These 4-ingredient, fiercely fuchsia, chocolate-coated coconut macaroons are the perfect healthy vegan treat to share with your Valentine!
Macaroon. Macaron. It really is just unnecessarily confusing.
Why call two completely different cookies by almost the exact same name? I can’t think of any logical reason other than to confuse innocent cookie-craving people like me.
One is cute, coconutty, and quite simple with just a handful of ingredients. The other is fancy, multi-layered, and requires almost CIA-like code cracking precision to properly execute. Or so I’ve heard.
Since I have very little experience with either of these cookies, I thought I would start with the cute one first–double O. Although I did steal the brightly colored cookie concept from the single O kind, but that’s just because it’s almost Valentine’s Day and pink is the color of the moment.
Usually when February comes around I stock up on berries for all my Valentine’s-colored cooking needs. But there is a non-berry fruit even more perfectly pink than either of those two: pitaya!
These fiercely fuchsia bites of chocolate-coated coconut are sweet and simple to make with only 4 ingredients. Coconut is the primary ingredient of course, but there is also maple syrup for sweetness, a small amount of oat flour to help bind, and pitaya for color.
A special kind of coconut. While not fat-free, these macaroons are oil-free and lower in fat than most macaroon recipes thanks to a new-to-me ingredient–Reduced Fat Shredded Coconut from Let’s Do Organics. Now before you get skeptical wondering what sort of funky food science this must be, don’t worry it’s nothing crazy or unnatural. Almost half of the fat is removed by steam extraction, so it is still just pure, 1-ingredient, organic coconut.
I highly recommend it for my high carb low fat friends who still love the delicious taste of coconut. It is noticeably less oily that regular shredded coconut, but tastes just the same. Of course you can use regular shredded coconut in this recipe as well.
Pink! As I mentioned previously, I used pitaya (these cubes, defrosted) to turn the macaroons pink. But that is not the only natural coloring option. You could use freeze-dried pitaya powder and slightly less shredded coconut to make up for the decreased wet ingredients. Or steamed beets or beet juice. Or raspberry or strawberry puree (be sure to strain out the seeds first if using raspberries). The shade of pink will vary slightly, but be very Valentine’s Day appropriate regardless.
Instead of pureeing the pitaya first, I just let the food processor mix everything together for me before scooping or smushing the dough into balls and baking. After baking they are slightly crispy and toasty on the outside with a soft sweet center. And a dunk in dark chocolate plus extra drizzle on top only makes them more macaroon magical!
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These 4-ingredient, fiercely fuchsia, chocolate-coated coconut macaroons are the perfect healthy vegan treat to share with your Valentine!
Ingredients
- 2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut
- 1/4 cup oat flour
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1/4 cup frozen pitaya (see post above for other pink options, defrosted)
- For coating: 1/2 cup chocolate chips (melted)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- In a food processor, combine the shredded coconut, oat flour, maple syrup, and pitaya. Process until well combined. It should hold together when squeezed, if not add a tablespoon or two more maple syrup.
- Shape into balls, squeezing tightly. Place on a lined baking sheet.
- Bake for 15-18 mins at 350F.
- Let them cool for at least 10-15 minutes before dipping/drizzling with chocolate.
- Refrigerate or freeze until the chocolate sets, then enjoy! Keep leftovers in the fridge.
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Natalie, for how amazingly gorgeous (and PINK) these are, I totally expected a more complicated ingredient list/method, but per usual you’ve made it so accessible! These look too pretty to eat – although they sound so delicious I’d have a hard time holding back. Love the idea of oat flour, I would’ve never thought of that for macaroons (just totally spell checked myself there, couldn’t agree more with the unnecessarily similar cookie terminology!), but it totally makes sense and probably makes them even more irresistibly chewy! I cannot wait to try them, but in the meantime I’ll drool over the photos. 🙂
I always had this idea in my head that macaroons were super complicated too, but turns out even the original kind are actually pretty darn simple. Usually a little egg-ier and more sugar-laden of course, but that wasn’t too hard to swap out. They have that wonderful crispy outside, chewy inside thing going that I love so much–thanks maple syrup!! I’m trying to catch up with you on the Valentine’s Day sweets haha 😀
They’re so pretty and perfect for Valentine’s Day ❤ hehe!!! CIA code. Yep, I’ve never ventured into the macaron world…I’ll stick to the double O ? I’ve used that brand of coconut before, but I’ve never seen the lower fat option – that’s good to know! That’s my one struggle when working with shredded coconut and a food processor – typically ends in an oily mess so I was excited to read here that this option would be less oily. I loved the rundown of all of the glorious ways to make pink!! My brain always goes to berries and beets so thanks for reminding me about pitaya!! I’m sure we’ll be making this soon ? xo
I truly do not think I have the patience for the single o kind. Plus aquafaba and I don’t often get along too well. Normal coconut can get so oily so fast, right!? This stuff really doesn’t, even if you process it for a while…I don’t think you could make coconut butter with this stuff even if you wanted to haha. It’s so funny how beets and pitaya make for almost the same shade of pink even though they are completely different plants to start with! Ah nature. I couldn’t resist these guys, and luckily my stomach wasn’t too mad about the little bit of oat flour in there 🙂 xoxo
Yes and yes. So confusing! It might be some kind of game folks are playing on us… 😉 But no matter, we’ll soothe our confused heads with these amazing macaroons! Wait, I spelled that right… right? 😉 Can I just say that I’m seriously in love with the color of these beauties? You do the most amazing things with fruit! Now, how would you feel about bringing over a dozen or two? 😉 Happy early V-Day, Nat. Lots of love from you know where. 😉 xoxoxo <3
The Cookie Naming Council is probably watching from above and just laughing at our macaron/macaroon confusion from their lofty perch in the sky (because where else would a Cookie Council HQ be but in the clouds??☁️?☁️) Well they will not be receiving any V-Day cookie packages form me that’s for sure. Oh you know I will bring a few dozen to our Valentine’s Day cookie party! That’s still on, yes? 😉 Love ya!! xoxo
Well, I don’t think it’s any surprise that this color is gorgeous and PERFECT for Valentine’s Day! I love the pink so much and love that it’s natural as well. I have never made macaroons but that is because unfortunately I don’t like them. I love coconut butter and coconut milk but I’m not a fan of straight coconut shreds, so I can’t eat a whole coconut cookie, hahaha! I wish I could because I love how easy these are and of course the fact that you dipped them into chocolate just makes them 10 times better.
I think that is so cool that you found a reduced fat coconut, I’ve never even seen such a thing. Is it super dry? Good that the process is through steam, so like you said, nothing crazy or weird about it! Usually those reduced fat types of food have a ton of sugar added to them. Nice to see this one does not.
So glad you are back posting these beauties and more colorful stuff to come! They are just gorgeous!
I never would’ve guessed you were not a fan of shredded coconut!! Because in my opinion coconut butter actually has a much stronger flavor than the shreds, I actually prefer the shreds and it took me a while to learn to like the butter. Oh all the little ways our tastes are different haha! Well these are pretty much just like eating shredded coconut held together by some sweetness so I won’t send you a box anytime soon 😀 Yep the reduced fat stuff is much drier, not oily at all. Which would be terrible for some things but nice for others–I think it will be lovely for making my sprinkles with actually. Always fun trying out new things 🙂
Wow…low fat coconut shreds…had no idea that they made that! And it seems like it’s still very natural not full of other things to make them low fat…that’s awesome! I need to check it out because I LOVE shredded coconut. Chocolate and coconut are my two fav combinations. You know those chocolate coconut haystakes? Yep…i was all over those growing up ha! I LOVE this pink color…you’re killing me with the pictures! The pitaya idea is great instead of food coloring. Perfect for valentine’s day!
I know right, such a fun find! I’ve used the Let’s Do Organics coconut shreds before but I never realized they had so many different kinds. Omg haystacks!! I need to make those now, coconut + chocolate is the best! And to think I used to not like coconut desserts…silly me 🙂
Going to try making these today! So pretty! So I know that the little French cookies made with egg whites and almond meal are called macarons (pronounced like “on” at the end), and these coconut cookies are called macaroons (rhymes with “toons”) that’s how I would differentiate between the two!
Yep you have it all sorted out! Now I just need to make that stick in my brain somehow so I don’t have to google it everytime haha. But as long as there is cookie eating involved I guess the rest is just details 🙂 I hope you love these!
What could you substitute for oat flour? Maybe almond flour?
That should work, yes! But you will need probably about double the amount, so 1/2 cup😊
Never heard of pitaya fruit. What could you substitute it with?
Never mind just saw the strawberry or raspberry puree part lol
You can try beet puree to give them the same pink color, although it will have more flavor. Or any kind of berry puree would work too!