Day 1: Sally's Coconut Macaroons

Predictably, I start with dessert.

Sally’s Coconut Macaroons.

I have never been super successful with macaroons but when I saw this recipe has only 5 ingredients, I thought, perfect first recipe to jump into.

The first complaint I have about cookbooks, especially cookie recipes in cookbooks, is that they always say the recipe makes 24 or 36 and then you only get 12 or 15 out of them. That is one of the only bits of cooking advice I remember my mother ever giving me, “You’re lucky if you get half of what the recipe says you’ll get.” Now I realize it is most likely because the cookbooks want to make the per-serving calories look a lot less than it really is.

Sally said I could get 30 cookies. I ended up with 17, not counting the two I ate in raw batter. (Excellent batter by the way) So 19 total-which is better than my normal estimates.

My retro Frigidaire Flair oven is too hot so I set it to 300 F instead of 350 F, but the first batch still burned a little even though I took them out at 20 minutes instead of 25.

The second batch was perfect because I took them out at 15 minutes.

(Now if I had made them teaspoon size like the recipe called for, would they have cooked in 10 minutes?)

The second batch was perfectly golden, a nice crust on the outside and gooey and delicious on the inside. I was sad that I made this recipe first until I realized there were 5 more variations I will get to cook. I might even say there are 6 more variations since the main recipe said use vanilla or almond extract and I used vanilla. Now I can try them again with almond. Not a bad start. I am dreading the panna cotta because I have never really enjoyed panna cotta.

Check off one in How to Eat Supper.