When Life Takes Over | Lemony Coconut & Cranberry Macaroons

Wow! Its been about a minute since my last post. Hard to believe how times flies, but sometimes it just can't be helped - especially when life takes over. And in the time I have been AWOL, this blog marked its first anniversary.
In my last blog post, in what seems to feel like a lifetime ago - I confessed how the lovely change in season seems to be an undoing of my self-discipline.
Never mind though, my time away wasn't all about lazing about, but also working on some things that will be shared to all in due course. Watch this space ☺.
The fun part of every changing season, for any foodie, is the thrill of playing on the creativity with seasonal ingredients. So I have returned with a recipe for a quick and easy treat - Macaroons.
This is my version which I have fine tuned from different variations, so feel free to also make something else out of this, if you will.

Ingredients

• 130g Caster Sugar
• 2 Eggs (Whites only)
• 75g Dried Cranberries (roughly chopped)
• 1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
• 225g Desiccated Coconut
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• Zest of 1 Lemon (finely grated)

Method

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees C
• Line baking tray with baking sheet
• In a large mixing bowl add sugar, egg whites, cranberries, lemon zest, vanilla extract, and salt, and them mix together
• Add in desiccated coconut and mix together until well coated
• Using your finger tips heap a table spoon size of the mixture
• Mould it into a pointed triangular/pyramid mounds
• Arrange the mounds on the lined baking tray - leaving enough space between each 
• Place in preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes until the edges are golden brown
• Remove from oven and transfer on to a cooling rack

Makes 44 macaroons

Tip: Can be stored in air tight container for up to a week

Baking|| Banana Walnut Coconut Chocolate Bread

Banana Walnut Coconut Chocolate Chip Bread

Well its officially now Spring and yep; you read it right and the title says it all. It's another version of Banana Bread folks. The third I have made by my count, which probably makes me bonkers for Banana Bread. One thing they all have in common though is that they have been well received by my privileged circle of critical tasters.
This version however turned out more moist and stickier in comparison with the previous ones I have made. So I recommend allowing it to stand for about an hour before slicing to avoid crumbling.

Baking:: Oatmeal Coconut Cookies

Cookies have been a while in coming back on this blog. Simple reason being that, everything just seemed "samey samey" to me. I find that now 6 months into blogging, I have somehow evolved into a form of snack snob - so hard to please!

Now oatmeal cookies have never been a favourite of mine; not sure why, but I think it has always seemed just so boring in flavour.

Oatmeal Coconut Cookies

Whenever I have come across foods that waver within the precipice of not appealing to me, I always feel left out because I seem to be the only one in the universe who ever owns up to not liking the such foods. I mean there has to be someone else out there who finds oatmeal cookies a tad boring!

Baking || Banana and Walnut Chocolate Bread

A couple of months back, I posted a recipe of one of my all time favourites - Banana Bread. Since that post, I have made Banana Bread countless times for myself, friends and colleagues. So effortlessly quick and easy to put together, I have worked on several variations trying to add some character to the current package. And I think I finally nailed it with the help of some staple ingredients in my kitchen.

Banana and Walnut Chocolate Bread

In trying to incorporate the walnuts and chocolate chips into the recipe, I quickly realised that I had to make some slight variations to my original recipe. Of course the bonus of the recipe trials was the discovery of the hit show House of Cards.

Baking | Quickie | Almond Walnut Brownies

Almond Walnut Brownies

Its amazing how creative I get when I am peckish. I was in one of my usual carb craving modes without really finding anything that I really wanted to snack on.
So I just dragged out all my baking stash and looked through what I had in stock. And this is what I came up.

Baking:: That White Bread

Baking my own bread is now somewhat a regular thing, especially this one. Kneading the dough is a perfect tension/stress release. It was a good thing then that I decided to make this batch while binge-watching the series of Mistresses......talk about frustration on overdrive! This bread keeps so well for about a week, and even longer if frozen.

Baking:: Strawberry Layered Brownies

Happy New Year. 2014 is finally here and I am looking forward to discovering what this year has to offer.
Well January is the time when everyone tries to get back on the health wagon after all the festivities, but I think we just have a little room to sneak this one in.
A combination of two of my favourite ingredients - strawberries and chocolate-  this is a dessert worth sharing.

Baking:: Raspberry Liqueur Chocolatey Chocolate Chip Cookies

Well today is winter solstice and more importantly 4 more sleeps to Christmas; So still keeping in the spirit of my association of all things chocolate with Christmas, this is my signature take on Chocolate Chip Cookies with some life in it ☺.

Baking:: Rustic Chocolate Dipped Coconut Cookies

Choco-Coconut Cookies

In the current season of all things Christmassy, I decided to add an extra twist to one of my previous and recent recipe.
There are some ingredients that I personally believe have the ability to just bring foods up to date and in line with the seasons.

Baking:: Easy and Quick Corn Bread

Corn Bread

Savoury breads are always a feature in my kitchen. I have already shared the recipe of one of my savouries - the Cheesy Sun-dried Tomatoes Bread a while back so I thought it was about time to share another particular favourite. Corn Bread!!!

Chewy Coconut Cookies

Coconut Cookies

I never really planned on making these, but it just so happened that I had time to kill in between waiting for the dough for my Petits Pains au Lait to prove; plus the ingredients I needed were all around me.

Baking:: Petits Pains au Lait

The combination of the recent falling temperatures and my "carb craving" seems to have awaken the baker in me. And so I have generally been browsing through several recipes to find whatever takes my fancy. And find I did! I enjoyed the entire process of making these Petits Pains au Lait, particularly kneading the dough which was a great way to vent my frustration with the Olivia Pope/Fitz tension on Scandal; I tell you Shonda Rhimes has got to stop doing this to me every week.

Petits Pains au Lait

They turned out so well that they were just too good not to share. My taste panel was made up of my adorable nieces and nephew who were thoroughly impressed. I have a feeling I will be making these for them again very soon. ☺

Cheesy Sun-Dried Tomatoes Bread

Cheesy Sun-Dried Tomatoes Bread

I have found myself really craving "carbs" lately. At all times of the day! Probably a seasonal thing. So when this craving collided with my "baking bug", I decided to look up a recipe that I could easily work with.