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:: 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.

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.