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Coconut Macaroon Tartlets with Peach Honey Filling and a Chocolate Drizzle

By Eliot, on May 26th, 2013

It’s time for a Cook the Books post.   cookthebooks
CTB is a foodie book club hosted by four foodie friends (Heather, Rachel, Deb and Simona) who are also ardent readers and take turns making recommendations and hosting.      Here is the intriguing teaser they posted at CTB to announce the current novel:   The Color of Tea.  

From Sicily and The Shape of Water (the last CTB novel), we journey to China for The Color of Tea by Hannah Tunnicliffe, hosted by Deb at Kahakai Kitchen.   This descriptive foodie novel follows Grace Miller, an English expat moving with her Australian husband to the tiny island of Macau in China.  A stranger in a strange land, Grace, escaping the realities of the shattered dreams of her life, uses her passion for baking to open a café—serving coffee, tea and pretty-colored macarons to the women of Macau. There should be plenty of food and baking inspiration in this lovely book about boldly creating a new life and blossoming in a different place.

What a lovely book—truly lovely.

I loved that Grace found her way in Macau and created her own extended family through her friends and employees.

I loved that Grace found her true being in a foreign land with foreign customs, tastes, and traditions.

I loved that Grace had the courage to strike out on her own and turn a passion and a dream into a reality.

I loved that Grace found Faith.

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Even the book cover is lovely.

There was a tremendous amount of beautiful food in the novel, starting with a passionate, lusty tomato tart.    I seriously thought about making a tart because that is the first meal Grace makes for Pete, a seriously luscious tart that may have made him fall in love with her.   But,  tomatoes just aren’t in season yet and I needed perfectly ripe tomatoes for this recipe—“thick with the perfume of their green vines, fat and red” (21).

The obvious choice would have been to make beautiful macarons, but frankly, they scare me.   I just know that I could not create those delicate airy confections, especially with the creative flavor concoctions that Grace dreams up.

Really.   No way.   I could never attempt to make these—“the holy communion of this miracle sugar and egg white and almond coming together” (72).    It would be a culinary disaster not for the faint of heart.   Grace could pull it off, but not I.

Macarons scare me but not macaroons.    I used to think coconut macaroons were the fanciest cookies we ever made growing up.    And, I still needed to use up some more of that stored away jam.   I was inspired by 5 Second Rule’s  C-Cups for Dessert.   (Cheryl’s are gluten free so please step right on over and check out the original recipe.)       I was also inspired by Chef Sara from our chocolate cooking class to add a bit of chocolate to the mix.

I would make macaroon tartlets, fill them with jam  and drizzle them with chocolate.    Not macarons, but maybe Grace would have allowed them in the shop.IMAG3598

Coconut Macaroon Tartlets
From 5 Second Rule

1-1/4 c. sweetened, flaked coconut
2-1/4 c.  unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 c. all-purpose flour (Cheryl’s original recipe calls for coconut flour).
6 farm fresh egg whites
1 t. fine sea salt
Finely grated zest of 1 small lemon
1/3 c. granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.   Spray muffin tins with cooking spray.

In a large nonstick saucepan, combine all ingredients and mix well.   Set over medium heat and cook, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes.

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Seriously, stir constantly.

Use a small cookie scoop to evenly divide the mixture among the muffin cups.   Coat the back of the scoop with nonstick spray, then make an indentation in each cup, packing the mounds down and creating indentations  for the filling.2013-05-21 16.08.27

Bake for 15-17 minutes, until the tops of the cups are toasty brown.   Let cool in pan.   Slide a sharp knife around each cup to loosen, then scoop out carefully.   Fill as desired.

 

Fill as desired?    My desire was to use peach honey and a semi-sweet chocolate drizzle!

Any filling would work.    I see these in my future filled with fresh strawberry jam, apple pie filling, lemon curd or even an unadorned dark sweet cherry.     (I had to fill some with simply chocolate—a bit of a messy job, but they were delicious, too.)IMAG3603

Thank you Cheryl at 5 Second Rule for a keeper of a recipe.

Thank you CTB Crew for another fabulous foodie read.

Thank you Ms. Tunnicliffe for a treasure of a novel and for the inspiration to make macaroon tartlets.

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38 comments to Coconut Macaroon Tartlets with Peach Honey Filling and a Chocolate Drizzle

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