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 ♡ 

Purebread

Purebread Whistler Village storefront

My motivation for getting up every morning is breakfast. Having Purebread just a block away from my stay in Whistler (close to the IGA entrance to the village) gives me something very exciting to look forward to at the beginning of the day. Just another reason to add to my list of why I love Whistler.

Display of baked goods at Purebread Whistler Village

There is no difference between me walking into this bakery and a kid in a candy store. Zero. Nada. There are too many baked goods to even fit onto the display counter all at once. Scones, pies, cakes, loaves, brioche, cookies, brownies, and croissants are overflowing from behind the glass. Then there's the plethora of fresh loaves of bread sitting on shelves behind the cashier. It is a dessertatarian's heaven. 

Purebread Scones (and other goodies behind)

Their scones are some of their best sellers, be sure to get there early in the morning because they sell out by afternoon! My mission was to try all the [sweet] scone flavours, which I was very close to accomplishing, unfortunately for the calories I attempted to burn right before eating them... But it was all worth it. These scones are absolutely massive, a good four inch square of buttery, dense, crumbly, perfection of a scone. The scone itself is not very sweet at all, the sweetness of the whole scone solely depends on the drizzle of icing on top. And I think that level is perfect.

Lavender Eary Grey Scone & Lemon Basil Blueberry Scone (with Apricot Vanilla Bean Scone in the back)

Apricot Gouda Scones

At the Eat! Vancouver festival in May, I picked up the spring issue of All You Need is Cheese and one of the recipes that caught my eye were these Apricot Gouda Scones. They are super easy to put together and are very healthy. The whole batch only uses a mere tablespoon of additional fat! Instead, it's the slight moistness of the cheese that seems to hold it together. Cheese can be fattening but I believe a controlled amount of it is in fact good for you. Cheese is also very natural with very few ingredients. It was my first time dealing with gouda cheese; it's like a milder and sweeter version of white cheddar. 

Apricot Gouda Scones

I have an bad luck when it comes to making scones. My batter is never thick enough to turn over on a floured surface to cut into shapes. I tend to have to stick with drop scones instead... 

At the back of the right picture are my fluffy mini quiches. They are so delicious when warm and covered in gooey cheese~

A little bit sweet and a little bit savoury, these scones are unique and make for a great afternoon snack. Warm scones and a cup of tea are the ideal way to wind down after a tiring day, or served with high tea.

Apricot Gouda Scones

Recipe from All You Need is Cheese

Yield: 12 mini scones

Ingredients

• ¼ cup dried apricots, quartered
• ¼ cup apple juice
• ¼ cup + 2 tbsp all purpose flour
• ½ cup whole wheat flour
• 1 ½ tbsp sugar
• ½ tbsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
• 2 oz of gouda, grated
• 1 tbsp coconut butter, at room temperature
• ½ cup milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a baking tray with parchment paper or a silicon mat.
2. Place dried apricots in a small saucepan. Add apple juice and bring to a boil. Let simmer 5 minutes, covered, then let cool.
3. In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients with Gouda.
4. Using a fork, incorporate butter into dry ingredients, adding milk while stirring. Fold in the apricot mixture. 
5. Distribute dough in big spoonfuls onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
6. Bake in oven 12–15 minutes or until scones are golden brown.

 Love from Coconut Crumpet's Corner ♡

DIY Summer High Tea

DIY Summer High Tea

Tuesday June twenty-fifth, the day every single one of us has finally been released from the grasp of year end exams. And what better way to celebrate together than a five hour catch-up gossip session over high tea? Paying to experience high tea at a fancy cafe Downtown is not within our poor student budget, and making food ourselves allows us to have a wider variety of food. Our specialty is eating, and eating a lot. This is just the beginning of an awesome summer vacation, with many more get-togethers involving food to come. 

Here is the menu for the Summer High Tea. Please see the recipe posts for more photos!

Clockwise from top left corner: Fruit Jello Parfait, Earl Grey Cupcake, Salad (sans dressing), Green Tea Macaron, savoury bottom tier, Lemon bars

Fresh Salad with Orange Dijon Mustard Vinaigrette

Open-faced Cucumber Sandwich with Smoked Salmon Cream Cheese

Open-faced Avocado Sandwich

Classic Club Sandwich

Black Tea-Infused Garlic Miso Chicken Salad Cone

Bell Pepper, Green Onion, and Gouda Fluffy Mini Quiche 

Mini Beef and Cheese Sandwich Roll

Apricot Gouda Scone

Baby Strawberry Whole Wheat Shortcake

Earl Grey Cupcake

Matcha Macaron with Chocolate Ganache

Lemon Bar

Fruit Jello Parfait

Love from Papaya and Coconut Crumpet and Co.

2nd Tier: Quiches, Scones, and Devonshire Cream

DIY Mother's Day High Tea at Coconut Crumpet's home

Not having enough room on this middle tier, there are a mix of sweet and savoury goods here. My massive Lemon Cranberry Scones hogged a lot of room and there was already an overload of finger sandwiches on the lower tier. To solve this space problem, I used a few dinner plates to hold the rest of the servings of food, including the French Onion Crab Rounds and desserts. 

Continue reading for some delicious scone recipes!

DIY High Tea for Mother's Day

DIY Mother's Day High Tea by Coconut Crumpet

To celebrate Mother's Day, as well as my mama's birthday, I prepared a high tea lunch for her and a group of close friends to enjoy. It took three or four days to prepare as one would never have enough time to cook, bake, and assemble everything in one day. With some helping hands and baking elves, this ambitious project of mine was successfully presented. Even if it was with [not purposely] mismatched dishes and a plastic tablecloth...

Sharing high tea with a group of friends is truly an experience every foodie should have, whether it be at a restaurant or hosting one yourself. It's a rare chance to dress up and act like a bunch of rich old grannies sitting at a beautifully adorned table having quality gossip time. That is the Crumpets' dream life as retirees.   

My love for high tea has grown significantly after this party. I just picked up 3 sets of tiered trays from Costco in preparation for any other opportunities for me to host another high tea. They only have 2 tiers, but hey, it was $6!

Below is the menu for that day's high tea. Recipes for select goods will be accessible through the links. The ones with no links are because there isn't really a recipe, the words you read are all the ingredients used. There just ain't much to it.
 

Open-faced Cucumber Cream Cheese Sandwich

Smoked Salmon Cream Cheese Sandwich

Tuna Salad Sandwich

Bell Pepper, Mushroom, and Cheese Quiche

Shrimp and Avocado Crostini

French Onion Crab Round

Mini Bacon and Cheese Scone

Lemon Cranberry Scone

Devonshire Cream

Mocha Cheesecake Square

Coconut Muffin

Green Tea Cream Puff

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries with Toasted Almonds