The Calm Before the Storm: A Snippet of Coconut Crumpet's Life

The clouds move in and summer moves out. It's the Sunday summer leaves Vancouver, wind, rain, lightening and thunder take its place. Back to living in Raincouver...

Honey Roasted Mission Figs

To contrast that gloomy mess outdoors, I discovered a new favourite treat. I've documented my love of ricotta in pancakes and muffins, and my first box of mission figs. Combine the two in an open-faced sandwich, add a drizzle of honey and there you have it, the most classy breakfast ever. Here are some more detailed instructions:

Ricotta, Honey, and Fig Tartine

To roast figs, place them cut-side up on a baking dish, drizzle with honey, add a few cracks of freshly ground pepper and bake at 400˚F for about 15 minutes. Toast a slice of bread until brown. Spread ricotta cheese over one side, taking care to spread all the way to the edges. Drizzle with honey (or mix the honey in with the ricotta before spreading on bread) and top with roasted figs. Bake at around 400˚F until ricotta cheese is browned (about 15 minutes?). Don't be impatient like me and take it out the second a browning spot of ricotta appears. Good things come to those who wait ;)

Whole Wheat Ricotta Peach Scones

After a hectic morning of teaching Sunday school to the cutest grade ones and twos, and a roll of kimbap for lunch, I kept myself occupied in the afternoon by baking up a batch of scones. Whole wheat ricotta peach scones. It's the first batch of scones I've made at home where cutting the dough into shapes was possible. For some strange reason, whenever I make scones at home (yes, it only happens at home), the dough becomes so runny I am forced to make drop scones instead. They don't taste bad at all, but it's frustrating when everyone else can cut their dough into different shapes and mine always end up being circular mounds. I am not super content with the outcome of the scones; they were a bit too greasy and not sweet at all. I'll do a few tweaks to improve the recipe before I post it. For those that are itching to try these scones themselves, I followed the recipe from Smitten Kitchen but used frozen coconut oil instead of butter, milk instead of heavy cream, and added some meyer lemon zest (makes all the difference). I think an egg wash would really benefit the appearance of these scones and some vanilla or almond extract for an extra flavour boost. The glisten you see on my scones is from a drizzle of honey I added at the end and attempted to caramelize under the broiler.

Before the thunderstorm, and where I do my food photography

So this is how Coconut Crumpet usually spends her weekends, that is when there isn't any homework to be done. We'll be watching the rain fall for the next half a year... Although the chilly season brings bad weather, I am looking forward to eating mooncakes for the Mid-Autumn Festival (it's actually before the Autumn Equinox...) this week and pulling out those large cans of pumpkin puree I've been storing in the basement since Christmas. I have a perfected pumpkin loaf to share with you all. It's one of my faaaaavourites! Time to dig out my rain boots and that black peacoat I'm known to wear all autumn and winter long.

Love from Coconut Crumpet's Corner ♡ 

Fig, Almond, and Raspberry Yogurt Cake

It's my first time trying fresh figs. Alice is yelling at me, "You're mad, bonkers, off your head!" I know... These juicy, succulent, sweet delicacies, why didn't I go out in a mad search for these earlier?

I've been eager to work with fresh figs before the summer season began. My only experiences with figs are using the 'Chinese method'; adding dried figs to Chinese soups (which are usually broths) for sweetness and flavour. Eating fresh ones is completely foreign to my family. So are a lot of other foods; I constantly open my parents' eyes to new and exciting food. 

My neighbour has a fig tree in their backyard, and over the years, its branches have grown over to our backyard. For those that love figs, this would be a dream come true. However, I didn't know when the right time was to pick the fruit so we ended up with starchy, unripe figs in our mouth every time we decided to cut one open. That discouraged us from picking anymore. 

A bowl of fresh Black Mission Figs

During my last visit to our local Superstore, I scored a box of black mission figs for only two dollars! These babies could easily cost five dollars or more. Cha-ching! Finally, I can experiment with these luscious fruits. Hmm... with ricotta, in a muffin, or simply roasted? I can't decide. 

Beautiful, soft insides of a fig

A ripe fig should be soft and its thin skin should almost be wrinkly. A really delicious fig may have syrup beginning to drip out from the bottom end. The downside to purchasing from a grocery store is that the figs may not have been picked at its peak ripeness.

I was surprised at the soft, almost jelly-like flesh of fresh figs. Like dates, it's like nature's candy. It's unlike any other fruit I've tried and this made me very eager to get on with incorporating them into some recipes. After an evening of brainstorming a list of ideas, I decided to begin with a simple yogurt cake, pairing the figs with a drizzle of honey.

Grab a slice!

This cake is moist, flavourful, and fragrant. The yogurt replaces much of the fat while keeping the cake moist. That leaves us with only a quarter cup of coconut oil in an entire cake! I wished the figs had more time to roast and shrivel up a bit more; that would increase the sweetness of the fruit. But even after a bit of cooking in the oven, the figs provided much of the flavour and sweetness necessary for the cake. A sprinkle of sliced almonds gives a bit of textural contrast, and everything is better with some nuts ;)Raspberries give a pop of bright colour to the cake. It's the first time frozen raspberries haven't failed my entire baked good, I haven't had great experiences with using frozen raspberries... ahem. The hidden magic comes from the Meyer lemon zest. A Meyer lemon makes all the difference. The concoction of aroma coming from the oven while this cake is baking is mind-blowing. Ripe fruit, coconut, caramelizing honey, and zingy zest are all present.

A slice of Fig, Almond, and Raspberry Yogurt Cake

I've even healthified it by replacing some of the flour with whole wheat flour, wouldn' be a recipe from Coconut Crumpet without it being guiltless. Low in fat, sugar, increased fibre, and flavoured with fruits and nuts, this makes a fantastic afternoon snack or dessert. It's also very classy and would impress adults. Oh ho ho! Reheat a portion of this cake in the oven and serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, honeyed yogurt, or whipped cream and top with a few quarters of fresh fig. De-lish.

Time to dig in!

Click below to view the recipe!