Coconut Macaroons

I love to bake when the weather gets cold. There is just something comforting about a warm oven and a house that smells like baking when it is snowing and cold outside. Why does this matter? Well the weather here sucks, it is cold and snowing and I am not ready for it to be the middle of winter just yet. Despite having almost my entire kitchen packed (that is right, I am moving in 4 days – why did I think moving in November was a good idea?) I decided that I needed to bake cookies. I needed something simple to make (I didn’t want to unpack 6 boxes to find the ingredients and pans for anything) and remembered coming across this recipe on the Kraft site. It was perfect – they look Christmassy, kind of like a snowball, and I love coconut.

Ingredients:
2 1/3 cups medium or flaked unsweetened coconut
2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla
Chocolate (I used milk chocolate wafers for melting, but feel free to use whatever you want)

Directions:
1. In a bowl mix together the coconut, milk and vanilla. Once it is mixed together drop by teaspoonfuls onto a cookie sheet (I lined mine with parchment paper – no sticking!).
2. Bake at 350F for about 10 minutes – the edges will start to turn a golden brown. 3. Remove the cookies to cool on a wire rack (they will still be soft, but don’t worry, they will solidify as they cool).
4. Once the cookies are cool, melt the chocolate and dip the cookies as little or as much as you would like.

Reviews:
These were great cookies! I love how simple they were to make and how good they tasted. They nixed my cookie craving and gave me a nice hit of coconut – something I love in the winter. These cookies somehow made it to coworkers who have all enjoyed it. Actually the reason I am posting this 3 days before moving when I really should be finishing my packing is because so many people requested the recipe, it was easier just to put it here than try and get copies to everyone. So for everyone who wanted to try making these – I hope you enjoy them. I am now off to try and finish my packing and get organized for moving!

No Flour Fudge Cookies

I came across these cookies when looking at some gluten free recipes on King Arthur Flour one day (man I love that site), as a few friends and family members are celiac or at least gluten intolerant. These cookies looked amazing and I had to try them right away.

Ingredients:
2 ¼ cup powdered sugar
1 cup cocoa powder
3 lg egg whites
2 tsps vanilla extract

Instructions:
1.Preheat the oven to 350F and line the cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2.Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix until smooth (make sure you scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl).
3.Drop cookies on the cookie sheets (I used my cookie scoop, and that was a good size).
4.Bake for 8 minutes (the tops will be crackly but the cookies will still be very soft). Allow the cookies to cool on the pan before removing to a wire rack.

Reviews:

These cookies are completely addictive; I couldn’t get enough of them. They were fantastic, and I have made a few batches. The cookies were almost like fudge in the shape of a cookie. I did add some instant coffee powder to some of the cookies and these were also enjoyed very much.

Caramel Apple Bunt

We just recieved our first order of apples - just over 200lbs! (Don’t worry I did get some apples for other people and most are windfalls for making juice.) So I have an abundance of apples around the house. I also tried a couple of new varieties this year and wanted to see how they held up in baking before I started the mass pie production. This cake seemed like the perfect opportunity to try out the new baking apples - that and it was my husband’s birthday, so I was in need of a cake.

I found the original recipe on all recipes.com, but modified it a bit to suit my tastes (well hubby’s tastes and my aversion to 1.5 cups of oil in one recipe). Below is what I came up with and it was a delicious fall cake, even without the topping. I may make it again adding cinnamon to the batter and leaving off the topping.

Ingredients
CAKE:
3 eggs
1 cups sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 cup apple sauce
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 cups chopped, peeled apples

TOPPING:
1/4 cup butter or margarine
2 tbsp milk
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
Pinch salt


Directions

1. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs until foamy; gradually add sugar. Blend in oil and vanilla.
2.Combine flour, salt and baking soda; add to egg mixture.
3.Stir in apples and pecans.
4.Pour into a greased bunt pan.
5.Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the cake tests done (toothpick comes out clean).
6.Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove cake to a serving platter.
7. For topping, combine all ingredients in a saucepan; boil 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Slowly pour over warm cake (some topping will run down onto the serving plate.)

Reviews:
My husband liked this cake and didn't mind having an apple birthday cake rather than the traditional birthday cake. The leftovers were fed to my coworkers and received rave reviews. Everyone really enjoyed the cake, and it was still nice and moist a couple days later.

Weekend update

So this weekend my family and I dealt with nearly 300lbs of fruit, crazy right? There were five of us on Saturday working on the fruit. The count for the weekend was:
17 cups pear jam
16 cups peach jam
7 pints of apple sauce
30lbs of apples became apple chips
28 quarts of pressed apple juice
1 apple caramel pie
1 batch peach ice cream
1 batch caramel apple pie
15 lbs of peaches sliced and frozen
6 pie crusts

Oh, and my brother and Dad made 25lbs of pepperoni sausage for pizzas! I am so excited to eat that this week.

Earlier in the week my mother had made 28 pints of canned pears as well.

It was a busy weekend for everyone, but we managed to get most of the fruit done. There is a few more pears to get canned (Mom wanted to try a recipe of ginger pears), a few peaches for a pie, apples for pies, and about 15lbs more apples to be dried.

I am working on getting some yummy fruit recipes up, so keep looking - hopefully I will get one or two tonight!

An Update

First let me say I am very sorry for the pathetic little that has been posted in recent months. I am still around, and still trying to get updates done - I have a camera full of food pictures to prove it! Sadly life seems to have gotten in the way, I barely have time to cook these days let along write about it. What has been keeping me so busy you ask?

Well it has been a number of things - new job, surprise trip to BC to visit the inlaws and this quilting hobby that has taken over all sembalance of free time! Oh, not to mention that I have had fruit coming in droves to deal with over the last couple of months. To date I have dealt with 80 + lbs of peaches, 10 lbs of cherries, 10 lbs of raspberries and 10 lbs of blueberries. Now it is apple and pear season. The latest batch has just arrived - more on that later - so it has been keeping me busy, and hopefully I will have a few new recipes to post from that!

Just to say that I did finally put up a post - here are some of the quilts that I have finished this summer:



Monkey Time - This is filled with a wool blanket for batting and will be keeping me warm at my husband’s hockey games this winter! I loved the sock monkeys on the fabric so much I had to make myself a sock monkey to go with it.



These are doll quilts that I have made for my cousin’s for Christmas. They are done this early as I have to mail them in a couple weeks so they will actually arrive by Christmas (Darn that overseas mailing!).

Here are a couple more that I am working on for various friends and family members. These should also be done before Christmas (what did I get myself into?)





I have a couple of recipe posts I am working on, so hopefully those will be up in the next few days!

Chocolate Cupcakes, White Chocolate Icing

The chocolate cupcakes

For the wedding I decided to do a twist on the chocolate cupcake – a chocolate cupcake with a white chocolate icing (who doesn’t love chocolate on more chocolate). For the cupcakes I used a one bowl chocolate cupcake recipe from iheartcuppycakes. I adapted the recipe for the icing from Cupcakes take the Cake

Chocolate Cupcakes:

Ingredients:
1 ½ cup flour
¾ cup cocoa powder
1 ½ cup sugar
1 ½ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
¾ cup milk
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 ½ tsp oil
¾ cup warm water

Directions:
1.Preheat the oven to 350F and prepare your cupcake pan (this recipe doesn’t take long to put together).
2.On medium speed of an electric mixture (or by hand) combine flour, cocoa, sugar baking soda, baking powder in a bowl.
3.Reduce the speed and add in the eggs, milk, oil, vanilla and water. Mix until combined.
4.Fill cupcake liners ½ to 2/3 full (I put about ¼ cup cup of batter, not scraping out what sticks in the cup) into a large cupcake liner and this works well.
5.Bake 17-20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
6.Let cool on a wire rack before icing.

White Chocolate Frosting:

Ingredients:
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
5 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
4 - 5 ounces white chocolate, melted and cooled to tepid
1/3 cup milk, heated to tepid
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions:
1.In a bowl beat the butter for 1 -2 minutes (works best with the paddle attachment of an electric stand mixer on medium speed).
2.Beat in 1 1/3 cup sugar.
3.Mix in the melted chocolate.
4.Blend in 1 1/3 cup of sugar and the milk.
5.Beat for 2 minutes on medium high speed.
6.Beat in the vanilla and 1 1/3 cup of sugar.
7.Beat for 2 minutes and check the consistency – if it is not thick enough (mine was not) add the remaining icing sugar ¼ cup at a time until it reaches the desired consistency.
8.Frost cupcakes.

Reviews:

These cupcakes were delicious and were a big hit at the wedding (especially with the kids!)

I used the leftover icing to fill some chocolate oreo cookies and they were fantastic!

Cupcakes and a Wedding

So the last few weeks I have been busy making cupcakes, testing icings to see how they stand up to the heat without losing it's shape (or melting all together). Why all the testing and baking? Well in a moment of insanity I offered to bake the cupcakes for my friends wedding. Why on earth did I think that was a good I deal, well I guess I will never know. But I ended up making about 100 cupcakes, icing them, transporting them 1.5 hours to the wedding, and setting them up before driving another 20 minutes to try and make the ceremony in time! Thankfully I got there in time, the icing didn't melt and nothing was destroyed in transport.



I ended up making a chocolate cupcake with a white chocolate icing and a vanilla bean cupcake with a strawberry buttercream icing. They were pretty, and held up well. Everyone seemed to enjoy them.



So I hope you enjoy the pictures and I will hopefully get the recipes up soon!