Ingredients:
7-oz unsweetened grated coconut
12 oz sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup chopped candied pineapple*
24 (unwrapped) Hershey’s Kisses Pineapple Coconut Flavors Of Hawaii Edition
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients EXCEPT the Kisses thoroughly. Form into small balls (or use a medium-sized cookie scoop) and place 1/2 inch apart on parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Slide the macaroons out ON the parchment paper onto the wire racks. Press a Kiss in the middle of each macaroon. Cool completely.
NOTE: the candies will become very, very soft once they are placed on the macaroon. If you want them to keep their “Kiss” shape, do not touch or move them until they are completely cool and set, about 1 1/2-2 hrs. Alternately, you could press down on the top of each Kiss to flatten into more of a “filled” effect.
Yield: about 2 dozen
*I used about 1/3 cup of this candied pineapple to yield 1/4 cup chopped.
My thoughts:
Saturday we spent the afternoon at Hersheypark. I went there a bunch as a child but it’s been years! It was lovely weather–one of the nice few days we’ve since spring but so very, very crowded. Luckily we are not ride people so we mostly walked around, ate lunch and I was able to cross off playing skeeball from my summer goals list.
We also stopped off in Chocolate World, where you can get a virtual tour of a chocolate factory, prepared food and tons of everything Hershey makes. Chocolate World was also a zoo but were able to pick up some fun candy (including Hershey-ettes for my dad who is probably the only person who prefers them to M & Ms) and baking bits. My husband picked up these Pineapple Coconut Kisses impulsively at the check out line (left unattended, ha!) without realizing that they weren’t milk or dark chocolate. We thought they were tasty but not something we’d want to eat by the handful.
I immediately thought of making Kiss cookies like I have in the past but then I thought, why not macaroons? So easy to make yet so tasty and very appropriate flavor-wise. I had some candied pineapple on hand so I chopped that up and in it went! Instead of using the typical sweetened flaked coconut, I used unsweetened because I worried that between the sweet pineapple-coconut candy, the candied pineapple, and the sweetened condensed milk, it would be too sweet. I think I made the correct choice but feel free to sub in sweetened flaked coconut if you’d like.
The resulting macaroon has a great tropical coconut-pineapple flavor that is welcome any time of the year! The candy adds a nice note of creaminess and of course, coconut-pineapple to the mix. Just a really fun, easy dessert that any coconut fan would like.
One note: if you can’t find these Kisses (although I have seen them at various chain stores and online) try it with white, milk or dark chocolate Kiss or even leave them off altogether, the macaroon is delicious on its own merits.
