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‘Barefoot Contessa’ Ina Garten’s Coconut Macaroons Recipe Is the Easiest Cookie: It Has Just 5 Ingredients

Ina Garten shares her super easy coconut macaroons recipe, a simple cookie that requires few ingredients and limited baking abilities. It can also be made ahead and stored in an airtight container to serve later. The Barefoot Contessa star offers tips on whipping the egg whites and carefully folding into the batter for best results.
by Wendy Michaels
Published on
2 min read

Ina Garten has mastered the art of cooking delicious foods that don’t require a high level of skill and, for the most part, don’t take a lot of time to pull off. The Barefoot Contessa’s coconut macaroons recipe is one example of keeping things simple, with just five ingredients to make an amazingly easy cookie.

Ina Garten smiles for cameras while attending 'Ina Garten in Conversation with Danny Meyer'
Ina Garten | Noam Galai/WireImage

The Barefoot Contessa star showed how to make her coconut macaroon cookie recipe on her cooking show, offering up some tips for the best results.

“It’s sort of a classic Jewish holiday thing made for Passover because it has no flour in it,” she explained. “I make them all the time, they’re really great and you won’t believe how easy it is.”

Garten showed how the ingredients are easily combined in a bowl — a bag of shredded coconut, a can of sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla extract are combined “until they’re well mixed.”

The Barefoot Contessa then explained that keeping the whipped egg whites fluffy is the key to making the best macaroons.

“I’m just going to lightly fold this into the coconut mixture and what this does is lighten it so it’s not quite so dense,” she explained.

“That’s all the ingredients,” Garten said before demonstrating her technique for gently folding the egg whites into the other ingredients. “You just want to do this carefully, you don’t want to deflate the egg whites,” she noted.

Ina Garten’s coconut macaroons recipe is so easy to make

A sweet cookie treat is just five ingredients away! Garten said during her demonstration that the coconut macroons can be made ahead of time and stored in an airtight container to be served later. (You can find the recipe on the Food Network website.)

Garten answered a fan’s question on her Barefoot Contessa website about the macaroon cookies and offered up an additional handy tip. “I made your coconut macaroon recipe, but I did something wrong — they puddled at the bottom as they baked. What did I do wrong?,” the fan wondered.

Garten chalked it up to the consistency of the whipped egg whites. “The coconut macaroons do tend to leak a little bit, but there shouldn’t be a ‘puddle’ beneath the cookies when they come out,” she explained. “Most likely, the egg whites were either under or over-whipped. For this recipe, it’s important to whip them just until they form medium-firm peaks.”

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Ina Garten’s Brownies Recipe Uses This ‘Magic’ Ingredient She Says Enhances the Chocolate Flavor

Ingredients

  • 14 ounces sweetened shredded coconut
  • 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 2 extra-large egg whites, at room temperature
  • ¼ teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a bowl, combine the bag of shredded coconut, sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk, whip the egg whites and salt on high speed until they form medium-firm peaks.

Fold the whipped egg whites carefully into the batter. Using an ice cream scoop or two teaspoons, drop the batter onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden brown.

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