Coconut Macaroons

Yesterday was my husband's birthday. I made couple of dishes and gave a sweet surprise to him.
Banana cake with Fondant Icing topping and Coconut Macaroons

I wanted to serve this lovely white macaroons with a nice cup of coffee on birthday morning. But I ended up doing that the day before his birthday.  You want to know why? It was a lovely cold white Saturday morning. It was snowing outside, first snow fall of the year. The white crisp snow very much reminded me the white fluffy flaky coconut macaroons.  How can anyone control the temptations ?

I found this lovely recipe in a magazine that I was reading at the library. I frequent the food and health related magazine section in the library and always have a  piece of paper handy in case I come across an interesting recipe. This one came that way. But this recipe is special to me. This had a nice story behind it.

A 10 year old girl, name Sabrina Shefer doing 5th Grade from Minooka, Illinois bakes these Coconut macaroons for a cause. She bakes these lovely macaroons and other cookies the earlier day and goes to farmer markets early morning along with her brother and sell them. And all the money they earn goes to the charity. How sweet...

What a fool am I,  forgot to note the magazine name and the charity organisation that she works for. But clearly taken the recipe of hers :(

Ingredients : 2 1/2 cup -- Unsweetened shredded coconut 1/3 cup -- All purpose flour 2/3 cup -- Condensed Milk 1 tsp -- Vanilla Extract 1/2 tsp -- Baking powder 1/8tsp -- Salt 1/2 cup -- Nuts (optional) Method : --- Preheat the oven to 350 F --- Mix the flour, salt, baking powder and condensed milk, Vanilla extract thoroughly without any lumps --- To the mixture add the shredded coconuts, nuts and mix well. Make sure all the coconut are well coated with the flour mix. --- The mixture will be more sticky. --- Just take a small heap of coconut mixture and place it on the greased cookie sheet. Don't make any balls out of it. --- If using ice cream scooper, it will be well and good. If you trust your hands, better grease a little with butter and do it, so that it will not stick to your fingers. --- Bake the macaroons at 350 F for about 15 to 20 minutes, until you see golden brown color on the edges. --- Don't bake it for too long, the coconut will start to burn at the bottom, check for the golden brown colour carefully.

My husband was so happy and truly surprised. Both enjoyed the chill morning with the coconut macaroons and hot coffee

UPDATE 20-Dec-10
Oops, I forgot to mention about adding vanilla extract earlier. Have corrected it now.
Thanks to 'Anonymus' for pointing it out.