Chocolate Chip Almond Coconut Bread

Remember how I told you to make this? Did you? Did you try any of the alterations I mentioned? Oh well, here. I've written out the recipe for one of them for you. NOW you can try it. It's probably the best quick bread I've ever eaten in its original form. But the addition of chocolate chips and toasted almonds makes it a little decadent. And there's just nothing wrong with that.

Chocolate Chip Almond Coconut Bread *click here for printable version*

adapted from smitten kitchen’s Coconut Bread

Ingredients:

2 large eggs

1-¼ cups milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

2-½ cups all-purpose flour

¼ tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1 cup granulated sugar

1-½ cups sweetened flaked coconut

½ cup semisweet chocolate chips

½ cup chopped, toasted almonds

6 Tbls unsalted butter, melted (and browned if you prefer)

Nonstick cooking spray or butter for baking pan

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, salt, and baking powder. Add sugar, coconut, chocolate chips, and almonds and stir to combine. Make a well in the center and pour in the liquid mixture. Stir until just combined. Add melted butter, stirring until smooth. Do not overmix.

Spray (or butter and flour) a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. Spread batter in pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 60-75 minutes. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

My favorite way to eat it? Toasted in the toaster oven with a little butter spread over it. But just sliced up and popped in your mouth is pretty amazing as well.

TGIP Rating--Chocolate Chip Almond Coconut Bread--KEEPER. More alterations on the original to come.

Next up: I've not used coconut oil in my baking at all yet. I'm giving it a try with these. I guess I'm on a bit of a coconut kick. Maybe I'm just longing to be someplace warm and wild.

TGIP Field Trip: Eva's Bakery & Christiansen's Family Farm

Took a visit to a lovely new bakery in downtown Salt Lake, Eva's Bakery. So many delicious breads and pastries, I'll have to make a return visit to give some things a first try, and, of course, to pick up a second round of some new favorites. In this picture from lower left clockwise to lower right: chocolate nib cookie, coconut macaroon, apple half-pocket, pistachio snail, mountain loaf, Italian brioche, beehive brioche, kouing aman (both peeking out from under the Italian brioche), chicken pesto pizza. All of their pastry was lovely. Their dough in general is tender and flaky and easily takes to different applications.

 

Things I especially loved:

• the pistachio snail--has dark chocolate nibs in such a delicious combination with the pistachios.
• the Italian brioche--has a raspberry filling that is perfect, not too sweet, no gooey texture, you know, as if it's made from ACTUAL raspberries, which I'm sure it is.
• the beehive brioche--a brilliant combination of crunchy almonds, fleur de sel, and honey with a really beautiful, tender brioche dough.
• the mountain loaf--a blend of flours, including rye and whole wheat with sunflower seeds (I think) and tart dried cherries. Yeah, the cherries were what got me, but even my cherry-hating mr. liked this bread. It's just a really balanced combination of flavors and textures. Hearty breakfast-y goodness.

Unfortunately for Eva's, we have Les Madeleines here in town, where we all learned about Kouing Aman. Eva's suffers in the comparison on this one count. But next time I visit I'm buying every kind of bread I can get my hands on, as that appears to be their specialty.

A while back I saw an article in the newspaper about a local family farm that was starting to offer lard. Jumped, is what I did. Because the last time I obtained leaf lard it was about $30 for 5 pounds, and even more for shipping (I think it was coming from Wisconsin, and had to be sent overnight in special dry-ice packaging). Oy. Not to mention the fact that I'm trying to do what I can to buy local. I really am trying. And these people have made it easy for me. I can order online, and then pick it up from one of several stops they make throughout the valley on Saturday mornings. Where, as it turns out, there are scores of other people sitting in their cars (like junkies) waiting for the truck (their dealer). It's a funny thing to witness. Their lard is a combination of leaf and back fat and comes from their super-happy pigs that are petted by the family's children. No, for real. Go look at their website. Of course, not all the junkies were waiting in the parking lot for lard. The family raises pigs, cows, and chickens. And maybe I need a deep freeze in my garage so I can order well-handled meat from them, with knowledge of the source and their practices...

And after a first attempt at using this lard, I am thrilled to report that it is perfect. Perfect texture, dough is elastic and easy to handle. Perfect taste, adds that tiny bit of saltiness that I like for my lard to bring to the pastry party. And it bakes up beautifully as you can see above.

TGIP Rating--Eva's--KEEPER. They also have a seating area and a beautiful espresso machine. One of these mornings you'll find me there enjoying a croissant and a real cappuccino.
--Christiansen's Family Farm--KEEPER. Thank goodness people like this exist. In my general neighborhood. Maybe I'll make them a pie just for being awesome.

Next up: I have to take a few weeks off baking. I know. Trust me, it hurts me more than it hurts you. But sometimes the theatre is a brutal taskmaster. When I'm back at it, I think I'm going to do cupcakes. Probably using some elements of this.

Coconut Bread

  

I have nothing to say about this. Recipe is perfect. Easy. Delicious. Moist. Flavorful. Go make it.

This is a picture of the bowl I almost stuck my head in to get to all the batter. 

 

This is a picture of the most beautiful loaves of sweet bread in all of space and time.

TGIP Rating--Coconut Bread--KEEPER. Okay, maybe I do have one thing to say: Additions to consider: toasted, chopped almonds; chocolate chips; lime zest (not all at once).

Next up: Aunt Sassy Cake from Baked: Explorations. I've been wanting to make it forever, and it just happens to be on the Baked Sunday Mornings schedule for this weekend. I might make cupcakes instead of a full-size cake. I love a real CAKE cake as much as the next person, but sometimes I need to take treats to other people and cupcakes are easier to transport. Forgive the blasphemy, BAKED boys.

Salted Whiskey Caramels and "Irish" Bread

They look promising, right? Well. Okay. *heavy sigh* I give up. I vow to never make candy again. It will save me the frustration and you the boredom of having to read about it.*another heavy sigh* I'll just say a couple of things about these caramels (just in case you are a braver man than I am, Gunga Din):

• It is not easy to get parchment paper to stay in any form other than flat. I resorted to duct tape. Even that didn't really work.

• These were delicious for about 5 minutes. I think I could have cooked the sugar portion longer to make them darker and they would have been even better. THEN, for reasons I can neither explain nor understand, the sugars re-crystallized. I've never heard of such a thing. But it happened. See?

In fact, more crystallization the longer they sat. It's a thing that could only happen to me, I'm confident. Candy-making is for greater bakers/confectioners than I. A true candy-maker would not have to spend SO MUCH TIME with a thermometer that refused to move.

A true candy-maker would also know how to wrap their candies when finished. 

BUT, I did have success with something else last weekend. What you see below is mr.'s Irish Nana's recipe for Soda Bread (she calls it "Irish Bread"), in her own handwriting. His mother (Nana's youngest, also Lucy) passed away last August and when we were going through papers and photographs at her apartment (like you do) we found this. I knew I had to make it for St. Patrick's Day this year--last March she came to visit and it was the last time we all got to spend with her.

So. Delicious. Simple. Perfect. A little sweet, crispy crust, tender crumb.

 

This recipe will be framed and hung on my kitchen wall. And I will make it every year for St. Patrick's Day with a grateful nod to both of the Lucys who made my husband the man he is.

TGIP Rating--Salted Whiskey Caramels--EPIC FAIL. Never again. No candy. Ever.
--Lucy's Donahue's Irish Bread--KEEPER. Forever.

Next up: Ran across this and it seemed like the perfect way to usher in Spring. Whole Lemon Tart.

Honey Banana Poppy Seed Bread

Banana bread is a "treat" at our house, also known as a "special breakfast" which normally only happens on the weekends. Is it a sign of our deprivation or our down-to-earthiness that something so simple is prized? Of course we often add chocolate chips. And some of us toast our slices and add butter. Or whipped cream cheese. Hence the treatiness.

Anyway, we've been working with the same Fannie Farmer Banana Bread recipe for a while. mr. even uses it, and he doesn't bake much. It's so reliable and easy, that I've been hesitant to try anything new (haven't even tried this one yet, as tempting as it is). But, you know, I have a thing for those Baked boys, so I had to try their recipe (plus, *whisper* I just happened to have all of the ingredients in my pantry).

My impressions: I liked it. We all liked it. It's equally as easy as our Fannie Farmer standby, but has a slightly different flavor. I like the honey.

(Although it can be complicated to stir honey into a recipe, it likes to stick to itself. Obvs.) I like the poppy seed.

I like what they bring to the party individually and together. What I'm not so sure about is the texture. And the baking time. I had to bake mine almost 15 extra minutes to get to a point where I wasn't seeing batter on the tester. And that might have affected the texture. I like my banana bread a little crispy on the outside (I usually bake it the night before and leave it out overnight instead of putting it in plastic, so the outside can have that almost-stale crisp to it). This looked promising,

but the outside ended up almost chewy. Which I didn't love.

My theory: I used frozen, thawed bananas. And you know, bananas don't freeze super well. They have a lot of liquid. I think, even after I strained that off there was still too much liquid for the recipe to handle.

My solution: I think I have no choice but to bake another loaf. With better bananas. And update this next week. Because, I know those Baked boys like a tender bread as much as I do.

TGIP Rating--Honey Banana Poppy Seed Bread--taste is a KEEPER. I need another crack at it before I can decide whether the texture gets my vote.

3/7/13 Update: Made it again last night with fresh (but ripe) bananas. Lesson learned. Cooking time was spot on and the bread was much more tender. This is definitely a KEEPER. The honey flavor=so so good.

Next up: Malted Milk Sandwich Cookies from Baked Explorations. Another Baked Sunday Mornings project.

Emeril's King Cake

Mardi Gras is next Tuesday, February 12th. If you don't live in New Orleans and if you're not Catholic, this probably isn't a big deal to you. It never has been to me, and, truthfully, until a couple of years ago, I didn't really know what it was all about. Now I do. I also now know it's sometimes called Shrove Tuesday. And Pancake Tuesday. Which, maybe should be every Tuesday.

It's an interesting thing, making a version of something that you've never seen or tasted. But I wanted to try more holiday/ritual-specific and traditional baked goods this year, so. I used one of Emeril's recipes (there are multiple). The reviews were pretty fair and it seemed to have all of the components that my expert friends suggested an "authentic" King Cake should have (oh, incidentally, here is information about King Cake and what it has to do with Mardi Gras). And it was not difficult at all. Of course, yeast breads always take some time, but over the course of an evening, it's not bad.

I love working with sweet bread dough. It's so beautiful and the smell is so homey.

 

I don't have large empty coffee cans or shortening cans sitting around my house, so I used a large bowl to mold the center of the ring.

Which was HUGE. Much larger than I expected. And then the bowl was hard to remove. But, that was probably the hardest part of this project.

And look how pretty! Such a gorgeous, golden brown. And the lemon zest and nutmeg made for amazing smells while it was baking.

 

There were user comments on the recipe about the filling not being sufficient, but for me this was perfect. If I had doubled it, I think it might have been too rich and too sweet. I also decided to make the glaze a little thin, so it was just a glue for the colored sugars, rather than being a thick sweet icing on top of what is already a little sweet. The bread itself has a delicious flavor, I love the lemon zest, but the texture wasn't what I hoped for. It was a little dense, not as tender as I think it should have been. I might have kneaded it just a little too long.

Next year, I think I'll halve the recipe entirely and make a smaller cake. It's bigger than any of my serving dishes, so it's just sitting on parchment paper on my counter. Mmm...not attractive.

P.S. Plastic babies are not super easy to find. Check the baby shower section of your local party store.

TGIP Rating--King Cake--A surprisingly yummy treat. More of a breakfast pastry than a cake, if you ask me. But, there's NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT.

Next up: Lacy Panty Cakes. I KNOW. What could be wrong with a recipe with that name?! Nothing. The recipe is from Baked Elements and is next week's project on Baked Sunday Mornings, which I haven't participated in for ages. I'm making them for Pancake Tuesday.

Doughnut Bread Pudding

No, I still can't give you the recipe because it still belongs to this guy (and I don't want him to look at me like this):

BUT, I will say this: you know that favorite bread pudding recipe you have? The one that was handed down from your Great Aunt Mabel? Make it exactly like you do with bread, except use leftover doughnuts. And maybe waffles just for some texture variety. What's that? You've never heard of "leftover" doughnuts? You don't make doughnuts at home? Fine. Use these (or something like them) (and also, stale) (I used about 14-15 oz for an 8x8 pan):

And here's some bonus advice from him ^ as you're making your egg/milk mixture--you should be able to smell the egg and vanilla, but just barely smell the sugar. Wise.

Then, maybe, for a change, sprinkle some turbinado sugar on top instead of brown sugar (doesn't it look fuzzy and cozy?):

And, you know, bake it. Like you do. And you can top it with whatever sauce you like. Something rummy? Sure! Or something like this:

You do have a Trader Joe's in your neighborhood, right? Good. I thought you did.

Next up: I wanted to make these Cherry Chocolate Truffles with Coconut for Christmas, but got too lazy. Not baking, in the strictest sense of the word, but still. I've never made truffles and want to give them a try.

2012 Year in Review

I think I did substantially less baking in 2012 than I have in recent years past. Some incredible successes and some astounding failures.  Here are my favorites of the year:

Coconut Cream Pie (regular) and Chocolate

Puffy Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies

Margarita Cupcakes

Grasshopper Bars

Ciabatta

Bacon-Bourbon Brownies with Pecans

Chocolate French Macarons

Buttermilk Pie

Lemon Drop Cupcakes

 Layered Pumpkin Pie Toffee Cheesecake

Coming in 2013: I'm not going to get specific here. Seems like when I do, the specific thing I mention is the ONE thing I don't get around to over the course of the year. So, I'll just say this: lots of good stuff, including maybe some modern reworkings of very old-world traditional holiday baked goods. I will also reiterate my annual plea: FRIENDS and FAMILY WHO LIVE NEARBY come over and eat things! They may not always be good, they may be on their way to something better, but come be my guinea pigs!

First up: Mister did his usual homemade doughnuts for Christmas morning this year. Lots of leftovers, which we popped in the freezer...to be used in bread pudding...along with some leftover waffles. 

Challah and Cheesecake--anything but the usual

Sometimes weeks go by when I don't bake at all. And my stress comes to a big, ugly head. And I have to spend a whole day doing the things that refresh and revitalize: haircut/color, pedicure, wine, time with my best girlfriend, and baking. Yeah, I'm not one of those people that gets stressed out by baking, just the opposite. And I needed it so much that I did double-duty: Fig, Olive Oil and Sea Salt Challah from smitten kitchen and Layered Pumpkin Pie Toffee Cheesecake from Our Best Bites (which I don't visit much, my Min found that recipe, and I'm so glad!).

Now, there's only one thing you need to know about these two recipes: I baked BOTH of them (with help) between 7 pm and 1 am, in someone else's kitchen (with a mixer that needed...nudging), WHILE DRINKING WINE. Lots of it. I deserve my own youtube channel--Drunkbaking with Spiker. It would be mildly entertaining to most people, and wildly embarrassing to The Pie Queen. Anyway, if I can do both of them in that state, you can do one of them while sober. Easy peasy.

Okay, so my challah braid didn't end up as perfect as it should have, but doesn't it look delicious anyway?

And it tasted delicious too. We made french toast out of it in the morning and I loved it. Unfortunately, I'll probably never bake it again, but only because nobody in my family loves figs like I do. At least not in baked goods.

And this. This will be on the menu wherever I land for Thanksgiving this year.

Ridiculously easy. And look at those perfect layers! I especially liked the fact that the pumpkin pie filling on top meant there was no worry about cracking cheesecake. The recipe calls for a 9- or 10-inch springform. We used a 10-inch one and the given cooking time was perfect. Delicious blend of toffee and pumpkin.

Bonus: both recipes are perfect for Autumn. Spicy, rich, complimented with lots of butter and cream. Mmmm.


TGIP Rating--Fig, Olive Oil, and Sea Salt Challah--KEEPER. But I won't be baking it again. My waistline can't afford to bake things unless my family will eat them. But YOU can make it!
--Layered Pumpkin Pie Toffee Cheesecake--KEEPER. Easy and delicious. All the right things.

Next up: Caramel Coconut Cluster Bars. For real.

Midweek Surprise: Cherry Chocolate Focaccia

My PLAN had been to NOT cook last weekend. Give myself an opportunity to do something else (clean, nap, get my hair done). But then I ran across this recipe. And there was no turning back. Another recipe containing all the things I love.

Perfect for Sunday breakfast. I whipped it together Saturday night (not difficult), left it on the counter overnight and it was ready for us to eat as soon as we rolled out of bed.

Yum.


TGIP Rating--Cherry Chocolate Focaccia--KEEPER.