Zest up your Italian macaroons

By Jim Bailey
theyankeechef.blogspot.com

These cookies will look burnt or too brown for you but once you take a bite of these sticky sweet mounds of orange sweetness, you will be going back for more.

These are the most flavorful of all orange-based macaroons. You can cook them no more than 5 minutes; less time if you don’t want them so brown and they will still be cooked through. But you will have a tough time keeping them from holding together when peeling them from the parchment paper.

1 1/2 cups sweetened coconut
1 cup sugar
2 egg whites
5 tablespoons frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed

Preheat oven to 325-degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, using a fork, beat egg whites until just frothy. Add remainder of ingredients and blend very well.

Using a small ice cream scoop or using 2 tablespoons together, scoop mixture onto parchment paper in mounds, leaving at least 2-inches between cookies.

Bake 20-22 minutes, or until medium brown in color on top and starting to darken around the edges. The center will still feel very soft, but will continue to thicken when cooling.

Remove from oven to completely cool on parchment lined pan. Peel from paper onto plate.

Makes between 12-15 cookies.