Like I often do this time of year, I was lurking around The Wedding Cookie Table Group on Facebook looking for some Christmas cookie recipes to add to my holiday baking schedule. When I was poking around on Nov. 11, a member of the community posted a newspaper clipping tucked into her mother’s old cookbook. The page contained a treasure trove of Christmas cookies from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette dated Dec. 1, 1982.

Just this one clipping features a variety of vintage Christmas cookie recipes that look nothing like the cookies my family bakes today. And since 1982 was the year I was born, I decided that this holiday season, I’m going to bake every cookie on this page.

One of the comments on this post was from a woman who had been neighbors with one of the original recipe makers: Elsie Merriman. Her contribution was the Moravian spice cookies. I was super excited to make these today since the recipe is allegedly dated from 1741. However, two supermarkets did not have molasses in stock, so I’m going to make them at a later date.

But today, I chose the coconut macarons because I have been craving something with coconut, which isn’t unusual for me. I’m a huge fan of coconut and caramel-flavored coffee (unsweetened), and I’m generally first in line for Samoas during Girl Scout Cookie season.

Ingredients for Coconut Macarons Credit: CP Photo: Stacy Rounds

I know a lot of people are not fans of coconut, but I am a coconut nut. Sure, we can disagree on this, but I’m not certain that we can be friends.

The original recipe for Coconut Macarons by Cindy Folger of Whitehall reads as follows:

In a medium bowl, combine milk, coconut flakes, and flavorings until well blended. Drop by teaspoon full about 1 inch apart on a well-greased cookie sheet.

Bake in a 350°F oven for 8 to 10 minutes until lightly browned. Immediately remove from cookie sheet to cool. Top each macaron with a maraschino cherry half.

First, I highly recommend using a silicone baking mat to cover your sheet pan. If you don’t have one, you can use parchment paper instead. If you’re using parchment paper, you may want to spray it with coconut oil or another nonstick baking spray.

To keep the order of things as efficient as possible, I recommend measuring out the coconut first. Coconut flakes are messy. And condensed milk is incredibly sticky, so that will need to go in second. There’s no reason to dirty additional dishes.

After mixing everything together, I used my teaspoon-sized measuring spoon to scoop up some of the coconut. My scoops were heaping as a teaspoon-sized scoop seemed too small to support the cherry on top. Also, as you can see with each ball I made they kept getting messier and messier. That’s because everything stuck to my hands as I was mixing them up.

For the second cooking sheet, I decided to use my cookie scoop, even though it’s a tablespoon, in order to keep my hands clean. Because mine were a little bit too big, they were wonderfully toasty after baking for 12 minutes instead of 8 to 10.

Instead of topping mine with maraschino cherry halves, I used pie cherries from a can. For one thing, I like them more than marachinos. And for another thing, I had them on hand.

These coconut macarons turned out amazing. They were everything a coconut nut could ask for in a holiday cookie. I’m excited to introduce these to my family’s Christmas Eve cookie table this year. And if you’d like to do the same, here’s a printable PDF of the recipe: