Every week in Genius Recipes—often with your help!—Food52 Creative Director and lifelong Genius-hunter Kristen Miglore is unearthing recipes that will change the way you cook.
Even if you’ve had some version of these macaroons before (and you have) and been quite happy, there’s a secret side to them you’re going to want to get to know.
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As delightful as all those other macaroons may be, with their one-bowl ease, their irresistibly chewy texture and snowball-like charm, it turns out—with just an ingredient twist here and there—they could also be rich and custardy in the middle, caramelly-crisp at every edge, and not just sweet, but brown-buttery, salted, toffee-like.
Most macaroons are made with shredded coconut and little else, bound with sweetened condensed milk or egg white. And until Danielle Kartes, author of the blog and cookbooks Rustic Joyful Food, emailed me a few years ago, I didn’t think much about what else they could become.
As Kartes was researching classic macaroon recipes, she told me she found herself wondering what other cookie-like ingredients might do here—like melted butter and flaky salt. And how about that leftover egg yolk? Why not use it all up, instead of separating the egg and trying to save the yolk for some future baking project, only to lose it in the fridge instead?
While adding more fat and salt—the ingredients that we spent the 1990s stripping away—isn’t necessarily the answer to making everything better, the difference it makes in these macaroons is profound.
Instead of a straightforward sweet, coconutty chew, you get a more rounded richness, and a welcome savory oomph. And the butter has an amplifying effect—the cookies don’t just taste better because butter inherently tastes rich and good, but because it turns to browned butter in the oven, and mingles with sugars and salt to become caramel. All of these flavors swim along quite happily with coconut.
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At the same time, the butter and egg yolk help the pointy outer edges of the macaroon brown and crisp up as the inside stays soft and custardy. In fact, the cookies are so moist (there, I said it) that they can soften and lose some of their addictive crunch over the course of a day. Don’t worry—I’ve stress-tested them for you, and a quick toast in the oven brings them back to their full crispy-chewy glory.
This makes them as good a treat to eat tomorrow and the next day, even pulled from the freezer in a week, as they are right now (and I do mean now—they’re ready fast).
Note: These macaroons are kosher for Passover, but if you’re looking for a good recipe that’s also parve to serve after a meaty seder, try Alice Medrich’s New Classic Coconut Macaroons—they’re genius, too.
This post originally ran in 2017, but we’re bringing it back because we love these macaroons that much, with a brand-new video.
Got a genius recipe to share—from a classic cookbook, an online source, or anywhere, really? Perhaps something perfect for beginners? Please send it my way (and tell me what’s so smart about it) at [email protected].
