Dark Chocolate Raspberry Macaroons

Today is a pretty big day in my life.  I have my very own facebook page!!! Please head on over there to give it a "like" and enjoy! I have been having so much fun with this blog.  I just love getting my thoughts down in writing and sharing fun recipes with you all.  I think food is really special because it is so easy to share and enjoy.  Cooking has really impacted my life in a significant way.  I will have to share more of that story in the future.  I know that I must not be the only person who feels that way and it is so fun to hear how other people are affected by cooking in their lives.  I hope that this blog as well as that facebook page allow people to get fun ideas from me and feel free to share their ideas with me!

Head on over: http://www.facebook.com/BinomialBaker

Passover is here and last night I was at my sister's house for dinner.  I decided that I wanted to make something delish to help her out.  Passover desserts are typically terrible, in my opinion.  If anyone has any good ones I would love to hear them.  Usually I find them dry and looking way better than they actually taste.  However, I found, what looked like, a good recipe for coconut macaroons and I had heard that it is yummy to mix in some sort of fruit with the coconut.  I decided to give it a try.  I made the Coconut Macaroons from Epicurious, but I did 4 times the recipe, mixed in raspberries, made them smaller, and topped them with some dark chocolate...they were AMAZING.  The only problem I had was  that the raspberries made them TOO moist and they fell apart a little when you bit into them.  This is messy, but considering how much I hate dry Passover desserts, I didn't think it was too bad of a problem.  Plus, they are totally not bad for you.  They are pretty sweet, next time I would add a little less sugar, but they were a huge hit!

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Macaroons (adapted from Epicurious)

Ingredients:
3 cups sweetened flaked coconut
4 tbsp sugar
4 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
6 oz fresh raspberries
1 cup dark chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees and grease a foiled cookie sheet with oil.
2. Mix sugar, egg whites, vanilla, and almond extract together.  Mix in the coconut and raspberries until well coated.  Drop tbsp sized balls onto the prepared cookie sheet.  Bake for 20 minutes or until coconut starts to brown a little (mine didn't get very brown). Let cool for 5 minutes and then lift foil to move to a cooling rack to cool completely.
3. Melt the dark chocolate and drizzle over the macaroons.  Peel macaroons off the foil and enjoy!!  I put mine in the fridge to cool faster (we were running late).
Enjoy :)