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Make room on your cookie tray for these heavenly Cranberry Almond Coconut Macaroons!
These Cranberry Almond Coconut Macaroons have been one of my long-time favorite cookies. A perfect, creamy coconut macaroon cookie that has both sweet, dried cranberries and crunchy, toasted almonds inside. Then – to make them even more decadent – the macaroons are dipped in melted chocolate which is the perfect complement to the sweetness of the cookie and the toasted almonds.
These cookies are inspired by similar macaroons sold at Au Bon Pain bakery cafés which originated in the Boston area at Faneuil Hall Marketplace. Years ago, when I worked in downtown Boston, I would treat myself to their version of this cookie as often as my waistline would allow!
These days, my visits to any of the local Au Bon Pain bakeries are few and far between. But I was thrilled to discover a while back that another blogger shared my love of these Cranberry Almond Coconut Macaroon cookies, and we’ve adapted their recipe today (which was adapted from several sources).
How do you make Coconut Macaroons?
These Cranberry Almond Coconut Macaroons are actually quite easy to make! A mixture of sweetened coconut, granulated sugar, and egg whites, plus (in the case of today’s recipe) chopped toasted almonds, and chopped dried cranberries are mixed in a saucepan. The mixture is cooked over medium-low heat until it is slightly sticky but not dry. (You’ll just need to remember to stir the mixture constantly as it cooks to avoid over cooking.)
Once the coconut mixture is sticky, it is cooled, then scooped or rolled into bite-sized portions and baked until lightly golden brown on the bottom. Finally, we dipped our Cranberry Almond Coconut Macaroons in chocolate (either dark or semi sweet chocolate works well) and allowed the macaroons to cool and chocolate to fully set.
We originally posted this Cranberry Almond Coconut Macaroons recipe back in May 2013. This past weekend, I made them again to bring to a reception held by our daughter’s art teacher and decided to update this post with new photos. Enjoy!
You may also like these other coconut recipes:
- Coconut Snowball Cookies
- Crustless Coconut Custard Pie
- White Christmas Pie
- Spiced Apple Coconut Muffins
We love seeing what you made! Tag us on Instagram at @afamilyfeast or hashtag #afamilyfeast so we can see your creations!
Cranberry Almond Coconut Macaroons
Make room on your cookie tray for these heavenly Cranberry Almond Coconut Macaroons!
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup whole, raw almonds
- 3 cups lightly-packed sweetened, shredded coconut
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup dried cranberries, roughly chopped
- 3/4 cup egg whites (from about 4-6 large eggs)
- 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon almond extract
- 4 ounces dark or semisweet chocolate
Instructions
- In a small, dry frying pan over medium heat, lightly toast the almonds for 3-4 minutes. Remove from the heat and cool. Coarsely chop the almonds.
- In a medium-sized, heavy bottomed saucepan, combined the coconut, sugar, chopped cranberries, chopped toasted almonds and egg whites. Stir well. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, for about 10 to 15 minutes. (Stop cooking when the mixture turns from a creamy consistency to one that is sticky and moist, but not too dry.)
- Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the vanilla and almond extracts.
- Pour the mixture into a flat baking dish, spreading it out so that it will cool. Place in the refrigerator for about ½ an hour or in the freezer for about 10 minutes if you want to speed up the process.
- Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Using a small #40 scoop (or your hands), scoop out the coconut mixture – firmly packing the macaroon mixture into the scoop – and place each mound on the baking sheet. The cookies will not spread as you cook them, so you should be able to fit most of your macaroons onto one baking sheet.
- Bake until lightly golden – about 20 minutes (more or less depending on your oven and the size of your scoop). Place the baking sheet with the cookies still on it on a wire cooling rack and allow the cookies to cool completely on the baking sheet so that they can set up.
- Once the cookies are cooled and firm, remove them from the baking sheet and place on the wire rack for glazing. (You can place the wire rack onto the baking sheet to collect any drips if you’d like.)
- Melt the chocolate on the stove in a double boiler (or place a heat-safe bowl over a pan of water and bring to a boil). Stir to melt the chocolate.
- Dip each macaroon top into the chocolate, or using a spoon, drizzle the chocolate evenly onto each macaroon. Allow the chocolate to cool and set up (you can put it in the refrigerator if you’d like to speed up the process) before eating.
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These are wonderful! How should I store these?
Hi Jess – We keep them in either a plastic zipper seal bag (single layer) or in an air-tight plastic container. Glad you liked them!
I make these every year and love them. This year I came across a similar recipe that skips a few steps by mixing the ingredients then cooking in oven. No saucepan step required. Have you ever tried this? I wonder if it will make a big difference, besides saving a ton of time!
Hi Carrie – I’ve only made this recipe as written. I think the saucepan step probably makes the batter a little drier so the texture is chewier after it is baked – I’d compare quantities of the ingredients of our recipe and the other version and see if there is a difference in the amount of eggs, etc. (If you try them without the saucepan step – please let us know how they come out!) Hope that helps!
OMGoodness Martha!!
I’m a big time coconut person, so these little beauties with the added dried cranberries is wonderful!
I hope to make them as soon as I can gather all the ingredients.
I just need two little items, the almonds and chocolate and then I’m in business.
Thanks for sharing!
Have a nice day!
You’re very welcome! We hope you love them Dalila!!
Mine are failing..never got creamy in the sauce pan but I am guess it is because you never said to beat and fluff the egg whites ?
Hi Justin – No…I didn’t beat the egg whites before adding them to the saucepan with the other ingredients. As you stir everything together and it heats up – it doesn’t really get fluffy but it does stiffen up and it almost dries (remove it from the heat before it dries out completely) – and that should let you mound up the batter before baking. I’m sorry to hear that it isn’t working for you!
I just had a cranberry almond coconut macaroon at au bon pain last week, and it was AMAZING. I am so glad to find this recipe! I will try to make these ASAP. Thank you!
Hope you like the recipe Christy! (I think we’ve made a close copycat to the version at Au Bon Pain!)
Hi Martha! I was curious if you thought fresh cranberries would work in this recipe? I have to watch my sugar intake and I’m having a hard time finding prepackaged dried cranberries without an absurd amount of sugar added!
Hi Jen – I’m not sure if fresh would work! I’d worry that once they start baking, the fresh cranberries would release too much liquid and ruin the consistency of the cookies. You can definitely leave them out all together and if you are worried about the sugar! Or maybe chop the dried cranberries so they disperse through the batter and then use less? Hope that helps!
Looks delish! Do you the nutrition facts for this yummy treat?
Thanks Lauren… Sorry – I don’t currently list the nutrition facts for my recipes at this time. With the sweetened coconut, chocolate, nuts and cranberries in this recipe – I can tell you that this definitely isn’t a diet food! Thanks for visiting our site! Martha