Coconut Macaroons with Chocolate

March 12, 2012 / pumpkinhoney / 11 Comments

I made a recipe on my To-Make List!!! And boy oh boy was it fantabulous. Pre‘s Raw Macaroons are divine. And the ingredient list is too. These vegan, raw coconut macaroons are like a sophisticated, grown-up Mounds candy bar except so much better & much healthier. I followed Pre’s recipe almost to a T (well I halved it to a T), using slightly more coconut oil & semi-sweet (still vegan) chocolate. Seriously, they were even better than I imagined. They melt in your mouth. Oh, and I also bought dried nettle leaves to make tea after a recommendation on her blog. I think I might love her.

I used organic, unsweetened, unsulfured, shredded coconut. Shredded coconut is much smaller than the longer pieces that you usually see when you buy sweetened coconut & they’re crisper because they’re drier. Sweetened coconut is usually coated in corn syrup, which makes it sweeter, moister, plumper and ultimately less healthy. Combined with coconut oil & maple syrup, the crispy unsweetened flakes are the way to go.

I also used organic extra virgin coconut oil, which can be quite expensive! According to www.live-the-organic-life.com virgin & extra virgin coconut oil are pretty much the same thing, with no industry standard processing. However, virgin coconut oil (VCO) is much different from refined coconut oil (RBD). According to the website, refined coconut oil is of a lower quality, undergoes greater processing, and will clog the pores if used for external use (ie moisturizer). RBD stands for refined, bleached, and deodorized so the oil also loses much of its smell (which I supposed could be handy if you don’t want everything you make to taste like coconut). I think I’ll still choose virgin. Virgin coconut is physically extracted with no chemical processing and the oil remains unrefined in a more natural form. It smells wonderfully delicious.

Pre’s recipe can be found here. I highly recommend it!

I obviously haven’t mastered chocolate drizzling. And mine kind of look like chocolate covered bananas! Lol. I bet they’d be delicious with almonds, hazelnuts, or more chocolate hidden inside. Maybe some kind of raspberry filling? Oh, they’re perfect the way they are too. Enjoy!

Lemon Coconut Cake

February 27, 2012February 28, 2012 / pumpkinhoney / 14 Comments

My mom LOVES lemon, much like she loves ginger. So every year when I ask what kind of birthday cake she’d like she requests something lemon. And what goes better with lemon cake than coconut? I did some serious searching for vegan lemon coconut cakes and I really didn’t find much. The best, simplest (and probably tastiest!) recipe I found came from Epicurean Vegan (thankyou!). She has some seriously incredible looking recipes… this was the first I tried. It was so simple and it looked so beautiful I was like “damn, I’m gonna make that cake.” And I did! I did make some tweaks because of the ingredients I had. I had a whole can of cream of coconut, you know… the kind you use to make Pina Coladas. And I had sweetened shredded coconut I couldn’t not use. And I bought some beautiful organic lemons from Fresh Market.

The original recipe is for a bundt cake and I do have a bundt cake pan but I’ve never used it… it reminds me of the Sydney Opera House to be honest. Not that there’s anything wrong with that… I’ve just never had the urge to make a bundt cake. It was a gift from my dad (thanks dad, I’ll use it one day!).

Anyway, I wanted to make a more traditional birthday cake so I broke it down into two layers and totally winged it with the frosting. I made sure coconut oil icing had been done before & then I did my thing. The measurements for the icing are estimates as I really just eyeballed my ingredients as I threw them in. I knew it was a winner when dad came home, tried it without my approval, and said “oh man, that’s delicious!” Even though he’s had INCREDIBLE vegan desserts from Vegan Treats in Bethlehem, PA & vegan doughnuts in Las Vegas he still does that “but it’s vegan?” (and makes a face) thing.

Anyway, the major point here is that the cake was delicious and every person who ate it Saturday night agreed. These cake-eaters were all non-vegans by the way (besides Stephen). It was moist, it was coconuty & lemony, the frosting was fluffy. It was pretty damn good if I do say so myself. Dad & Stephen both had seconds. As only my second attempt at a vegan cake thus far, I couldn’t have hope for better and it’ll definitely be hard to top.

For mam’s birthday we enjoyed dinner & drinks at one of our favorite restaurants EVER… Old Stein Inn. Dear Old Stein Inn, I love you. Thank you for your incredible fried pickles & potato pancakes (with applesauce) & red cabbage & franziskaner hefeweisen on tap. I shall take pictures of all that you have to offer one of these days to show the people of blogosphere world. Until then, enjoy my lemon coconut cake. NOM.

Lemon Coconut Cake

Adapted from Epicurean Vegan
Makes a 2 layer cake using 9inch rounds.

1-1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
1/3 C Canola/Veg Oil
1/3 Cup Coconut Oil (melted)
1 1/2 Cups Coconut Milk
1/4 Cup Cream of Coconut
1/4 Cup Soy Milk
1/4 Cup Lemon Juice
2 Tbsp Lemon Zest
2 Tsp Vanilla
3 Cups Flour (I actually used 2 cups AP, 1 Cup + 2Tbsp Cake)
2 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Tsp Baking Soda
1 Tsp Salt
1 Cup Shredded Unsweetened Coconut
1/2 Cup Shredded Sweetened Coconut

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease two 9″ round cake pans. Dust with flour and tap off any excess.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the granulated sugar, canola/veg oil, melted coconut oil, coconut milk, cream of coconut, soy milk, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla. Stir to combine.

Sift the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the wet ingredients. Stir well to combine, tiny lumps are okay but you want to mix thoroughly. Add the shredded coconut and stir one last time to combine!

Distribute batter evenly amongst the two pans. Bake for about 30 minutes. Keep an eye out, the cake is done when it springs back when lightly poked.

Slide a knife around the edges of the pan to make sure it’s loose. Flip onto cooling rack & let sit.

Lemon Glaze

3/4 Cup Granulated Sugar
1/4 Cup (or 2 lemons) Lemon Juice

Combine granulated sugar & lemon juice in small saucepan over medium/low heat and stir until sugar is dissolved. Take off heat & let cool slightly. When cake is no longer hot (but still warm) gently poke several times with a fork. Make sure to poke the sides of the cake that will be facing upward. Lather glaze onto cake. It should soak up in front of your eyes (much like tres leches cake).

Coconut Icing:

1/4 Cup Coconut Oil
1/4 Cup Vegetable Shortening
1 Box + 1/4 Box Confectioner’s Sugar (this is how I remember dumping it into the bowl, for everyone normal out there… about 2 1/2 cups)
2 Tsp Vanilla
1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
2 Tbsp Cream of Coconut
1/4 Cup Coconut Milk

Beat coconut oil (not melted) and vegetable shortening until soft & fluffy. Alternate between adding powdered sugar & liquids until your icing is creamy & fluffy. This may require slightly more coconut milk. Wait until cake is completely cooled before frosting! You don’t want your icing to melt!

I probably should have made two. It was really divine.

Gingerbread (Cake)

November 27, 2011 / pumpkinhoney / Leave a comment

Some people love ginger. Seriously love ginger. I would say my mother is one of those people. I REALLY like ginger. I like fresh ginger with my sushi, ginger crackers, ginger carrot soup, and ginger ale… but i’m not going to nom on some candied ginger anytime soon.

But I really LOVE gingerbread. Dense, moist, chewy, heavy, delicious gingerbread. Cake-like, full of flavor, full of molasses gingerbread. Whole Foods makes a gingerbread like this my dad used to bring home all the time. Mom would eat it with lemon curd. I’d microwave mine for 15 seconds and eat it warm. Now I have a recipe to make even better gingerbread. And it is so. damn. good.

It’s a perfect winter dessert. The cinnamon, ginger, black pepper and molasses give you this warm feeling inside that’s perfect against the cold weather. And the baking gingerbread makes your house smell like Christmas.

GINGERBREAD

Originally from Cook’s Illustrated

3/4 Cup Stout
1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
2/3 Cup Molasses
3/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1/4 Cup White Sugar
2 Large Eggs
1/3 Cup Vegetable Oil
1 Tbsp Finely Minced Ginger
1 1/2 Cups AP Flour
1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Salt
1/4 Tsp Cinnamon
2 Tbsp Ground Ginger
1/4 Tsp Fresh Ground Black Pepper (optional)

To make gingerbread, preheat oven to 350 Degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour a 9in square baking dish.

Heat the stout over medium/high heat in a medium-to-large pot, until boiling. Add the baking soda & stir. The stout will foam up in the pot. Turn off the heat & remove pot from burner.

When foaming subsists add the sugar & molasses and stir until dissolved. Using a whisk is really the best way to go. Scramble the eggs in a separate bowl. When the mixture is no longer hot, add the eggs, oil, and fresh ginger. If the mixture is too hot, the eggs will begin to cook. Ew, you don’t want that to happen. So be patient.

Add the rest of the ingredients… aka all the dry stuff… the flour, the cinnamon, the dry ginger, the black pepper, the salt, the baking powder. Stir with a wooden spoon to combine. How easy is that?

Pour batter into prepared baking dish (I doubled the batch to make more than enough gingerbread for thanksgiving!). Bake in center of oven at 350 for 35 to 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool & enjoy with some lemon curd, whipped cream, creme anglaise, milk, whatever tickles your fancy.

For the most part my relatives loved & raved about this gingerbread. Some were not so keen… my little cousin Ava adorably called it “too spicy.” But if you like ginger & love dense moist desserts, you will loooooove it. Omg, I need to go get a piece now. Ciao!!