I was so excited when I found this bag of organic jelly beans free of artificial colors and gelatin at the grocery store (Fortinos, for those of you in Ontario).
The ingredients list appeared to be vegan (Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Organic Tapioca Syrup, Organic Grape Juice Concentrate, Pectin, Citric Acid, Ascorbic Acid, Colors Added (including Black Carrot Juice Concentrate, Turmeric, Annatto), Natural Flavors, Confectioner’s Glaze, Carnauba Wax, Organic Sunflower Oil), but after I did a little research on the company’s website I discovered the jelly beans are vegetarian but not vegan (they didn’t say why so I emailed them to inquire). It turns out confectioner’s glaze is the culprit. It’s a clear coating used for candy (and other non-edible products under the name “shellac”) and is derived from secretions of the female lac bug. After a quick Google search I came across Vegan Sweets jelly beans. If anyone knows of any other vegan jelly bean brands out there, feel free to give them a shout-out below!
Anyway, I discovered this little recipe snafu, of course, after making my lovely Easter macaroon nests. All the pictures were shot and edited and the post was written up ready to be published. Rather than giving you a recipe that wasn’t 100% vegan, I decided to go back to the drawing board and create something new. Thankfully, the answer came to me quickly – macaroon thumbprints. Since the “nests” already looked like the beginnings of a thumbprint cookie all I had to do was fill the well with jam. It just so happened that I had a fresh batch of chia seed jam waiting in the fridge. Last week, I made a batch using a bag of frozen raspberries. It worked like a charm!
Love, love, love!
Macaroon thumbprints with raspberry chia jam, it is. You know what, I think I like these even better than the original recipe. Much more my style, anyway.
The macaroon dough comes together so quickly. Then you simply shape the dough into nests (I just typed breasts – those work too!), fill with jam, and bake at a low temperature – 275F seemed to work nicely for me. Baking at a high heat can brown these babies long before they are cooked through so it’s best to take a slow and steady approach with the heat. I’m sure they would also work beautifully in the dehydrator if you have one.
Oh and one last thing I should mention. I used unsweetened flaked coconut as opposed to unsweetened shredded coconut (which I normally use in my recipes). I used the longer flakes because I thought it would yield a more rustic looking cookie, but if you only have the shredded stuff on hand that will work fine too.
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Coconut Macaroon Thumbprints with Raspberry Chia Seed Jam
Yield
10 Macaroons
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Ingredients
For the Macaroons
- 1.5 cups unsweetened flaked coconut
- 1 cup almond flour (or almond meal)
- scant 1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
- 1/4 cup coconut butter, softened (no subs- this binds the cookies together)
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
For the Chia Seed Jam (makes about 1 cup)
- 3 cups frozen raspberries
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup, or to taste
- 2 tbsp chia seeds
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Directions
- For the chia seed jam: Add frozen raspberries and maple syrup into a medium pot and bring to a simmer. After 5 minutes or so, stir in the chia seeds. Continue to cook down the mixture for about 15 minutes, or until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Chill in the fridge for a couple hours to thicken it up even more.
- Preheat oven to 275°F and line a baking sheet with a non-stick mat or parchment paper. If you have a non-stick mat, use it because it will help prevent browning on the bottom.
- In a large bowl, combine the coconut, almond flour (or meal), and salt.
- Melt the coconut butter over a very low heat. I suggest using a double boiler so it doesn’t burn.
- Add the maple syrup, softened coconut butter, and vanilla into the dry mixture and stir very well until combined. The dough will be very wet and sticky, but this is normal.
- Grab a couple tablespoons of dough at a time with your hands and drop it onto the baking sheet. With a wet finger, press a well into the middle and lightly shape the outsides if necessary. Repeat for the rest. Fill each well with jam. The macaroons don’t spread out so there’s no need to space them far apart.
- Bake at 275°F for 20 minutes. Rotate the pan and bake for another 10-20 minutes (I baked for 40 mins. total – but you may need less depending on your oven) until the bottoms are lightly golden and browned, but not burned. If you have a hot oven, I suggest watching it closely or even reducing the heat to 250F. Place pan on a cooling rack for 5-10 minutes and then transfer each macaroon onto the cooling rack until completely cool. The macaroons will be very soft at first, but will firm as they cool. I enjoy them the most chilled, straight from the fridge.
Tip:
You can probably swap the maple syrup for another liquid sweetener of your choice. Also, if you can’t have almonds, you might be able to swap the almond flour for oat flour. I haven’t tried this yet myself though so be sure to report back if you try it out.
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)
For no-bake chocolate macaroons, be sure to see this post.
I hope you have a great start to your (hopefully short) work week!
I have to make these for Easter!! So cute.
What a cute recipe for Easter! I can’t wait to try it. I’ve been meaning to make your chia jam so this is yet another reason to do so asap!
Thanks for this healthy recipe. Chia seed jam is delicious and good for health.
Looks delicious! Have to give the chia seeds jam a go. Love your posts!! Hugs, Katrin
These look amazing!!! Coconut is one of my favorite dessert ingredients and this is such a great twist on the old recipe.
These look amazing! I am going to make these for my Mom’s birthday this weekend, who loves sweets, but is gluten-free. Do you think the jam would work with other berries? Like frozen mixed berries or just blueberries? What about frozen cherries?
It works great with blueberries too – It would work with mixed berries as well, but you might have to give it a quick whirl in the processor after cooking. I recently made a strawberry chia jam (which was fantastic!!!) but the strawberries didn’t break down fully so I had to process it after cooking. Not a big deal though. Also remember that it thickens up while chilling in the fridge for a few hours. goodluck!
Thank you!! I will try a few versions and see how it turns out. Your blog gives me so much inspiration for my own blog, which I have kept going for almost a year now. So fun cooking and sharing!! I enjoy your recipes and your posts!!
I used spelt flour and it worked fine . :)
I have to say, as a non-vegan, I’d much prefer that the food dye in the jelly beans comes from something natural (the body of an insect) rather than a chemical food dye like red #40. I find chemical food dyes much more disgusting than insects, which humans have been eating for centuries.
Thanks for this recipe. These are fantastic! Ended up w extra jam which is great multipurpose delish!
Omg these look so amazing!!! Seriously delectable
I am dying to have some
And they’re low-carb too! Because of the almond flour in place of more carbalicious flours or whatnot
Damn I need to purchase some chia seed asap
Thanks for the lovely pictures
I wonder if I could make these on the stove-top…I sometimes make tiny (very flat) low-carb vegan cookies on the stove-top which seem to come out okay so far hehe
Quick note for those of you wondering about the coconut butter/ oil difference. i made a batch with 1/4 cup coconut OIL and they came out delicious after a little repair… After the first 20 minutes I was shocked to see that they all spread (perhaps it was the amount of oil?)! I took the pan out and gently shaped them back to the little nests they were supposed to be (*i baked empty nests- no jam). Another 20ish minutes and a a quick rest in the pan, they firmed up enough to transfer to a cooling rack.
So delicious! I can’t wait to decorate them with my little girl in the morning for Easter.
Thank you for the great recipe!
I didn’t realize that this recipe only made 10 cookies! I guess I won’t be bringing them to Easter lunch and instead my hubby and I can enjoy them all to ourselves! I was wondering do you think the same reverie could work with only using a tablespoon of batter per cookie, or would they be too small? I just made these and the cookies are huge, plus I only used about half the jam.
I used real coconut flakes since I am still in the Philippines. This is abundant here. The sea salt is also abundant and is considerable better than table salt my grandmother use to use. I really think the Chia Seed Jam made the difference for a twist on the taste. I also tried Mango, which turned out to be a favorite with my family.
Hi Angela!
These look amazing and I can’t wait to try them with mila!
Dawn
Angela,
I made this jam to use in a different recipe….but that recipe never got made!
My boyfriend and I sat on the couch with two spoons and ate the jam while it was still warm until we felt sick!
What was leftover I’ve been using in my oatmeal, on toast, and pretty much anything I can sneak it into.
You’ve created a monster. A monster with sticky raspberry jam all over her face :)
Thank you for the recipe
These look lovely. I wish I came across this post before Easter. Ah well!
Raspberry is not my favourite fruit as the seeds get stuck in my teeth. I think I will try this with mango purée as this combines well with anything coconut.
Thanks for posting this recipe.
These look incredible….definitely going to give the chia jam a go this weekend, great idea.
I have a question- i notice you use maple syrup in your recipes…I am trying to use very low GI sweeteners-do you think agave syrup would work ok as a substitute, or is maple syrup the way forward?? Thanks
Made them! Everybody loved them, but next time I’ll take less maple syrup. They came out super, super sweet :D
NON-VEGAN substitution:
the coconut butter did not happen! added 2 egg whites instead and worked very well. also did not have coconut cream, so i blended some honey, spinach and lemon juice to mix with shredded coconut to make the “grass”… worked very well (though the jelly beans had a tricky time staying put).