Speckled Chocolate Macaroons

Back in the bakery I used to worked at, we made these pillow macaroons for Passover that were really different from any macaroons I had previously tried. They were chocolate macaroons - sort of. What we did was fold in small pieces of grated chocolate into the coconut and egg white macaroon base. The result were mounds of airy macaroons speckled with itty, bitty pieces of chocolate in it - almost like ground pepper.

Because we grated in the chocolate instead of folding in melted chocolate,I found it to be a lot lighter with more of a textured variation than normal chocolate macaroons. You can taste the actual macaroon's coconut flavor separate from the chocolate bits. Just like an M&M - the chocolate "melts in your mouth, not in your hand."

Sweetened Shredded Coconut

Now, this is not the exact recipe from the bakery. I personally felt they were a bit on the drier side because we use unsweetened coconut, which is drier, so I opted for sweetened coconut, which not only makes the macaroons more moist, but is easier to find as well. Varying the size of the chocolate pieces (though they all should be pretty small) are great as well because you end up getting these pockets of mushy chocolate and coconut. It's almost like a lava cake in a macaroon.

A note for this recipe is that if you want to save time and put the chocolate in a blender to chop them into smaller pieces, try putting some of the sugar in with the chocolate. That helps keep the chocolate pieces separate and prevents them from melting together in the blender. Also, if you do have a pulse option, use that because the motor from the mixer can get hot and melt the chocolate as well. Also, if you want to keep your macaroons from browning in the oven, I would reduce the oven temperature to 250 degrees Fahrenheit and bake the macaroons for 35-40 minutes.