Mexican Chocolate Macaroons

Please tell me I am not the only one who completely overbought supplies for Christmas baking.  It is like losing touch with reality or something.  So I have been scurrying around, with my leftover ingredients sitting out, just waiting to be blown over with a great idea.  This never happened.  Well it happened for a few other ingredients but not these almonds.  Don't get me wrong I would just eat them plain, and forget I ever wanted to use them for anything else but, I felt like I had to put them to better use than that!

I cam across this Mexican Chocolate Macaroon recipe in some little grocery story publication my mom had sent me.  It was the answer to my prayers.  You know, when in doubt, listen to your parents kind of a deal.  These turned out awesome but, I did change a few things.

You will need whole almonds since you need them for the center.  Or at least you are going to need enough whole almonds to fill the centers of your cookies, the rest will be processed so it won't matter for those. This recipe is supposed to make 3 dozen cookies, but I used a larger scoop and got 18.  I guess it depends on what you are using them for.

You will need:
1 cup milk chocolate chips (divided)
1 3/4 cups almonds (slivered, whole, sliced, etc)
1/3 cup WHOLE almonds
3/4 cup sugar
2 egg whites
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Line your cookie sheets with parchment or spray/grease.  Set aside.

Place 3/4 cup chocolate chips into a food processor, process until they are small chunks.  Add 1 3/4 cup almonds and sugar.  Process using the pulse button until the mixture is fine crumbs.  If you don't use pulse, you risk heating your processor to the point of melting the chocolate.   When the mixture is finely ground, add in egg whites, cinnamon and vanilla.  Process until it just come together to form a dough.  The dough will be sticky. 

Scoop your cookies to your desired size, or roll them into balls.  Place about 2 inches apart.  Press one whole almond in the middle of each cookie.  Bake 8-10 minutes.  I did mine twice as big as recommended and they were done at 8 minutes.  Let them cool on the cookie sheets.  When cooled, remove.

Melt remaining chocolate in a small Ziploc bag, and cut the TINIEST bit off the tip.  Drizzle cookies with the chocolate and let sit long enough to let the chocolate set up. 

These ROCK.  If you love almonds, or chocolate, you have met your perfect match.

Your "feeling like I need coffee with these babies" Chefwannabe