Dessert: Chocolate-Dipped Cherry Macaroons

Ingredients

2/3 cups Small-chopped Maraschino Cherries
14 ounces, weight Sweetened Shredded Coconut
3/4 cups Sweetened, Condensed Milk
1/2 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
1/2 teaspoon Pure Almond Extract
3 Tablespoons All-purpose Flour
2 Large Egg Whites At Room Temperature
1/4 teaspoon Kosher Salt
6 ounces, weight Ghirardelli Semi-sweet Chocolate Baking Bar, Chopped Into 1/2-inch Pieces

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 °. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
Spread chopped cherries out on a paper-towel-lined plate. Set aside. In a large bowl, stir together coconut, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Then fold in the chopped cherries. This will turn the mixture a light pink color—just fold until the whole mixture is evenly colored. Sprinkle flour evenly over the mixture and then fold again to incorporate.
With a stand mixer or hand mixer, with the whisk attachment, whip egg whites and salt on high speed until there are medium-firm peaks. Very gently fold egg whites into coconut mixture. Using a medium-sized cookie scoop (the one I used is 1-3/4 inches in diameter), pack the coconut mixture fairly tightly into the scoop, and drop the batter onto prepared baking pans. Place both pans in the oven and bake for about 30 –33 minutes, or until golden brown and set, alternating pans halfway through the total baking time. Remove pans from oven and let macaroons cool on the pan for 5 minutes before removing them to a rack to cool completely.
Line a pan with parchment paper and set aside. In a very small microwave-safe bowl, gently melt the chocolate in the microwave. Heat for 15 –20 seconds at a time, stirring in between, taking extra care to make sure the chocolate doesn’t scorch. Dip the bottom of each macaroon into the melted chocolate, so chocolate reaches about 1/4 inch up the sides. Wiggle the macaroon so excess chocolate will fall back into the bowl. Very gently scrape the bottom of the macaroon across the lip of the bowl, from inside of bowl to outside, to let excess chocolate fall back into the bowl. Place chocolate dipped cherry macaroon on parchment paper lined pan. Repeat until all macaroons are dipped. Let macaroons sit at room temperature until chocolate is set, or place in refrigerator for 10 minutes to speed up the process.
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for a few days. These also freeze very well in an airtight container with parchment paper separating any layers of macaroons.

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