Zest up your summer with lemon macaroons

Being a complete coconut fanatic, I have always had a soft spot for coconut cookies, and when it comes to this fruit the macaroon is its cookie king. Macaroons usually do not contain flour; instead, the principle ingredient which takes its place is coconut. When I found this Food Network recipe for Lemon Coconut Macaroons I knew I had to try it. Not only was it a macaroon recipe, but also used lemon, and personally, I believe lemon is the best of all the citrus fruits. It brings a zesty appeal to baking, be it pies, squares, cookies or cakes. I was also intrigued to try this recipe as it was from the Food Network, because recently I had made the Food Network’s Curry Chicken Burgers – which I must say, turned out phenomenal. I dove into this recipe filled with excitement and optimism.

Not at all to my surprise, this recipe did not disappoint; these macaroons had the perfect coconut-y texture, and in flavour reminded me much of a lemon meringue pie. These cookies were popular with my family – within days, the entire batch was gone. On top of the fantastic flavour, these cookies are extremely simple to make, as with most macaroon recipes all the ingredients were combined into one bowl, and took about 10 minutes to prepare- lucky for me as I was also making a meat pie for dinner!

The only complaint with the recipe, and really this is more of a suggestion, is to add more lemon zest – I used the entire rind of my lemon and squeezed half of the lemon juice into the cookies. However, this really depends on how much you like lemon, and how strong you want the citrus flavour to be. Or you might want to try making lime or orange macaroons. This is perfectly plausible, and a super easy substitution to make. Simply use the citrus fruit of your choice and follow the recipe as you would any other. Still, no matter what fruit you choose, there is one guarantee; this recipe will be sure to zest up any moment!