Snow Day Bonus: Loafin' Around

Yesterday, we got almost 10 inches of snow, and this morning we had a record low recorded at the airport near our house. The kids have been in school exactly 2 days this week, and it seems as if they haven't been in school a full week since January. It's been rough.








This is what it looked like outside out house yesterday morning. It snowed for another 3 hours after this.

You would think that with this forced indoors activity, I would be wildly productive, but you would be wrong. I do have lovely, uncalloused heels (home pedicures each week) and have gotten sucked into reruns of Supernatural. I keep telling myself that I'll just watch to see if Dean actually goes to hell or if they figure out a way to get him out of his contract with the demon, Lillith. Like I said, it's been rough.

Previous years, I would have been doing a lot of baking, but in an attempt to not gain a bazillion pounds each winter, I have tried not to bake as much. That control ended yesterday when I went on a baking binge. All carbs all day, people.

I did not make anything original, but I had been saving a couple of these recipes for a while to try out. The top loaf is a Chocolate-Coconut Poundcake from Bon Appetit. As pretty as it looks, it was amazingly easy, and contains coconut oil, which makes it almost healthy (not really). The middle loaf (the recipe actually makes 2 loaves) is Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread. The one I was really excited about was the bottom loaf, Rustic Chocolate Chip Tea Bread. I saw it in yesterday's Washington Post. It's tasty and quite easy to make, using one bowl and a liquid measuring cup. The kids loved it and were a little disappointed that my friends ate the rest of the loaf when they came over for an impromptu happy hour last night. I promised to make more soon -- it's that easy!

Hope it is warm and sunny where you are, and if it's not, pray for spring to some soon!

Cheers!

Lemon Coconut Macaroons

When I first moved to Washington, DC, I lived near Dupont Circle and a great bakery/food store called Marvelous Market.  They had the most wonderful (marvelous!) chocolate-dipped coconut macaroons.  They were huge, and a true indulgence, but those cookies started my love affair with macaroons.

Please note that there is a difference between macaroons and macarons. It's kind of a pet peeve of mine when people use those terms interchangeably.  They are two different kinds of cookie/pastry. Macaroons do not have a filling, are generally made with coconut or almonds/nuts as its base, and sometimes you don't even whip the egg whites before adding the sugar and coconut or almonds. Macarons are little meringue-like confections (they look kind of like buttons) filled with ganache, jam or buttercream. They are often tinted with food coloring to make festive colors and can have seemingly limitless kinds of flavor combinations. 

Because they don't contain flour (or dairy, for that matter), macaroons are often served as a treat during the Jewish observance of Passover.  My husband and I were going to someone's house for Passover dinner a few years back, and I had offered to bring dessert, so I thought it would be fun to bring macaroons.  Jonathan was horrified, because he hated macaroons. No offense to Jews everywhere, but the macaroons you buy in the cans don't even begin to compare to homemade.  My husband, who is Jewish, had never tasted a homemade macaroon until I (a Lutheran) made one for him. I find it a little sad that he missed out on those tasty treats for so many years!

Anyway, macaroons are great to make when you have some extra egg whites left over.  I also like to make meringues, but I'll save that for a different post.  :-)  But the real reason I thought I'd make some macaroons is that I had a half of a jar of lemon curd in the fridge, plus the egg whites.  I saw a recipe for macaroons that seemed a little like a macaron, but not as labor intensive, so I thought I would give it a try, using the lemon curd for a filling.  Of course, I didn't follow the recipe as written.  Instead of making a true meringue,where you add the sugar gradually to get stiff, pillowy fluff, I dumped the sugar in all at once.  This deflated the egg whites a bit, but that's what I was looking for -- I wanted the end result to be a little crisp on the outside, but chewy on the inside.  I also like the flavor combination of coconut and lemon, so I decreased the almond meal a little, and added the unsweetened coconut.

The result was very much what I had been looking for: a light but chewy cookie.  What didn't work as well was the lemon curd filling, because the cookies were too chewy; when you tried to bite through the cookie, the lemon filling kind of oozed out the sides. It was kind of a mess.  BUT, the cookies themselves were delightful with a great lemon coconut flavor and just a hint of almond.  Even the kids at the bus stop liked them (well, most of them, anyway).




Lemon Coconut Macaroons (inspired by a recipe I found on Epicurious)

3 large egg whites (room temperature)
1 cup of sugar
zest of one lemon
3/4 cup almond meal
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut (I used flaked, but you could surely use shredded)


Preheat oven to  275°F. In an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks (1).  Add the sugar and beat until the whites are shiny and airy, but will fall off the whisk in a thick ribbon (2). Fold in the ground almonds, lemon zest and coconut.

(1)

 
















(2)

Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Drop heaping tablespoons of batter  onto the baking sheet. I used a cookie scoop, but you could also use two spoons to scoop, then scrape onto the sheet. Place the cookies 1 inch apart (they won't spread much when they bake). Repeat with the rest of the dough.

Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until the cookies are firm and very slightly brown. Let cool for 5 to 10 minutes before removing the cookies from the baking sheets to a rack. When cool, store in an air-tight container. Makes about 30 cookies.

P.S. I am working on a post about our street's annual Meat Day, but I haven't loaded up the pictures.  I realized it's been a while since my last post, so this one will have to do until next week...

A Better Coconut Cream Pie

So, I've been trying to cut my dairy, sugar, and refined flour intake, and I've been pretty good about it.  It also hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be.  But every now and again, I've been called upon to make desserts, like when I recently hosted a Mary Kay party. Now, I guess I didn't HAVE to make desserts (not too many people ended up eating them anyway), but as a hostess, I feel like I need to provide something.  I guess I also don't have to eat what I make for guests, but that just seems kind of rude, plus I have to make sure any experiments on my part will be edible, right?

Anyway, I had an idea for a coconut pie using some leftover crumbs from my initial Heavenly Bar debacle  experiment. I was thinking a coconut cream pie would taste really good using a chocolate-y crust, but I was trying to figure out how to make a cream pie without actually using cream or milk.  Then I found a coconut-flavored yogurt made from almond milk.  Cool!  Unfortunately, I never did find dairy-free Cool Whip (or any non-dairy whipped topping).  Am I wrong, or did they used to make non-dairy whipped topping at some point?  Regardless, I couldn't find it, so I almost got dairy-free (although I used butter in the crust, you could totally use coconut oil).   I actually prefer this version over the traditional, because: a) it's not super sweet; b) it's got a nice coconut flavor throughout; and c) it still has chocolate.  Win-win-win!


To make it gluten-free, you could substitute almond meal for the cracker crumbs and still have a tasty crust.  Give it a shot -- if you end up tweaking this, please feel free to post your results here!

Chocolate Almond Coconut Cream Pie

 Crust (adapted from the crust from my Heavenly Bars post):

1/3 cup butter (or substitute coconut oil)
1/2 cup sugar
6 tsp cocoa
1 egg, slightly beaten
15 (double) graham crackers, crushed fine
1 Tbsp. vanilla
1 cup coconut (you can use sweetened or unsweetened -- I've used both and it's all tasty)
1/2 cup slivered almonds, chopped fine

For the crust: blend butter, sugar, cocoa and egg in the top of a double boiler set over warm water. Stir until combined. Continue stirring over the hot water until warm and thick (you want to heat the mixture because of the egg, but not too much heat too fast, or the egg will cook and separate).  Take chocolate mixture off heat and add the crushed graham crackers, vanilla, coconut and nuts.  Pat into a 9-in pie pan (you might have some crumb mixture left over -- you can decide how thick you want the crust).  Chill crust while you make the pie filling.

Filling:

1 6oz. cup of coconut-flavored yogurt (I used Amande brand, found in Wegman's natural foods section)
1 small package of vanilla instant pudding, made with almond milk (use the pie filling method)
1 can unsweetened coconut milk (DO NOT shake the can to blend the cream from the liquid)
1 8oz tub of non-dairy whipped topping (if you can find it) or Cool Whip

In a medium bowl, combine all of the yogurt, 1 cup of the vanilla pudding filling (reserve the rest to use for something else -- or give to the kids to eat).  After you gently open the can of coconut milk (remember, you're trying not to shake it), carefully scoop out the thick, creamy stuff on top (I ended up scraping off a little bit layer by layer), then add to the yogurt/pudding mixture.  Stir to combine.  To that mixture, fold in about a cup of the whipped topping. Pour filling into the chilled crust.  Put back in the fridge to set up (at least 30 minutes, but I covered mine with plastic wrap and refrigerated overnight.

Toppings (optional):

1/3 cup sliced or slivered almonds, lightly toasted
1/3 cup toasted coconut
chocolate sauce (you can use my Decadent Dark Chocolate Sauce, made with coconut milk, or your favorite recipe)

To serve:

Spread the rest of the whipped topping over the pie filling, then sprinkle with almonds and coconut.  Drizzle slices with chocolate sauce and serve.