Creme Brulee Coconut Macaroons
Coconut macaroons are a very classic cookie and certainly a lot easier to make than their French meringue counterparts, macarons. There are a lot of ways you can make them, but today I thought I’d try making them with the flavor and style of my all-time favorite dessert, Creme Brulee.
My plan is to make classic vanilla macaroons that I’ll fill with an easy vanilla custard, then after baking I’ll sprinkle sugar on top of them and broil them to get that classic crispy caramel that really is what turns an ordinary baked custard into Creme Brulee.
Let’s do it!
Creme Brulee Coconut Macaroons
Makes about 30
Total time: 1 hour and 45 minutes
For the Custard filling:
1/2 cup of whole milk
1/4 cup of sugar
2 teaspoons of vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract*
A pinch of salt
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon of cornstarch
For the Macaroons
2 egg whites, separated from the yolks used to make the custard
1/2 cup of sugar
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste or extract
2 1/4 cups of unsweetened shredded coconut*
Turbinado sugar, for sprinkling
*Note: If all you can find is sweetened coconut or if that’s all you have, then reduce the sugar in the macaroons to 1/4 cup.
Step 1: Make the Custard Filling
In a small saucepan, heat up the milk, sugar, vanilla, and salt until the sugar is dissolved and the milk is hot. There’s no need to let it boil.
Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks and cornstarch together in a small heatproof bowl until the cornstarch is dissolved. It may look a bit dry at first, but keep whisking and it will be smooth before you know it.
Once the milk mixture is hot, pour a splash into the egg yolks and whisk to combine. Pour the egg mixture back into the hot milk, then cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until thickened. Immediately pour the custard into a small bowl, cover directly with plastic wrap, then let it sit in the fridge until completely cooled.
Step 2: Make the macaroon mixture
Heat the oven to 325 degrees and line two large baking sheets with either parchment paper or baking mats. Make sure you have one oven rack in the center and one close to the top.
Whisk the egg whites, sugar, vanilla, and salt in a medium bowl for about a minute, or until the egg whites start to look foamy. You’re not trying to make meringue; you just need to get the mixture combined and aerated.
Add the unsweetened coconut, then use a spatula to stir and combine, ensuring every flake of coconut gets moistened. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Step 3: Portion and Bake Macaroons
Scoop leveled tablespoonfuls of the coconut mixture and place them onto the prepared baking pan about 1 inch apart. Use the back of a 1/4 teaspoon to make an indent at the top of each cookie, then fill that with the cooled custard mixture.
Bake the macaroons for 20-25 minutes, or until they’re golden on the edges. Allow the cookies to cool completely in the pan.
You will have some leftover custard, which you can use to, I don’t know, spoon over ice cream, spread onto pound cake, or even torch some sugar on top for classic creme brulee.
Step 4: Make the Caramel layer
Once the cookies are cooled, top each one with some of the turbinado sugar, then use a kitchen torch on a low flame to caramelize the sugar on top. I don’t suggest the broiler for this method as the coconut will burn long before the sugar has even melted.
This step is tricky as the coconut can easily burn or even catch fire. My advice is to keep the torch on the lowest flame possible, keep the torch close enough to burn the sugar but not so close that it burns the coconut too much, and do so in a little circular motion so the sugar burns evenly. However, I found that a slight char on the coconut is not a bad thing.
Of course, you can skip this step altogether and have tasty vanilla custard macaroons.
These Creme Brulee coconut macaroons are an excellent way to put a spin on some classic holiday macaroons. You get a ton of vanilla flavor, plus the nice chewy texture of the macaroons themselves, the creamy custard, and that light crunch from the caramelized sugar on top.
