Macaroons with Plum Jam

Welcome to Newfoundland, Freshly Pressed visitors!

This recipe comes courtesy of the lovely and talented Tes (and her adorable son Yaseen) at Tes at Home.  You can see how she did her version here.

I LOVE macaroons.  Like, there’s serious ♥ going on when it comes to me and macaroons.  So to find out that they’re as easy as Tes made them out to be was totally awesome.

I found a box of Ontario plums at Belbin‘s, and because I missed the quality of fruit from my adopted province, I snatched them up.

Preheat your oven to 325°F.

In a bowl, whisk together 2 egg whites, 1/3 cup granulated sugar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla until it’s all nice and frothy.

Stir in 2 cups dessicated coconut.  I thought mine was a little mushy still so I added a bit more.  Maybe I didn’t whisk my whites enough?

Spray a baking sheet and make little balls, about 2 tablespoons’ worth, and then make a little well in the top of each one.

Mine kind of fell apart a little but I think I need more practice.  They were certainly goopier than Tes’.  Maybe the coconut was too coarse.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and cooked through.  I put mine on a rack and let them cool.

While those are baking you can start on your jam.  I used slightly more than 500g of plums, because I figured the pits would take away the weight when I threw them in the compost.

I peeled my plums before I cooked them, and I think that’s why my jam didn’t thicken as much as I wanted it to — a lot of the pectin is held in the skins.  Anyway, it still tasted great.

My mother-in-law Mrs. Nice and I decided that to peel a plum you would go through the same process you go through for peeling tomatoes, which is, you scald them.

Take a pot of boiling water.

And a bowl of ice cold water.

Plop the plums in the boiling water for about 30 seconds, then scoop them out and drop them in the cold water.

Tada, your plums practically peel themselves.

Now, of course, because I’d peeled them, they were super slippery and really hard to cut, so I more or less just squished them to get the pits out.

Plop them in a saucepan with 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water. 

Bring the mess to a nice foamy boil, then simmer on lower heat for about 20 minutes or until it starts to thicken.

Remove from the heat and cool it down.  If you spread it out it will cool faster.

I ended up with just over two cups of tart and sweet plum jam.

Spoon drops of jam into the wells in your now-cooled macaroons and serve.

Thanks, Tes!