Mad Easy Jam Coconut Macaroons

Coconut, shmokonut, we all love it around here. Thanks to this subtropical climate I live in, such flavours are much desired and a great match for the other tropical fruits that grow locally here, such as mango and banana. But there's long been a combination I've desired to see together. I'm a terrible matchmaker-most matches I make end in tears, so I'm better of sticking with food rather than ill-suited couples. I give myself brownie points for trying though (lets make that dark chocolate fudgy brownie points).
The local Woolworth store here has these amazing coconut drops with strawberry jam on the top, and I have been long looking for a recipe. The coconut is sweet and moist, but the little drops hold together beautifully and hardly look cooked--how do they do it? Anyway, I have not been able to find any recipe to compare. But I'm back with the Secret Recipe Club after my post baby break, and I was given the blog A Couple In The Kitchen to cook from. They have a great 4 ingredient recipe for coconut macaroons--and I just had to try it. It's so simple, quick, and gluten free--exactly the type of recipe a new mummy like me needs between baby sleeping and waking. They're also strangely addictive, and are sure to disappear from the kitchen very quickly.

When you first inhale that warm coconut aroma, and the sweet scent of boiling strawberry jam, you will realise that eating these coconut jam drops straight out of the oven is well worth burning the tongue for.

I've adapted the recipe a little to see if I could make them anything like the Woolworth's coconut drops. (It turns out, to my absolute glee, that they are very much like those delicious morsels! They're soft, sweet and moist with a little crunch on the outer--divine!) My husband also has a strong aversion to almond essence, which was in the original recipe, so I made them just vanilla instead. I also did not have sweetened flake coconut (I don't think we even sell sweetened coconut here in Australia!) so I used dessicated coconut, and found that the sweetness from the condensed milk was enough to satisfy any sweet tooth. I think the addition of strawberry jam also added just a little more sugar, and made these darling little coconut jam macaroons the perfect addition to an afternoon tea platter or even a festive little treat for the Christmas table.
Please don't forget to check out  A Couple In The Kitchen's blog...they are recent award winning bloggers!

MAD EASY JAM COCONUT MACAROONS (adapted from A Couple in the Kitchen)

3 cups dessicated coconut (unsweetened)
300g sweetened condensed milk (approx. 3/4 can)
3 tsp vanilla essence
1/4 cup strawberry jam

Preheat the oven to 180C.
Line one large baking tray with non stick paper. In a large bowl, place the coconut, condensed milk and vanilla essence. Stir until well incorporated. Scoop amounts the size of a golf ball into your hand and gently form into a round shape. Using your index finger, make a small indentation to the top, and place on tray and lightly flatten. Repeat until all the mixture is used up. Then fill the indentations with a little jam. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned. Allow to cool on the tray before removing.

Makes approximately 18