Eggless Coconut Macaroons

Some of my cooking students and clients have food allergies or intolerances. Eggs often show up on their food allergy lists. Although they very nutritious, they are also among the top 10 most allergenic foods as you can see from the chart below (excerpted from The Ice Dream Cookbook: Dairy-Free Ice Cream Alternatives with Gluten-Free Cookies, Compotes & Sauces, published by Planetary Press in 2008).

Photos right: Rachel Albert, Copyright 2008©

Top 10 Most Common Food Allergens

1. 1. Nuts
2. 2. Eggs
3. 3. Milk
4. 4. Soybeans
5. 5. Wheat
6. 6. Peanuts
7. 7. Chicken
8. 8. Fish
9. 9. Shellfish
10. 10. Mollusks

  91% percent of adverse reactions in children are triggered by four major foods:

1. 1.  Nuts (43%)
2. 2.  Eggs (21%)
3. 3.  Milk (18%)
4. 4.  Soy (9%)

Source: Life Span Nutrition––Conception Through Life by Sharon Rady Rolfes, Linda Kelly DeBruyne, and Eleanor Noss Whitney. St. Paul: West Publishing Company, 1990.

Replacing eggs
Nothing compares to the nutrition profile, versatility, and flavor of eggs. There’s no single substitution that works in all the ways eggs do. However there are alternatives that can work for some applications.For people who cannot eat eggs, Ener-G Foods Egg Replacer works in some (but not all) recipes. This product contains potato starch, tapioca starch flour, leavening (calcium lactate from dairy-free sources, calcium carbonate, and citric acid), cellulose gum, and carbohydrate gum.

Photo right: Rachel Albert, Copyright 2008©

The top photo is the eggless macaroon made with medium flaked coconut, potato starch and honey in late 2008. The next macaroon was made using a fine flaked coconut, arrowroot, and coconut nectar (recently). Recipe below. The size of the coconut shreds makes more of a difference in appearance than anything. The texture varies only slightly with the two starches and liquid sweeteners.

This product doesn’t work in all cases because eggs perform different functions depending upon what you’re making. For example, it doesn’t work in recipes where eggs serve as a main ingredient or provide a specific flavor, texture, or structure (e.g., scrambled eggs, omelets, quiches, meringues, macaroons, mayonnaise, angel food cake). In meringues, macaroons, and angel food cake beaten whites, which expand several times in volume, provide the structure egg-replacer can't match.

Eggless macaroon made using the recipe below. Photo right: Rachel Albert, Copyright 2008© >>

For more on using Ener-G Foods Egg-Replacer, refer to the package instructions or my most recent book, The Ice Dream Cookbook: Dairy-Free Ice Cream Alternatives with Gluten-Free Cookies, Compotes & Sauces).

Eggless macaroons: mission possible!
This required reworking the entire recipe, replacing the beaten egg whites with coconut milk and also adding starch to bind. When I write articles for Living Without, a magazine for people with food allergies and intolerences, if I include a recipe that requires eggs I am asked to offer an eggless variation. Although it usually requires multiple tests to produce good results, I find the challenge and the results rewarding. In the best case scenario, the eggless version is almost indistinguishable from the one with eggs. In the next best scenario, the eggless version is pretty close and my recipe tasters (still) devour the goodies, smile, and give it a thumbs up. The first macaroon was made with medium flaked coconut (2008); the second with fine flaked coconut (2010).

I’ve been a fan of macaroons for years. You’ll find low-sugar version of My Favorite Macaroon recipe here and in here and in both of my cookbooks,The Garden of Eating: A Produce Dominated Diet & Cookbook and The Ice Dream Cookbook. My recipe uses a combination of honey and stevia so it contains less than half the sugar of the best health food store macaroons. Creating a satisfying eggless version was a great accomplishment. The recipe (below) first appeared in the February 2009 issue of Living Without Magazine. In the time since publication I’ve found I can get more cookies per batch (36 rather than 32).

Photo right: Rachel Albert, Copyright 2010©

Baking with coconut nectar
I made a batch of these macaroons last weekend replacing the honey with coconut nectar, a sweetener tapped from the blossoms of the coconut tree and evaporated at a low temperature. This syrup is both low-glycemic and low in fructose (unlike agave nectar, which has a high fructose content). You can read more about this sweetener in my recent post about it and on the Coconut Secret web site.

By combining honey or coconut nectar with stevia I was able to produce cookies that contain only 1/2 teaspoon of liquid sweetener apiece. That's much less than any store bought macaroon or conventional recipe I've seen. This is the third recipe I've made with coconut nectar, read more here. It's a relatively new product so I don't know where you can buy it but you can contact the company to find out.

Who should not use coconut nectar?
Coconut Nectar contains 1.5% fructose, 16% sucrose, with the remaining 82% of sugars in the form of FOS, a prebiotic inulin found in small amounts in some fruits and vegetables that may feeds the friendly flora in your intestines. Some people have a lower threshhold of FOS/inulin than others and are very sensitive to it (i.e., they experience gas, bloating, or loose stools after ingesting even small amounts). If this describes your experience or you follow the SCD (Specific Carbohydrate Diet), you should NOT use Coconut nectar. You can make recipe below the way I make most desserts, by combining honey and stevia. If you follow the SCD diet, you’ll want to make my coconut macaroons that rely on beaten egg whites and do not include arrowroot or cornstarch.

To read more about the downside of FOS and inulin click here and here.

Chocolate Dipped Eggless Macaroons 
Yield: 36 macaroons
               
Supermarkets rarely sell unsweetened, sulfite-free flaked coconut. Look for it on the baking aisle or in the bulk foods section of natural foods stores, or buy it over the Internet. Look for Let’s Do Organics, Tropical Traditions, Wilderness Family Naturals, Coconut Secret, Aloha Nu, Selina Naturally, or Bob’s Red Mill brand. If you get medium- or large-flaked coconut, pulse it in a blender or food processor to create a fine powder, fluff it up with a fork, then measure out what you need. This recipe can be doubled.  If you don’t want the chocolate coating, you can leave it out.

Ingredients:
Virgin-pressed coconut oil or palm shortening to grease baking sheets 
1 cup unsweetenened, preservative-free canned coconut milk (regular not lite)
1/3 cup honey (raw, unfiltered) or coconut nectar (Coconut Secret brand)
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon pure stevia extract powder or clear stevia extract liquid (Nu Naturals or SweetLeaf; do not use Stevia PLUS or any other brand that contains fillers or starches)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract or alcohol-free vanilla flavoring
1/4 cup unmodified potato starch or arrowroot starch
3 cups unsweetened, sulfite-free, finely shredded coconut (Bob's Red Mill or other)
1 1/2 ounces unsweetened baker’s chocolate

1. Preheat oven to 350˚ F. Liberally grease a large cookie sheet, line with unbleached parchment paper, or use a Silpat or Exopat nonstick bake liner.
2. In a medium size mixing bowl combine the coconut milk, honey or coconut nectar, stevia and vanilla. Whisk or beat until evenly mixed. Add the potato starch a little at a time, whisking or beating to combine. Fold in the coconut.
3. Drop batter by level tablespoons onto prepared baking sheet(s) at least 1/2 inch apart. Using your fingers or the back of 2 soup spoons, press each mound of batter upward into a cone-like shape.
4. Bake in the center of the oven until firm and lightly brown around edges, 20 to 24 minutes. Remove macaroons from the tray by slipping a thin metal spatula under the edge of each cookie and sawing back and forth. Cool on wire racks.
5. Melt the chocolate in a small saucepan over very low heat. When melted remove from heat. One at a time, spoon chocolate over half of each macaroon, dripping the excess back into the pan. Place each chocolate coated macaroon on a parchment lined plate or tray. Repeat with remaining macaroons. Refrigerate until set.
6. When cool, layer macaroons in a cookie tin or other container with a layer of parchment in between.

1 macaroon (36 per batch): I don’t have nutrition breakdowns for this. I do know each cookie contains only 1/2 teaspoon honey or coconut nectar.

Variations:

• Coconut Orange Macaroons: In step #4, replace vanilla with 1 1/4 teaspoons pure orange extract.

Source: Modified from The Ice Dream Cookbook: Dairy-Free Ice Cream Alternatives with Gluten-Free Cookies, Compotes & Sauces by Rachel Albert-Matesz (Planetary Press, 2008)

Comments

[Laura]

Love it! I will be sending clients your way for this recipe, for certain. (and I think a test run is in order!) I have all the ingredients, so I am good to go. On a side note, my family may be driving through your area this summer. Perhaps a chance to connect and join a class/lecture? Another great idea, here. Thanks for sharing!

Hi Laura,
Let me know how your macaroons turn out and how you like them. Please let me know when you might be in my area and I would love to have you attend one of my classes.

Thanks for posting on my blog and for telling others about my work. I appreciate that.

Sincerely,
Chef Rachel

[Buy Coconut Products]

Magnificent! how I wish i could make it my own! More power!