Coconut Macaroon Bird Nests

This is my favourite coconut macaroon recipe because it’s so easy to make and turns out chewy and delicious. I found the recipe on Just One Cook Book and have made them for all kinds of occasions at least 10 times. I usually double the recipe because they are so popular.

This time I decided to use the recipe to make birds nests for our family Easter get-together. The recipe made around 15 nests.

Ingredients:

• 2 egg whites
• 8 tbsp sugar
• 2 cups shredded coconut
• 1/2 tsp vanilla sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 120 grams chocolate dark chocolate
• 15-30 small chocolate eggs (I used green marzipan and beige nougat spotty eggs)

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 165 degrees.
2. Separate yolks from whites putting whites in a large mixing bowl.
3. With a spoon beat whites with salt, sugar and vanilla sugar.
4. Add shredded coconut and stir until well mixed. No slim from the whites should be visible.
5. With 2 spoons, form small ( ca. 2 cm ) mounds of coconut mix on a baking tray covered with baking paper. With a rounded tablespoon gently make dents in the center of the mounds.
6. Bake for 15-20 mins or until golden brown.
7. Meanwhile, melt chocolate using a water bath or microwave. I tend to use a microwave since it’s faster. You do have to be careful not to over cook the chocolate when using a microwave by only heating it for around 20-30 seconds at a time in between mixes.
8. After the macaroons are baked and cooled dip the bottoms in the melted chocolate, putting them back on the same sheet of baking paper they were baked on. Using the remaining chocolate, put a teaspoon full in each nest and make thin streaks across the nests for decoration.
9. While the chocolate is still liquid put one or 2 chocolate eggs in each nest so once they are cooled the eggs don’t fall out.