recipe Archives

Coconut Macaroons

December 23, 2015 by April Smith Leave a Comment

I’ve been in a baking mood lately and with Christmas just a couple days away I decided to bake cookies to bring home to my family in Virginia. Last night I made homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies that somehow turned into what may as well have been a gigantic cookie cake. (All of the curse words!) But tonight I set out to make Coconut Macaroons as I’ve been eating more gluten-free foods lately and also just know that they are straight up delicious. I used to HATE coconut when I was a child and my mother LOVED it. Whenever I had the chance, I turned down anything made with it but now I’m a grown-up (heh) and my tastebuds have matured. So if you think you hate coconut because you did when you were young, there’s a good chance that you may actually enjoy it now. For those who don’t mind these chewy, coconut-y treats, this is a delicious and incredibly easy recipe.

Ingredients:

14oz bag of sweetened shredded coconut
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
2 egg whites
1/4 tsp of salt
1/2 cup of semisweet chocolate (optional)

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl combine the coconut and condensed milk. (Use a sturdy wooden spoon for this. I tried using a rubber spatula and it broke!)

In a medium bowl combine the egg whites and salt. Beat this mixture with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. (About 3 minutes)

Once the egg whites have stiffened, fold them gently into the coconut and condensed milk mixture using a rubber spatula.

To create the macaroons, use two spoons to create heaping mounds and place them on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. (I used aluminum foil here because I did not have parchment paper. I sprayed the foil with cooking spray which helped to pry the macaroons off the foil. In hindsight, parchment paper would have been much easier.)

Place the macaroons about one inch apart on the cookie sheets. Once the macaroons are placed on the sheets, use your fingers to squish the macaroons so that there is no errant coconut pieces coming off of the macaroons. Any coconut pieces that stray from each mound will undoubtedly burn.

Place the cookie sheets on the middle racks of your oven and cook for about 15-20 minutes until each macaroon is golden brown on the top and a darker brown on the bottom.

Let the macaroons cool once taken out of the oven.

OPTIONAL: Once cooled, dip the bottom of each macaroon into melted chocolate to create Chocolate Coconut Macaroons! To melt the chocolate, place the chocolate into a microwave-safe bowl or ramekin and heat in 30-second intervals until completely melted. Stir the chocolate in between melting intervals. Once the chocolate is melted, dip the macaroons in the chocolate, bottom side down.

Place the dipped macaroons back onto the cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. Then place the cookie sheets in the fridge to cool and harden. Once the chocolate on the macaroons has hardened (about 20 minutes) they’re ready to be boxed up or eaten!

This is a great recipe for those who want to cut a bit of flour out of their diet as well as those who want an easy recipe that won’t take all night to bake. If you try it, let me know of your own tips or successes!

Peanut Butter Pretzel Chocolate Squares

August 14, 2014 by April Smith Leave a Comment

I love chocolate. I love peanut butter. Therefore, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are my most FAVORITE candy bar of all time. But only the eggs. Ridges are for losers. Anyway, when I saw this recipe from Trisha Yearwood featured on the Food Network I knew I had to make these bars right away. I don’t even know why I pay for 200+ TV channels. I’m thinking of calling my cable company to see if they have a package that includes Internet, Food Network, The Cooking Channel and CNN. Everything else is secondary in my book.

So back to the baking… I knew that these bars would be awesome because the recipe is just basically chocolate, peanut butter, sugar and pretzels but I was surprised at how sweet and rich they were. Think Peanut Butter Cups on crack. They’re super addictive! And you’ll also love them because they’re ridiculously easy to make. For Trisha’s original recipe click here.

What You’ll Need:
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) butter, melted
2 cups pretzel, crushed into crumbs (Tip: Leave some pretzel crumbs larger than others for an extra crunch in the bars.)
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup smooth peanut butter and 1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips

Directions:
In a bowl, add melted butter, pretzel crumbs, powdered sugar and 1 cup of the peanut butter. Stir together until well combined.

Pour the mixture evenly into the bottom of an ungreased 9-by-13-by-2-inch glass baking dish.

Combine the chocolate chips and the remaining 1/4 cup peanut butter in a bowl. Microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring in between, until the chocolate and peanut butter are melted and smooth; two intervals should be enough. (This should only take about a minute.)

Spread the peanut butter & chocolate mixture over the peanut butter-pretzel layer.

Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before cutting into squares.

Below is the finished product after refrigerating but before cuttting.

Tip: Use a very sharp knife to cut the bars as the refrigerated product is hard as a rock. Also, be sure to refrigerate long enough to prevent crumbling while cutting.

These bars will melt all over your fingers if you don’t eat them quickly enough… but I don’t think that will be a problem. It certainly wasn’t for me!

Cinnamon Apple Tart

June 27, 2013 by April Smith Leave a Comment

After having a late night sweet tooth and realizing I had extra puff pastry in my freezer, I decided to throw together this beautiful (and delicious) Cinnamon Apple Tart.

Firstly, anything tastes awesome with puff pastry. It’s flaky, light and sweet like croissant dough. I was at first intimidated by puff pastry but the stuff is actually pretty easy to work with once thawed so don’t be scurred of the puff pastry!

What You’ll Need:

1/2 package of Puff Pastry
One apple (I used Granny Smith as that’s what I had on hand)
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of salt

Preheat oven to 415 degrees.

Let one full sheet of Puff Pastry (2 come in a box) thaw until it is manageable and no longer frozen. Unfold the pastry until it is a flat sheet and place on a baking sheet. If the dough tears a bit, creating holes, smush the dough back together with your finger.

Core and cut your apple into small half slices as thinly as you can. These slices should be half moon shaped. Throw the apple slices in a mixing bowl with the brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. (Salt enhances the sweet flavors!) Toss the apples in this delicious mixture until the apples are evenly coated.

Then place each apple slice on the puff pastry starting from the bottom of the dough working your way up. Each apple slice below should be overlapped slightly by the apple slice above it. For this tart, I made 2 rows of apple slices but was still able to leave room around the edge of the pastry which made for even more crusty, flaky goodness. 🙂

Once the tart is almost completely covered by apple slices, cook the tart in the oven at 415 for 15-20 minutes. As stated in this recipe, the tart did ooze a little bit of the juices from the apples and brown sugar so it may help to place it on a slotted rack that would allow those juices to escape.

Once the pastry has “puffed”, you’ll know it’s done! Allow the pastry to cool on a plate and then sprinkle powdered sugar over the tart to make it nice and pretty like in the photo above. Voila! You now have a fancy-looking tart that is MUCH easier to make than it looks.

And take it from me, you will want to make this when there are other people around or you may just end up eating the entire thing by yourself. Or so I’ve heard…

Summer Strawberry Bruschetta

June 25, 2013 by April Smith Leave a Comment

This light, sweet and creamy side dish worked wonders at a Summer cookout I had a few weeks ago. Be sure to make enough to go around as it’s too good to leave any behind.

What you’ll need:

1 package goat cheese or mozzarella
1 large french bread loaf, white or wheat
3 tbsps olive oil
1/2 lb diced strawberries
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp basil paste
1/2 tsp sugar
salt and pepper to taste

In a small bowl mix together diced strawberries, balsamic vinegar, basil paste, sugar, salt and pepper. The mixture should be fairly wet. (TWSS) Let the mixture sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to let all of the delicious flavors do their thang.

Meanwhile, cut your french bread loaf in half lengthwise, then in small slices horizontally. These should make manageable bread slices great for toppings. Brush or spread olive oil on each slice of bread then place bread slices on the grill and grill on both sides until crispy. There is something to be said about beautiful grill marks!

After your bread is grilled, top with a healthy layer of goat cheese (or mozz as seen in the photo) and then top with a heaping spoonful of the strawberry bruschetta mixture. Listen to your taste buds rejoice in sweet, creamy, basil-y, crunchy goodness.