Coconut Macaroons, French Macarons…know the difference?  A macaron is a delicate, beautiful sandwich confection made with beaten egg whites and filled with a decadent butter cream center or gnache.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaron  I found it a bit confusing, when I googled French Macaroons I found recipes for Macarons.  It seems macaron and macaroon are used interchangably. 

This recipe is simple and delicious.  I think this cookie is very much like a rich piece of candy, yum!

1 14 oz. package sweetened flaked coconut
3 tablespoons flour
1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 jar of maraschino cherries, halved
1 ½ cup semi sweet chocolate chips (optional)

1) Preheat oven to 350’. Line your cookie sheet with parchment paper-very important!
2) Empty bag of coconut into a large mixing bowl. Measure flour into coconut and toss to coat, break up any clumps of coconut.
3) Add vanilla and pour condensed milk over coconut mixture. Mix well.
4) Using a 1 ½ teaspoon cookie scoop, portion out onto parchment paper, being sure to level off when scooping to make for evenly sized cookies. There is no leavening in this cookie, so you can place them pretty close together on your sheet.
5) Top cookie with a halved maraschino cherry.
6) Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, slide entire sheet of cookies off of baking sheet onto cooling rack. Cool completely.
7) Pour chocolate chips in a microwaveable glass dish, shallow enough to dip the bottoms of your cookies into. Microwave in 30 second increments, stirring between, do not over heat chocolate, it will burn! You want to stir until smooth and all chips seem to be melted. It does not have to be hot.
8) Carefully dip each cookie bottom into the chocolate and place right back onto your parchment paper. Allow chocolate to set. To move the process along, you can place the entire sheet in your refrigerator. When they’re set you’re good! They can be packaged or put onto a tray without mess.

Enjoy!