Hi Joyous Health readers! I’m so excited to be here and sharing this delicious recipe with you! Cherry Coconut Macaroons are a chewy dessert filled with sweet cherries and yummy coconut. They are super quick and easy with only six ingredients. I loving making Cherry Coconut Macaroons for potlucks because they are always a crowd pleaser and people get really excited when they learn they are actually healthy.
I created this recipe because I’m a recovering sugarholic. For the longest time, sugar didn’t bother me, but I eventually started experiencing candida symptoms. Candida is a yeast organism that can flourish in different parts of the body and feeds on sugar. After learning more about candida, I knew I had to make a change to the way I was eating.
I began by decreasing the amount of sugar I was eating and did a candida cleanse. After I was certain that the candida in my body was under control, I started eating homemade sweets that were made with alternative sweeteners like fruit and maple syrup. I had so much fun creating recipes that I wrote them down and published them in my cookbook Dairy Free Desserts!
Desserts
Cherry Coconut Macaroons
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Ingredients
- 1 cup dried cherries
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 1 Tbsp coconut oil, melted
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups shredded unsweetened coconut
- 1/2 tsp salt (preferably Himalayan rock salt)
Instructions
- Soak cherries in water for 30 minutes to an hour to soften them up.
- Preheat the oven to 300F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat.
- Once the cherries are done soaking, blend them in a food processor with 1/4 cup of the soaking water along with maple syrup, coconut oil and vanilla extract to create a paste.
- In a medium-sized bowl mix the coconut and salt into the cherry paste.
- Scoop 1 Tbsp–sized balls of dough onto the baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes, or until the bottom of the macaroons are golden brown. You can place the macaroons fairly close together because their shape won’t change while cooking.
- Remove the macaroons from the oven and let them cool for 30 minutes before storing or serving.
Cherry Coconut Macaroons are naturally sweetened with dried cherries and maple syrup, so you can pop them in your mouth guilt-free. Cherries are a great source of antioxidants, which can help lower your risk of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. They can also help with digestion and sleep.
These macaroons also contain coconut oil, which is a saturated fat that is very stable and can withstand high temperatures without becoming rancid. Coconut oil also promotes weight loss is used as an energy source in the body instead of being stored as fat.
Where can I find dried unsweetened cherries? All the brands I've found have added sugar. These look soooo yummy and remind me of cherry chip cake mix :)
ReplyHi Christine, I buy dried unsweetened cherries in the bulk section at The Big Carrot. I would image the big health food stores would also have them .
ReplyThank you for sharing!
ReplyYou are very welcome Leona! I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
This looks great. Wondering if I can use cranberries in place of cherrys?
ReplyHi Frances, You can totally use cranberries! I have done it and it is tart and delicious.
These look delicious - how many will you get? I'm bringing these to a family party next week and am trying to determine if I should double the batch. I'll have about 20 people nibbling...
ReplyHi Renee! The recipe makes about 24, but they are really small so may want to double it so everyone can have more than one.!
I just made these but they are NOT this cute pink colour. After soaking the cherries, the water and the resulting paste turned brownish and the macaroons are a light brown/tan colour. Is there something I've done wrong that I could change the next time?
ReplyHi Whittney, that has happened to me as well! It really depends on the cherries you use. If your cherries seem moist, you can skip the soaking step it will look a lot more like the picture.
The recipe looks amazing, I'll try to do it. Thanks for sharing Jesse :)
ReplyYou are so welcome Vanessa! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Coconut sugar is one of the best and healthy sugar.its color is brown.its taste is same like regular use sugar.we make many types of dishes thought this sugar.its very nourishment sugar.thanks for sharing.
ReplyHey Steve, Yes - totally agree! Coconut sugar is a beautiful natural sweetener to work with. Happy you have found it so beneficial in your life :) Rachel - Joyous Health Team