Mom’s Vanilla Apricot Macaroons

My mother was really quite the cook but, hands down, baking was her favorite thing to do. It was also my dad’s favorite thing for her to do because he had quite the sweet tooth and she catered to it completely. Needless to say, my sister and I were not complaining much about it either. Our house was like a horn of plenty, always filled with multiple tins of home-baked goods and likely some more lining up in the oven. My mother literally lived for school bake sales. It was the one time she tooted her own horn because her concoctions were always the first to get sold. Inevitably she would make these delicious vanilla apricot macaroons giving all those Girl Scout Samosa cookies a run for their money. I was always so proud of her.

When my mother passed away there were so many of her recipes that went with her – including the famous vanilla apricot macaroons. I discovered, for a fact, something I’d suspected all along. She kept a lot of information in her head. There was nothing for us to follow except memory.

A Trick

She always loved puzzles and word problems and I’m suspecting that she taught my sister and I just enough about cooking and baking for her to assume that these were all problems we could solve if we put our minds to it. Honestly, I can’t tell you how many recipes I’ve worked at recreating. Inevitably when my father was alive he would always let me know when I’d gone wrong, usually with a dissatified grunt. But after he joined her in the netherworld, I was on my own.

No one was contacting me from The Great Beyond to push me in the right direction. Certainly if “the heaven of each is but what each desires”, my father’s got it made! He’s probably enjoying all those treats correctly made by my mothers hand in his own personal paradise!

I Win!

Some of her recipes I could never get quite right. There was always just something missing. But with these vanilla apricot macaroons, I really nailed it. Even raw, they’re perfect. Nothing is lost at all. I just know my mother is smiling ear to ear. I did it!

It’s just a shame there are no bake sales for me to feature them in. She’d love that!

RAW VEGAN RECIPE: Vanilla Apricot Macaroons

3 cups dried, unsweetened coconut flakes

1 1/2 cups almond flour (almonds ground fine)

3/4 cups maple syrup

1/3 cup cocoa butter

1/4 cup dried apricots, chopped small*

1 1/2 Tablespoons vanilla extract

pinch pink Himalayan salt

First combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well to fully incorporate.

Form into balls using approximately 1 heaping tablespoon of mixture per ball and set on dehydrator tray with Teflex sheet.

Dehydrate at 115 degrees Fahrenheit for 4 hours until outside is firm but insides are still moist.

*These can also be made with fresh or frozen mango, chopped small. Delicious!