Maine Mountain Chocolate Macaroons

An Award-Winning Recipe

The People’s Choice scorecard

In 2013, I entered the Portland Press Herald’s Holiday Cookie Contest on a whim. I took my chocolate coconut macaroons and gave them a little dip in white chocolate, a flurry of snowflake decorations and a cute name that caught the eye of the newspaper’s editors. When I got the phone call that my cookie and I were finalists, I was thrilled.

I’ve been making these Maine Mountain Macaroons every holiday season, and they’re always a big hit at cookie swaps. They’re not hard to make, but they do require freezing before baking, which can be a bit of a pain, you know, when your freezer space is already stuffed with bags of fried rice from Trader Joe’s. Then I got to thinking about the chocolate macaroons I made last Passover, and how in the early days of the pandemic, they were a sweet salve, and simpler to make.

Could they be converted to a Christmas cookie? This recipe came from Zingerman’s Bakery, by way of King Arthur Flour, my go-to website for starting any baking project. While the original cookie (adapted from a Joanne Chang recipe) used semi-sweet and unsweetened melted chocolate, the KAF one used melted semi-sweet and cocoa powder. And it didn’t require freezing.

I baked a batch and they were just as I recalled - glossy, beautiful and very chocolate-y. But they were also much flatter than the contest version, more like a slight elevation than a Maine mountain. That’s when I realized what the freezing accomplished - the cookies held their peaked shape - think Mt. Battie not little Bradbury Mountain in Pownal. What if I refrigerated the KAF macaroon dough before baking?

So I stuck a bowlful in the fridge and took the dog for a walk. When I thought the dough was sufficiently chilled, I scooped out balls and pinched the tops into peak-like shapes, and baked them. They were still pretty flat, but I dipped them in white chocolate anyways to see what that would look like.

You know, they looked pretty darn good. If you put the two cookies side by side, you might see more of a peak from the original. You might not. Same with the flavor. The two are really on equal footing with lots of rich chocolate and so much coconut. The texture is wonderful, a little crisp on the outside, yielding to a chewy, tender inside.

If you’d like, you can compare for yourself. Here’s the recipe I made for the contest, still available on the Press Herald website. If height matters less than ease, below is the updated version, equal in flavor if not elevation. Decorate as you like. Use good white chocolate for dipping, like Valhrona. I ordered some festive, fancy decorations to cheer myself up and they did.

In 2013, I did not win the judge’s favor in that cookie contest, but I did take the People’s Choice Award by a landslide. And we all know that’s the cookie people want to eat the most.

Maine Mountain Macaroons, Redux

Makes approximately 24 cookies

4 ounces semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped

3 large egg whites

1/4 c. plus 1 tsp. natural cocoa powder, sifted

3/4 c. plus 1 Tbsp. granulated sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3 cups shredded coconut ( I used one cup unsweetened, 2 cups sweetened)

4 ounces white chocolate, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Place the chopped chocolate in the top of a double boiler. You can make your own double boiler by using a small metal bowl that fits into the top of a saucepan. Fill the pan about 1/4 with water and bring to a simmer. Place the metal bowl into the top of the saucepan, so that it’s not touching the water. Stir the chocolate until melted, then set it aside off the heat.

In a medium bowl, mix together egg whites, cocoa powder, sugar, salt and vanilla. Add cooled, melted chocolate and blend well with a spatula.

Add the coconut and stir until evenly incorporated.

Use a tablespoon-sized cookie scoop, or your hands, to form the dough into balls, about the size of a walnut in the shell. It helps if your hands are damp. If you’d like, pinch the top of each cookie, creating a little peak. Leave some room between cookies, but they won’t spread much.

Bake the cookies for 22-25 minutes, until the outside becomes slightly crisp, but the inside is still soft. If you’re unsure, squeeze one! Transfer cookies to a cooling rack.

While you wait for cookies to cool completely, melt the white chocolate in a small heatproof bowl. This can be done in the double boiler again, or very carefully in the microwave, in bursts of 30 seconds, stirring between each one, until completely melted. Dip the top of each cookie into the chocolate, letting any excess drip off, and place back on cooling rack. Before it hardens, sprinkle with the decoration of your choice. Let white chocolate set before storing or stacking cookies.

Adapted from King Arthur Flour

Baking Notes:

*Feel free to use egg whites from a carton, especially if you’re going to make more than one batch.

*You can also microwave the bittersweet chocolate, instead of using a double boiler. Zap in increments of 30 seconds, stirring between each. When there are just a few lumps of unmelted chocolate left, keep stirring and it will melt in. It should only take a few times, but microwaves vary. Caution - chocolate burns easily.

*You can use all sweetened coconut if you prefer.

*Cocoa powder should always be sifted. It tends to be lumpy. Measure first, then sift.