Raspberry Coconut Macaroons

Ok I admit, this is one of the many things I have seen on Pinterest that I had to try. The photo of them was sooooo pretty, and if any of you out there know me, you know that my favorite desserts are always pink or green. Rainbow cookies, leave cookies, strawberry cake (the artifical kind haha), so little pink macaroons turn me on!  They were super easy to make even though I have to get a little creative because my tiny food processor didn't allow me to follow directions verbatim. So I basically mixed things in batches and then ultimately in a bowl at the end, but they still turned out great.

Ingredients:
14 oz bag of sweetened shredded coconut
2/3 cup sugar (I used a little less, the coconut is already sweetened so it seems like too much sugar)
3 egg whites
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 pint raspberries (again I used a little less I think because I was eating them haha)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 and line 2 cookie sheets with parchament paper. The paper is important, these guys are sticky when the juices from the berries start to run a little bit.

In the food processor, add the coconut and sugar and blend until the shreds are a little more broken down. The original directions said to add the egg whites, salt and extract at this point, but like I said, I had to deviate, so I removed the coconut and sugar and then did a 2nd processing step with just the whites, salt, and almond extract until the eggs were a little foamy.  I then poured that mixture over the coconut and mixed together until it seems like everything was a little moistened. Then back over to the food processor, I processed all the raspberries until they were broken up but not completely pureed. It tooks baout 10 quick pulses. Then I poured the berry blend into the coconut and mixed together as little as possible so I would get more of a swirl effect and see bits of white and pink. Well that didin't work that well, i might have over mixed, they came out mostly pink. But still very pretty.

On the cookie sheets, just scoop out mounds of the mixture with a spoon, I made them a little larger than an inch in diameter, about the size that I would normally see in a store bought macaroon.  You can scoop them pretty close together because they will not spread on the sheet. So I piled them pretty closely. 

Just bake for 30 minutes or until the tops start to brown up. Remove from the oven and let cool completely! When they are warm they are very fragile. Once cooled they hold together much better.  Enjoy!