Freedom Macaroons for Passover

Passover celebrates the Jews being freed from slavery in Egypt.  They fled so quickly that they did not have time to let their bread rise, thus it is tradition to not eat leaven breads during Passover.  I am not Jewish myself, but growing up going to my friend's seders, I feel a connection to this holiday.  And also, I know a little something about abstaining from bread.  For me it isn't just a one week religious sacrifice, but an ongoing lifestyle.  But I don't see giving up bread as a "sacrifice" anymore, I see it as freedom.  Freedom from feeling sick, from asthma, from not knowing what was wrong with my health.  My wheat/sugar/dairy free diet gives me the freedom to breathe and live healthily.  So for the seder I am going to tomorrow, I will be bringing gluten/sugar/dairy/and egg FREE macaroons! I adapted this recipe from Jennifer Katzinger's Flying Apron's cookbook.  Enjoy!

Freedom Macaroons

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup of coconut flour  (you can also use almond or brown rice flour)
•  5 cups of shredded unsweetened coconut
• 2/3 cup of agave
• 1 cup of lite coconut milk
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• sliced almonds

Directions
1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2.  Mix together the coconut flour, shredded coconut, agave, coconut milk, vanilla, and salt together in a bowl.
3.  Press the dough into a clean tablespoon.  Pack it in tightly so it's really dense; that way it will stick together once baked. 
4.  Gently remove the ball of dough from the tablespoon, and place onto a greased baking pan.
5.  Clean off the tablespoon and repeat making about 20 macaroons.
6.  Stick a slivered almond into the top of each macaroon.
7.  Bake in the oven for about 15 minute so they are nice and golden.

 *If you want to make chocolate covered macaroons, follow the above directions, except do not put an almond in the macaroons yet.  Then:

1.  In a double boiler melt 8 ounces of unsweetened 100% chocolate.  Once it is melted add a teaspoon of vanilla and about 1/4 to a 1/3 cup of agave, a little at a time.  The tricky thing about sugar/dairy free chocolate is that the consistency seems to always come out as a soft and sticky frosting/ganache, which is lovely, but it just won't harden like traditional chocolate does when it cools (oh well!)
2.  Once the macaroons have cooled completely, you can spread some chocolate onto the macaroons.
3.  Place an almond on top of the chocolate covered macaroons and devour!