Raw Chocolate Coconut Macaroons
[Vegan, Gluten-Free, Nut-Free, Oil-Free]

If you want to save time and effort, you can make extra coconut butter by processing extra shredded coconut, and then use it for other recipes (or more macaroons). This amount makes enough for one batch of macaroons, around 1 cup. Even though the original recipe used maple syrup, you can just use your favorite liquid sweetener (coconut nectar, yacon syrup, agave etc). You can use either vanilla extract or vanilla vodka. Vanilla vodka is made by soaking vanilla beans in vodka for a couple of months, but if you’re not so keen on the alcohol, see if you can find a vanilla extract with a low alcohol content. Regular salt will work fine instead of the Himalayan. Using finely shredded coconut for the second lot of coconut tends to makes better macaroons than coarsely shredded coconut. If all you have is coarsely shredded coconut, just pulse it in your food processor briefly and it will magically turn into finely shredded coconut. This recipe did not try this, but apparently you can bake these in the oven at 300°F for 20-25 minutes, until they’re dry on the outside, if you don’t have a dehydrator. Restrain yourself for long enough so they can cool completely before you eat them, please! These macaroons can be stored for 5 days on the bench, 2 weeks in the fridge or 2 months in the freezer. If you want to reduce the fat content of these macaroons, you can substitute half the shredded coconut with coarsely ground rolled oats.