In preparation for Passover, Rose and I are making macaroons today. I saw a recipe on America's Test Kitchen, and it looked yummy, so I thought we would make it. There were a few problems, though. First, the recipe calls for corn syrup, which is not kosher for Passover. The recipe calls for sweetened flaked coconut and also unsweetened flaked coconut, but there was a note saying that if you can't find the unsweetened stuff, you can use all sweetened, but skip the corn syrup. This is good. You should instead add some cake flour to help bind everything together. This is bad — not only is it not kosher for Passover, but it is also not gluten-free. So I used tapioca starch instead; I supposed you could use potato startch (or matzoh meal) instead. The macaroons are baking as I write this; we'll see how they come out.

The modified recipe: preheat oven to 375 degrees (F). In a small bowl, whisk together 4 egg whites, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons vanilla, and 1 cup of cream of coconut (which is typically used to make pina coladas and things like that, so I found it in the beverage aisle of my grocery store). In a large bowl, put 6 cups of sweetened shredded coconut and 2 tablespoons of tapioca starch. Toss with your hands, breaking up any clumps with your fingers. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix with a rubber spatula. Chill in fridge for 15 minutes.

Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper, and spray the paper lightly with non-stick spray (GF and kosher for Passover, please). Put heaping tablespoonfuls of the "dough" on the cookie sheet, one inch apart. Then with moistened fingers, form each cookie into a loose pyramid. ("Haystack" they call it in the recipe on the website, but on the TV show, they were pyramids.) Bake for about 15 minutes, until light golden brown. Cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.

Let cool for about 30 minutes, and then dip in semisweet chocolate. Refrigerate until the chocolate sets.

Commentary: the original recipe had 3 cups of sweetened coconut, 3 cups of unsweetened, and 2 tablespoons of corn syrup. No flour. It's a bit weird that a recipe for a traditional Passover dish contains ingredients you're not supposed to eat during Passover. It's also a bit weird that for a tradional Passover dish, since in Passover you celebrate the Jews exodus from Egypt, the recipe suggests making the cookies into little pyramids. Oh well...