Fun, quick and easy: it's the Coconut Macaroon

Hi everyone,

If you don't like coconut, click your 'back' button now.

These light, gooey macaroons are perfect for sharing, and for getting the kids, or a house full of hungry messy students, involved.

With only 3 ingredients - two of which should be baking essentials already stored in your cupboard - it's a not only easy, but it's cost effective - perfect for the student, or family, on a budget.

Stand by for a scrummy picture...

And stand by for the recipe...have your pen and paper ready, or your cursor over the print button.

Coconut Macaroons:

Makes: 12

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 10 - 15mins

125g desiccated coconut,
1 egg,
75g caster sugar.

For optional decoration:
A few pieces of dark chocolate,
Teaspoon of butter.

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.
Beat the egg and sugar together (good exercise when using a non-electric whisk).
When the mixture is light and fluffy, stir in the coconut and mix thoroughly.
On a non-stick baking tray or tray with grease-proof paper, create balls of the mix about the size of a golf ball, then flatten them slightly (they won't spread during cooking so they can be placed fairly close together).
Place the tray in the oven and check the macaroons about 10 minutes in. When done, they should be golden brown, but not hard in the centre - they should still be gooey.
Put them on a cooling rack and leave to cool.

If you want to decorate them with melted chocolate, place a glass bowl of the broken dark chocolate and butter on top of a saucepan of boiling water, making sure the glass doesn't touch the water. Leave the chocolate to melt (try not to stir - it makes the chocolate too thick). Once melted, drizzle over the macaroons. If needed, add water or milk to the chocolate if you didn't read the last sentence, stirred the chocolate and it became too thick.

Hope you enjoy them as much as I do. They're so cheap and easy, and you won't have to buy desserts for a week, providing you, or sneaky others, don't gobble them all up in one go.

:D