely ground. The regular shreds wouldn't produce as pleasant a texture in the resulting cookie. I wouldn't use sweetened coconut though as the extra sugar would be too much.

And just so you know? the whole first batch was gone last night so I had to make another today. Of course.