Nurturing my inner... keys to success

The other night, my friend and I helped babysit her sister's kids.  She has an almost four year old who is at that stage where she can lock her two year old brother (and everyone else) out of a room for the sheer pleasure of being in control.  While her auntie was calmly, and reasonably, asking her to please unlock the door, I was quickly grabbing the master key from above the door frame and unlocking it myself.  Yeah, that's right, a four year old would not be getting the best of me!  I've been around the block a few times while babysitting and that is as good as having honorary engineering and medical degrees.  (To the latter point, I've fished many a "something" out of little mouths, and noses, in my day and I'm not even a parent.)

Little Miss. Door Locker looked none too pleased when I opened the door she thought she had so safely secured in prison guard fashion, but hey, what would you expect from a pint-sized rebel who has just lost the fort to the enemy intruder?  (Meanwhile, the aloof two year old wanted little to do with me the entire evening.  Thanks buddy.)

I find there are other great ways to unlock doors than just with keys.  I like to use... key lime.

Key Lime Coconut Macaroons

1 bag of sweetened shredded coconut
1 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 tsps vanilla extract
1/4 cup bottled (or fresh if you have the notion) key lime juice
2 tbsps flour
1/4 tsp salt
3 large egg whites, whipped

My favorite macaroons are from Whole Foods and I've always wanted to copy them.  But not today.  These were different, a softer texture, but they turned out really tasty.  (I'll note that they are not good for Passover because they have flour in them which I added to offset the liquid of the lime juice.  I'll work on a kosher traditional macaroon another time.)

I had purchased bottled key lime juice late last summer because I was going to make some coconut lime drinks with friends, but time flew and we never got around to it.  The expiration date on the juice was coming up in a month, so I knew I needed to do something with it.  Why not combine the drink flavors into a cookie.

Not to be confused with unsweetened,
dessicated coconut which has a finer texture.

Into a bowl went the coconut, condensed milk, vanilla and salt.  The basic recipe concept came from Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa) on the Food Network site.  But, I needed to change it up a little to add the other flavor.

Sweet and sweeter. This is no blah cookie.

To cut the sweet taste back just a little, I wanted to add a tangy citrus flavor.  Coconut and lime just go so well together.  I mean, they did write a song about it - "you put the lime in the coconut."  (I do realize that song is now stuck in your head.)

Why bother squeezing dozens of tiny limes by
hand when Nellie & Joe made it easy for me.

I added the key lime juice and the flour into the bowl as well.  And mixed it all together.

I could eat this with a spoon already.

To make the macaroons lighter, egg whites would need to be added.

It's amazing how egg whites when put in a
very white bowl can look yellow. Odd. But trust
me, these were separated egg whites.

I used my electric hand mixer and whipped the egg whites until they formed medium firm peaks.  (Yeah, like I even know what that is compared to firm peaks or soft peaks.  This looked fine to me.  So do that.)

I didn't want to over mix and make them
tough, but they needed some form.

I folded the whipped egg whites into the mixture.  Being careful to incorporate them fully, but not deflate them by over mixing.

Sticky. A good sign.

Okay, listen up.  This is an important step.  When reading feedback on Ina's recipe, even though I clearly tweaked it to make it my own, there were several complaints about the mixture being runny and the cookies spreading out too much.  There was quite the debate hashed out in the comments section.  The key to fixing that problem, it seemed, was to refrigerate the mixture for an hour.  My theory on why do that is because it gives the coconut time to absorb some of the liquid, so it doesn't run out on the baking sheet.  (If not accurate, it certainly sounds scientifically sound.)

When an hour has come and gone, the batter is ready.  I took a small ice cream scoop and filled it to slightly overflowing like I was serving up real ice cream.  On a parchment paper lined baking sheet, I placed each scoop over an inch apart and put them into a 325 degree oven, top rack, for 25-30 minutes.  Or until slightly brown.

They didn't look runny to me. The chilling
really worked! (Yea science!)

At the very end, I turned on the broiler and left them in for an additional two minutes so they would toast up just a bit more on the outside.  I'm not sure if that makes them actually taste any better, but it does make them look prettier.  So what's another two minutes when you can achieve this:

All sorts of shapes. Like little coconut
mountains.

They turned out chewy on the inside and ever so slightly tacky on the outside, so when I put them away, I layered waxed paper between the rows.  To prevent any sticking.  The key lime flavor was a terrific addition to a standard macaroon.  All the sweet coconut with the tart citrus - delicious.

Ate that in about three seconds.

Back to babysitting.  We all played a spirited game of hide and seek where auntie had to find us.  The nearly four year old picked our spot, but the two year old kept giving us away by running (loudly) to where we were, then I'd shoo him out and he'd leave momentarily, only to bound back five seconds later giggling and squealing with delight.  (Do not expect to maintain your good hiding spot when a toddler is present.)

After a bit more hiding and seeking, some show and tell of a mini lighted tree in someone's room and a little jumping on the bed (shhhh, don't tell mom) we sat and had some cookies.  Auntie was nice enough to share with the kids and there were definitely calls for "more, more."  By the time I went to leave, the older kiddo didn't like me putting on my coat because she knew what that meant and the little one was standing behind me, grabbing my finger, trying to get me to stay.  I guess I did something right after all.

Keys come in all kinds of shapes and sizes.  (And flavors!)  Love, discipline, forgiveness, attention, sacrifice.  There is no one skeleton key that opens every door with every person.  And some doors can only be unlocked by unconventional methods.  You may even have to try several keys before you find the one that finally works.  But when you do, everything changes.