I promised a macaroon recipe and then went awol on ya! My bad. :P You can blame my patients for wearing me out…
So how about some coconutty treats?
After falling in love with Tropical Traditions’ coconut oil, I was delighted when they offered to hook me up with shredded coconut to sample.
If I had an all-time-favorite-ingredient list, coconut would be rapidly rising the charts. It’s rivaling pumpkin right now, so that’s saying something!
As soft and fine as the lightest snow flurries. [That’s a reference for my New York peeps. I’m (happily) far removed from that scene now that I’m in Santa Monica.]
In industrial sized amounts.
What to do with gallons of coconut? Make macaroons, naturally.
Hippie-roons
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup raw almonds
- 1/2 cup raw cashew pieces
- 2 cups shredded coconut flakes
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 5 medjool dates, pitted
- 1 tbsp agave nectar
- 3 tbsp coconut oil
Directions:
Add nuts to food processor and pulse until they are as fine as shredded coconut.
Add in the rest of the ingredients, except the agave and coconut oil, and pulse pulse pulse. It takes a while for the dates to completely mix and cause clumping in the “dough” so don’t lose patience (you want clumping).
Next add the coconut oil and agave and process until everything is mixed.
As you can see, this was a trial by error recipe. My first attempt wasn’t successful (I had used only 3 dates and no coconut oil). Since the problem was the consistency (it wasn’t holding together well enough), I increased the number of medjool dates and added coconut oil, too.
And that seemed to do the trick.
I used a 2 tbsp scoop, packed it tightly, smashed it down with a spoon, and then transferred each scoop to a sprayed cooking sheet.
The coconut oil was the perfect solution to keep them together without sacrificing in the flavor category. I used Tropical Traditions coconut oil and shredded coconut.
The recipe yields ~15 hippie-roons depending on how much of the batter you consume straight from the food processor. Trust me, it’s harder than you think.
The aroma in the kitchen was indescribable.
After 50 minutes in the oven at 200 degrees they were done.
Boo-ya!
I let them cool, and then packed them up to store in the fridge.
Don’t worry, I set one aside to sample. 😉
They were denser than I expected and packed with coconut flavor. The nuts were surprisingly subtle, I guess because they were ground into such a fine consistency.
I definitely loved the fact that the only sweetness was from the agave and dates. It allowed the coconut to really shine through.
I’m pretty proud of these since I was operating on a “wing it as I go” method. I was trying to combine a Larabar nut/date mix with as much coconut as possible to create a raw vegan treat similar to One Lucky Duck’s blondie macaroons. Mine was much denser and more cookie like (hence the hippie-roon name).
See how it still holds it’s shape after being bitten into? That’s from the coconut oil. Coconut oil solidifies at cool temps, but becomes liquid when heated, so these should be stored in a cooler place. I placed the whole batch in the fridge, and even now – days later – they are still just as delicious as they were on Sunday (when I made them). However, I would note that after being stored in the fridge, you should probably let them warm a bit to room temp to enjoy the most. Not that they aren’t fabulous at any temperature, but just taking them out of the fridge a few minutes before eating lets the coconut oil get softer and the flavor is enhanced even more.
Enjoy!
Looks delicious!! 🙂 I wish I could find bulk amounts of coconut like that!! Hahaha. I would go nuts! Literally…!
These look great!
Thsoe look so wonderful! I can never wing it with things like that… I always just end up with a pile of mush. Thanks for the recipe!
Genius! And I actually have all of the ingredients!
These look wonderful, thanks! Think I need the industrial size bucket of coconut oil at the rate I’m going through it lately!
Thanks for the recipe! I love macaroons!
Holy cow–that is a HUGE vat of shredded coconut! What a great freebie 🙂
Courtney
I have a lot of nuts leftover from my cooking lesson earlier this week so this recipe came at the perfect time. I do a similar recipe and instead of dates I use dried apricots (just cause I can get them cheaper). And I’m refreshed seeing a recipe that doesnt have pumpkin!
i can’t remember if you’re vegan or not – but i just saw this recipe for pumpkin COCONUT bread!
http://www.duodishes.com/2010/11/18/another-go-around/
i guess you can always sub the eggs!
holy tub of coconut! i think that’s a huge tub which means i’m sure you have plenty coconut left over to hook a girl up with some hippie roons 😉
um and tupperware twins!
yum!
i use maple syrup in mine and just almond meal, not cashews. Bet those make them extra yummy!
i love TT coconut oil. I just ordered THREE huge jars of it. I think im set for awhile 🙂 holiday baking here i come!
these look tasty! i love coconut anything!
ROONS! I wanna make these now…definitely bookmarking for the baking fiesta I plan to have within the next few days.
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MMMM, yup, totally bookmarking this one for when I can make/share them. I am pretty sure I’d eat them all if I didn’t share 🙂
i want a hippie-roon!!!!
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I want to make these so badly! They look delicious – nice job!
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I´ve tried your recipie. This is delicious!!! Thanks.
yeah! so glad you liked it 🙂
These look AWESOME…I am going try them for sure – I am thinking they’d be even more rockin’ dipped halfway in dark chocolate, mmm!
Ooh, I’ve been looking for a recipe to use up some coconut!! I ran out of cashews yesterday, so I think I’ll sub walnuts! Thanks for the recipe!
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These look good!
Suppose you lived in a country where dates weren’t readily available. Would raisins make a good substitution? How many do you think would be good?
Hmmm…I think raisins could work but I’d probably mash them first separately in a food processor. Maybe a cup’s worth or so?
These are soooo yummy! I love how storeable they are so that I can take 1 or 2 a night throughout the week. These are awesome!
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I just found your site through another site and saw this recipe and was dying to try it!! it was perfect!! thanks for sharing and i will be reading the rest of your blog for more yummies! =0
glad you found me!! hope you continue to read and enjoy some more recipes of mine 🙂