I think my dad and possibly five other people in the world might say that their favorite American candy bar is Hershey’s Mounds. Remember those dark chocolate-covered coconut bars? Surprisingly, they still exist. My dad will happily eat any coconut confection you give to him, unless you pour white chocolate all over it, which would cause him to cringe in horror. For Father’s Day I wanted to make my dad a coconut-y treat and what else could I choose but the classic Coconut Macaroon.

Perhaps my dad is just getting older and his palette has changed, but he has recently developed a low threshold for anything sugary. The man who used to pack soda in his lunch bag everyday for work suddenly realized that it’s too sweet. Oh well, more for me!

I searched for recipes and skipped over ones that called for sweetened shredded coconut especially since I wanted control over the sugar content. But there was another popular ingredient in macaroon recipes that I definitely didn’t want to include. The mother of all things sugary, syrupy and thick: sweetened condensed milk. Ack!

Finally, I came upon Chocolate & Zucchini’s extremely easy recipe for macaroons that didn’t contain the two ingredients I was avoiding. Even better, it required just four ingredients, five if you want to add chocolate. Her recipe had just the right amount of sweetness for dad’s sensitive taste buds. The texture of the macaroon is crunchy and grainy on the outside but the soft, chewy center is where the coconut flavor really comes out. I couldn’t resist adding chocolate but instead of dipping the macaroons, I decided to drizzle the chocolate on top to maintain the subtle sweet flavor. The coconut is the star here after all and I didn’t want to ruin it for my dad.

The macaroons were a surprise hit with my family and friends. All these closet coconut fans suddenly emerged out of nowhere! Who knew? Maybe they’re the ones buying all the Hershey’s Mounds and Almond Joy- fooling me into thinking they don’t exist anymore.

Notes:
- What may be the only challenging part of this recipe is finding unsweetened coconut. I found mine in 200g bags at an Asian market and it was called desiccated coconut, an unnecessarily fancy name for dried.
- I used a scale this time because I wanted to be fairly accurate with Chocolate & Zucchini’s recipe. So I apologize in advance for the strange American conversions!

Chocolate Coconut Macaroons
Adapted from Chocolate & Zucchini
Makes about 24

200 grams (7 ounces) unsweetened dried coconut flakes
130 grams (1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon) sugar
Pinch of salt
3 large egg whites
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Combine all ingredients into a bowl and mix well with a fork.
3. Scoop out rounded tablespoons and form into a dome or a ball.
4. Place each macaroon onto baking sheet, spaced evenly. (I managed to fit all the mounds in one sheet.)
5. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until golden. Do not brown them too much or they will dry out.
6. Let set on baking sheet for 2 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.
7. Once the macaroons have cooled, place them on a cool baking sheet.
8. Microwave the chocolate in 10-15 second bursts, stirring chocolate in between until melted. (You can also use the double-boiler method if you prefer but it’s only a small amount of chocolate.)
9. Scoop melted chocolate into a sandwich bag and snip off a tiny portion of one corner of the bag. Or you can use a small pastry bag, but again, it’s such a small bit of chocolate!
10. Drizzle chocolate over the macaroons in a zig zag motion. Place the baking sheet in the refrigerator for 5-10 minutes to set the chocolate.

Serve or store at room temperature in an airtight container.

Printable Recipe

]]> http://www.tasteduds.com/2009/06/24/recipe-chocolate-macaroons/feed/ 6 http://www.tasteduds.com/2009/06/01/hawaiian-inspired-chocolate-cupcakes/ http://www.tasteduds.com/2009/06/01/hawaiian-inspired-chocolate-cupcakes/#comments Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:32:32 +0000 sheila http://www.tasteduds.com/?p=270

I volunteered to bake cupcakes for a friend’s baby shower and got instantly inspired when I found out her favorite flower is from her home state of Hawaii: the plumeria. Opportunities like these push me to try new recipes and it was also a chance for me to finally play with fondant. I know most people think it’s the most horrible thing ever but you’ve got admit that it can sure make a cake look pretty.

The fondant flowers were easier to make than I thought especially because plumerias have a very basic shape. I bought Wilton’s Flower Making kit and it is the secret to making your cakes look Martha Stewart good. I also purchased their ready-made fondant because really, why would I torture myself with trying to make one of my own? It’s only going to be decoration.

Once I started making the plumerias, you know what I discovered? This is exactly like playing with Play-Doh and it’s just as fun. It’s really easy to make basic flowers that your kid can probably do it. Try it yourself and then watch an episode of Ace of Cakes so you can be appalled that they charge $1000 minimum per cake. You will then proudly say, “Pshh, I could do some of that.”

You can see step-by-step instructions here. I was doing some experimenting which explains the pink fondant. I ended up using the white flowers instead and painted the inside with yellow luster dust using a paintbrush. See, you don’t even have to color the fondant which makes it even easier!

As for the cupcakes, I knew I wanted to try some recipes from CupcakeBlog. I’ve always admired all her cupcakes and it was a sad day when she decided to take a break from it. I wanted to start simple and decided to make a basic chocolate cupcake with cream cheese frosting with just a hint of white chocolate. The cake is sweet on it’s own so I really didn’t want to pile on even more.

This can be labor intensive so I would suggest doing each on separate days if you can get as lazy as I do. You can make the flowers days or even weeks in advance. I made the frosting a couple of days early and stored it in Tupperware in the fridge. Of course the actual cupcakes should be done the day you serve them if possible. In my case, since I was bringing them to the office in the morning I made the cake the night before and assembled everything that night. I placed the cupcakes in a box and tried my best to wrap it in plastic wrap and stored it in the fridge.

Chocolate Cupcakes
Adapted from CupcakeBlog
Makes about 16 cupcakes

1 stick unsalted butter
1-1/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Note: Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature!
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Sift the flour into a bowl and add baking powder, salt and cocoa powder. Gently stir to combine.
3. In another bowl, stir the vanilla extract and milk together.
Now that you’ve finished the prep work, you’re ready to start mixing!
4. With an electric mixer, beat butter until creamy. Add sugar and beat at medium speed for about 3 minutes until light and fluffy.
5. Add eggs one at a time until combined. I like to scrape down the sides of the bowl after each egg.
6. Add in 1/3 third of the dry ingredients (just eyeball it) and beat on low to medium speed. Then add in about half of the wet ingredients. Continue alternating the dry and wet ingredients, ending with the dry. Make sure not to over beat once the dry ingredients are in or you will have a tough cake! Because I get paranoid, I prefer to beat on low speed and stir by hand with a spatula at the end just to make sure everything is combined.
7. Scoop batter a little more than half-full into a muffin pan with cupcake liners. (Don’t fill it up too much or it will overflow! It happened to me and I had to start ALL over again. Sniff.)
8. Place pan in oven, turn the temperature down to 350 degrees and bake for about 20-22 or until a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean.
9. When cupcakes are done, keep in pan for 10 minutes and then remove each cupcake and place on cooling rack.

Printable Recipe

White Chocolate Frosting
Adapted from CupcakeBlog

1/3 cup white chocolate chips
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar

1. Melt white chocolate chips in a bowl over a pot of simmering water (double-boiler method) or nuke in the microwave in 10-second bursts. Cool for about 10 minutes.
2. Beat butter with an electric mixer on medium speed until creamy. Add cream cheese and beat until combined.
3. Add the white chocolate and vanilla and beat until combined.
4. Carefully put in the powdered sugar and beat at low speed.
5. Turn off mixer and give it a good stir to make sure everything is combined.

While it’s not necessary, I like to chill my frosting in the fridge for about an hour. It holds its shape better when I pipe it on the cupcake. If the frosting is a little too cold, you can fluff up the frosting using a spatula. Once cupcakes have completely cooled, place a large star tip inside a piping bag or a freezer bag with one corner cut off and pipe the frosting in a swirl motion starting from the outside and working in. Don’t worry if the center looks bad because you will cover it with the flower. You can also spoon the frosting on with a knife if you don’t feel like being fancy. Top each cupcake with a flower and you’re done!

Printable Recipe

When my parents asked what I wanted from their trip to Hong Kong, I only had one request: green tea Kit Kats. I knew my chances were slim since they really come from Japan but I was hopeful. They’re close enough, right? My mom couldn’t find them but being the mom that she is, she didn’t disappoint and came back instead with three different kinds of Kit Kats.

Apparently there is an endless list of Kit Kat flavors out there and these are just some of them: lemon chocolate, cookies & chocolate, and sesame-glazed potato.

I wasn’t too excited about trying the lemon chocolate but this one had a nice flavor. Maybe it was the white chocolate, but it didn’t have that overwhelming tang that I was expecting. It was subtle and sweet. As you can tell from the packaging, this flavor was made especially for Valentine’s Day. Not really sure how lemons and love are connected. Maybe for your sweet-tart? (Groan.)

The cookies and chocolate was, of course, nothing spectacular. How does it taste? Let me tell you a story. One day the cookie half of an Oreo wondered what it would be like to be a filling. He smooshed himself into crumbly bits and then jumped inside a Kit Kat bar. The end.

Now, the sesame-glazed potato boggles my mind. I still haven’t figured it out before and after I found out what the flavor was. I do know that it’s trying to mess with my tastebuds. The sesame flavor is there but I am not sure if it’s a potato or a sweet potato. There’s a hint of saltiness and it has a very Asian flavor. If you’ve ever had any type of Asian snacks, the taste would be very familiar to you. That probably doesn’t help but this one is worth trying if you have the chance to. I still ate it all and it was pretty good. But really, what is a sesame-glazed potato anyway? Maybe I need to try the real thing first.