Simply delicious!

I have been craving these for a while. Love coconut, and love these soft, chewy, chocolaty coconut macaroons! Hope all you moms out there had a wonderful Mother's Day!

Coconut Macaroons
(adapted from Family Circle Dec/’07 issue)

3 cups shredded coconut
1 ½ Tbsp corn starch
3/4cup sugar
3 egg whites
½ Tsp vanilla extract
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, broken up


Preheat oven to 350F. Mix all ingredients (except chocolate)in a heat-proof bowl. Set the bowl over a pot of boiling water, and heat, stirring until it thickens, about4 minutes. Remove, set aside.

Spoon out macaroons, about a scant tablespoonful each, anyplace an ungreased baking sheet.
Bake for about 10-15minutes, or until lightly golden, but still soft &chewy. Cool on a wire rack.

Melt chocolate in a small microwave safe bowl for 1 minute on high power. Stir to make it smooth, and then dip bottoms of macaroons into chocolate, and place them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and let set in the refrigerator. Enjoy!

Silly Tag! :)

I got tagged with this silly meme by Chriesi of Almond Corner.
Here is how it goes, and it is desired to keep the foodie theme :

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

OK, in my case the page 123 is a photo page, in my “The Ultimate Book of BAKING”, by Martha Day.
That is the book that happen to be the closest since I just used a recipe from that book in my cake base for the Apple Pudding Cake.
So I guess it is reasonable to read from the page 122, and here is goes:


“Roll out about ½ inch thick. Stamp out 2-inch circles with a cookie cutter. Place on the prepared tray, and bake until golden, 12-15 minutes.”
With this photo, you have the whole recipe :)
I am tagging following awesome food bloggers:
1. Marija from Palachinka!
2. TM Girl, from Taste Memory!
3. HoneB from The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch!
4.Kevin from Closet Cooking!
5. My Sweet and Saucy from My Sweet And Saucy! : )

Citrus Love!

This month Tartlette is hosting Sugar High Friday #43, which is a monthly event created by Jennifer of The Domestic Goddess.Tartlette chose citrus theme, which is sure to produce yummy posts!!!

Just like Tartelette has mentioned, citrus, after chocolate, is her favorite flavor---well, I am sure it is for many people. I find myself always squeezing that lemon/orange juice over my cakes, regardless the recipe. It adds magic!

I chose this roll because it is my favorite roll/cake when it comes to taste (thanks to orange juice), and I love that it is simple to make. The first delicacy I thought of when thought about participating for this event was this roll, because of the aroma that orange gives it, with chocolate butter cream, it’s a winner!

You can dress it up many different ways, use it for other cake creations, and so on. I make it often; my husband loves it, his mom used to make it a lot (what a way to score points with my hubby, ha? Hahaha!)

Orange Infused Chocolate Buttercream Roll

For the jelly roll:
(this recipe can also be found here)

6 eggs

6 Tbsp of AP flour

6 Tbsp of sugar

½ Tsp of baking powder

Mix the egg whites with sugar until stiff, then add the yolks, one by one, then flour mixed with baking power. Bake in a jelly roll pan lined with parchment paper, @ 385 F until lightly golden (not too long). Transfer onto damp kitchen towel, along with the parchment paper, and roll it up.

Chocolate butter cream:

(I use this one in many cakes, love it! Like Dobos Torte)

4 eggs

5 oz granulated sugar

3 ½ oz bakers chocolate

1 ½ stick (12 Tbsp) unsalted butter

Mix eggs and sugar until frothy, then cook in a double boiler , stirring constantly until it starts to thicken. Then add chocolate, and mix it in. Transfer to a mixing bowl, and let it cool down, later put it in the fridge. When completely add butter cut up into pieces, and mix well with a mixer, until you get a silky textured butter cream.

Unroll the roll, sprinkle generously with freshly squeezed juice of 2-3 oranges, or about 1 cup or orange juice. In the event you don’t have oranges, you can use orange flavored juice box. Roll it up, and decorate any way you like, and enjoy!

To contribute a little more, I have also made some fruit made out of almond meal/flour.
It is so easy, seriously. You feel like a kid while you are making them, and it’s so much fun!!!

Fast too, so if you want to ad flare to your creations quickly, here is your solution, and you can make all kinds of fruit. I have learned a technique from a lovely cook from Canada, goes by name Cipelica, and she post on a Croatian cooking website (Coolinarika).

Fruit

125 g (4.41 oz)almond flour/meal
125 sugar (4.41 oz)
50 ml (1.69 fl. oz.) water (Updated, not 100ml, it's 50ml)
½ Tsp of margarine

Food colors (yellow, red, green)

(this is how much I have used this time, you can increase accordingly, if you need more)

Boil water and sugar, then add almond flour, and mix well. Add margarine, and let it cool down. Divide into parts, and color each part any color you want by adding drops of food colors slowly.

Play with it, every time you will get better.
For citrus fruit, I have shaped it, and then poked the fruit with a toothpick to create more authentic look.
For more citrus cravings you might like Torta della Nonna!