Coconut – Long Distance Baking

If you are not watching The Great British Baking Show on PBS, you are missing out. Seriously, your life can’t possibly be complete. This show is hilarious, heart warming, tense, funny, educational and wonderful all wrapped in one! In fact, go stream the first …

To me, carrot cake is the epitome of spring time. It’s light and fresh after a winter of rich heavy foods. It reminds me of a bright sunny day, which is exactly what I want following all the rain we’ve been having. If you’ve watched …

I’m going to preface by saying that I have never had German Chocolate Cake so I can’t say how much these taste like an actual German Chocolate Cake but I can say they are delicious!

And super easy to make too!

It’s no secret how much I love coconut! And chocolate! So when my cousin sent me a link to make these for Thanksgiving a few weeks ago, it didn’t take much convincing.

The best part about these cookies was the chocolate cookie base. I could eat these chocolate cookies all day! Hope you enjoy!

-Kelly

This recipe is slightly adapted from A Dash of Sanity.

Ingredients:

for the cookies

2 sticks butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt

for the frosting

1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In mixer, mix together butter, sugars, vanilla and eggs.
In separate bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Gradually add to the butter mixture until dough forms.
Using a tablespoon, form dough into a ball and place on baking sheet 1 inch apart.
Bake for 10-12 minutes and let cool.
In saucepan, combine evaporated milk, sugar, egg yolks, butter and vanilla. Constantly stir over medium heat until it thickens. This takes about 11 minutes so be patient!
Remove from heat and stir in chocolate until melted.
Spread the topping over the cookies and enjoy!

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Coconut and chocolate- now that’s a winning combination right there!

I’ve had a hankering for coconut desserts lately. Ever since I made these Haystack Energy Bites (which I’ve made 3 times in the last month and plan on making another batch this weekend…), I have been craving all things coconut. Coconut macaroons seemed like the obvious choice to try and I found the perfect recipe to try!
Do you follow Dessert for Two? If not, you really should! I love her blog because she posts amazing, smaller scale desserts. Sometimes I want to make chocolate chip cookies but I don’t want to be tempted with a batch of 3 dozen lying around the house (because sadly they won’t last long and my pants will mysteriously fit tighter…) so her recipe for two servings is perfect! The same goes for her coconut macaroon recipe!
Guys, these did not disappoint! So easy and so tasty, I can’t believe I didn’t try them sooner! If you’re in need for a quick little sugar fix this evening, give these a try 🙂 Recipe can be found here.

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Confession: I have a huge sweet tooth (shocker, I know). Mostly for chocolate. I rarely ever crave candy or other sweets…but I think on a weekly basis I say something along the lines of “OMG I need chocolate!” While I have been known to bake brownies at midnight or eat a mug cake for two just for myself, I figured there had to be a better way to get my sweet tooth fix.

Last time I was at Trader Joes I discovered their Coconut Bon Bons. Biiiigggg mistake. I like to pretend if I buy something at Trader Joes that means it is healthy and good for you and I can eat as much as I want in one sitting…but I don’t think that’s necessarily true. Sadly…

The nice thing about these Bon Bons though (besides the flavor, of course) was that I surprisingly didn’t want that many in one sitting. They were perfect to keep in the fridge and just grab one (ok sometimes maybe two) to tide me over and cure that sweet tooth. Naturally, I decided I wanted to make something similar.

That’s when I remembered my roommate had made these chocolate coconut macaroon things a few years back. They were no bake, easy and delicious and had that small-portion-big-flavor trait I was looking for. I had to hunt down that recipe and found it comes from Tess the Domestic Diva and is a Hail Merry copy cat. I actually don’t know who/what Hail Merry is, but if they make treats like this? I already know I like them.

I added espresso powder because along with my sweet tooth I have a coffee addiction, and because nothing goes better together than chocolate and espresso. When you roll the balls out your hands may feel a little oily, but that’s just from the coconut oil. I promise it’s not soaking in grease. Once you let them harden in the refrigerator they will set up to a more solid consistency.

Now whenever your inner voice starts screaming about chocolate you can shut it up by giving it some of these 🙂

~Stephanie

Chocolate Espresso Macaroons (Adapted from Tessa the Domestic Diva)

2 c shredded coconut
4 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp espresso powder
2 tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt

Add all ingredients into food processor. Pulse until combined.
Roll out into teaspoon sized balls and place on parchment lined baking sheet.
Refrigerate or freeze until firm.
Store in airtight container in refrigerator or freezer.

I have taken a little 2 week hiatus from baking (sorry for slacking Steph!) so this weekend I decided to do nothing but bake! Well and sleep, read, workout, go to church, watch the Oscars, take two naps… ok so I didn’t spend the whole …