Lotus Seed Paste Stuffed Almond Cookies

Lotus Seed Paste Stuffed Almond Cookies

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! It's the Asian Thanksgiving Day, the day where families come together and celebrate a bountiful harvest. Or the day we eat a lot of mooncakes if that's more significant.

Last year, I brought a traditional mooncake to share with my school friends. Papaya Crumpet brought a Starbucks one (they're flavoured like Starbucks' drinks!) Unfortunately my family didn't buy or receive any mooncakes this year, so I have none to share. As a 'replacement', I created these cookies. They are flavoured like the Chinese almond cookies you find at the store and stuffed with a white lotus seed paste, the same stuff as in the mooncakes. 

Lotus Seed Paste Stuffed Almond Cookies

The process of shaping these little cookies took longer than I thought; the dough was slightly crumbly and I had to really press to make a disk of dough that didn't fall apart. The sealing of the edges was okay though. Since the dough doesn't spread at all in the oven, shape the cookies as you wish them to come out of the oven. My goal was to create a chewy and soft cookie. These are not super chewy but they aren't crispy at all. This cookie dough base is very simple and uses wholesome ingredients. It makes a small batch so be sure to double or even triple if you're looking to make a few dozen!

The faint hint of coconut and almond lets the sweet lotus paste filling take the spotlight. Lotus seed paste reminds me of my childhood, eating the steamed buns for dessert at dimsum. I think this cookie is a clever way participate in some Chinese festivities. The outcome was very good and my friends complimented on how good they tasted. I'm quite satisfied with them myself; be sure to eat them warm for the best taste! Microwaving the cookie for ten or so seconds will do the trick.

Lotus Seed Paste Stuffed Almond Cookies

Lotus Seed Paste Stuffed Almond Cookies

Cookie dough recipe adapted from Chocolate Covered Katie

Yield: 9 two-inch cookies

Ingredients

• ½ cup all purpose flour
• ¼ cup whole wheat flour
• A few grinds of Himalayan pink sea salt
• ¼ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp + 1/8 tsp baking soda
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• ½ tsp almond extract
• 2 to 4 tsp milk
• 3 tbsp coconut oil, melted
• Lotus seed paste (¼ cup will be sufficient; comes in a vacuum-sealed bag, similar to the packaging of red bean paste.)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325˚F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicon mat.
2. In a small mixing bowl, sift together flours, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and sugar. 
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until thoroughly combined. Smush dough into a single ball with a rubber spatula or hands.
4. Make somewhat circular disks using approximately one tablespoon portions of dough. Roll about a teaspoon of lotus seed paste into a ball, flatten and place in centre of cookie dough disk. Place another dough disk on top and seal edges. Press a single sliver of sliced almond on top as decoration.
5. Cover and refrigerate unbaked cookies for 30 minutes.
6. Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 11 minutes and broil on high for 2 more minutes. Avoid over-baking to keep cookies soft.
7. Enjoy warm (not burning hot!) and store in an airtight container.

Love from Coconut Crumpet's Corner ♡

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 ♡ 

Easiest & Fastest Vegan Pie Crust

Wow, I really seem to be venturing into Peanut Crumpet's land of veganism. Not because I am a vegan, but simply because Coconut Crumpet enjoys the wholesomeness of vegan recipes~ I still have a lot to learn from Peanut Crumpet; she has some awesome possum recipes. Be sure to check them out in our collection of recipes!

Poor Coconut Crumpet has been admiring the summer sunshine...from indoors. After spending all day in the house, I had the sudden urge at 8pm to make pie and started Goggling recipes for inspiration. My experiences with pie crust haven't been so pleasant. Even when I follow a recipe exactly, making sure the butter is cold and cutting it in with a pastry blender, there is always something that isn't quite right. Whether it be a really hard end product, too greasy, or shrinkage, my pie-making skills are far from stellar.

Since I have already pulled out my museum-artifact of a food processor to make my family-pleasing Vegan Nutty Nanaimo Bars (YOU MUST MAKE THESE!!), I figured it'd be the perfect opportunity to try using it to make pie crust dough. After watching Chef John of Food Wishes' video on Youtube, I was convinced I needed to try it for myself. I have inserted the video at the end of this post so you can visually see the steps and consistency at each step. He's videos are super lively; his happy voice shows he actually enjoys his work. In an essence, this is the fastest and most fail-proof way I have ever completed a pie crust. Ever.

Making Peach Basil Hand Pies

In his recipe, he uses frozen butter, but since I tend to gravitate as far as possible from butter, I decided to try using frozen coconut oil. The changing states of coconut oil continue to amaze me; it can be used in place of butter in every possible recipe I can think of. Melted, softened, or frozen, just like butter. It's magical! The only difference is that since it's currently summer, the coconut oil only needed to be blitzed for about 30 seconds to become pea-sized crumbs rather than the 1 minute for butter, as it softens at room temperature. Coconut oil is a translucent white colour so you'll have to look closely to see if the pieces are small enough. Beware that coconut oil melts fast so be sure to also work quickly when molding mixture into a ball.

Although the food processor method helps me successfully put together a dough, I'm still not very good with handling it. The fact that coconut oil changes state so quickly doesn't really make things any easier either. If using coconut oil in place of butter, be sure to let the dough sit at room temperature for at least half hour after fulling chilling in the fridge to let the centre become pliable. Essentially, we're waiting for the bits of coconut oil inside to soften so it doesn't crumble once you try and roll it out. Roll the dough out between two layers of plastic wrap or parchment paper to ensure the dough doesn't stick to everything.

The flaky layers of Vegan Pie Crust

So how does this pie dough turn out when baked? I used this dough to make Peach Mini Galettes and Hand Pies. The result was phenomenal. An definite improvement from my previous attempts at pie crust. The crust is sturdy, fragrant, and just as crispy and flaky as the video shows. It is a tad bit greasy to the touch because the clumps of coconut oil melt as it bakes in the oven, but it is unnoticeable when eaten. I normally don't care much for flaky pastries but this was so. insanely. good. Worth every second of my time to shape, chill, and put together the pastries. Never again will I use butter in my pie crusts.

Easiest & Fastest Vegan Pie Crust

Adapted from Food Wishes

Yield: 1 layer pie crust

Ingredients

• ½ cup coconut oil
• 2 cups all purpose flour, divided
• 1 tbsp granulated sugar
• A few grinds of Himalayan pink sea salt
• 6 tbsp ice water

Directions

1. Put measured coconut oil into a silicon mold and place in freezer until completely frozen. Remove from mold and cut into half-inch cubes. Keep cubes in freezer until ready to use.
2. In a food processor, pour half of the flour in. Add the cubed frozen coconut oil. Pour other half of the flour on top. Your frozen coconut oil should now be sandwiched between two equal layers of flour. 
3. Add sugar and salt into the food processor. Pulse in short intervals until coconut oil becomes pea-sized pieces. This took about 30 seconds.
4. Drizzle ice water over crumbly flour mixture in food processor. Pulse in slightly longer intervals until mixture becomes fine crumbs. Like the texture of almond meal.
5. Thoroughly scrape down the mixture, making sure to scrape off any wetter parts from the S-blade and bottom of food processor. 
6. Pulse a few more times just to incorporate. Press mixture between two fingers to see if it becomes a dough. If so, pour mixture onto a clean surface (I used a silicon baking mat) and press with hands to make a ball. Flatten slightly into a disk and wrap with plastic wrap and chill in fridge for at least 1 hour, no more than that or, due to the characteristics of coconut oil, the dough will be rock solid to the core. You want it to still be soft enough to roll out. Use this versatile pie crust for both sweet or savoury pies, galettes, or tarts.

Video instructions on Food Wishes

 
Love from Coconut Crumpet's Corner ♡

Nectarine & Almond Banana Bread

Nectarine & Almond Banana Bread

Just a quick post on a variation of my recent Healthy Banana Bread recipe! Since nectarines are currently in season, all plump, sweet, and beautiful, I decided to incorporate this summer fruit into my banana loaf. Here are the alterations I made to the banana bread recipe linked above:

1. Leave out the shredded coconut
2. ½ tsp vanilla and ½ tsp almond extract
3. 1 nectarine (or peach), divided. Dice ¾ of the fruit and slice the last ¼ into super thin slices for topping the loaf.
4. 1 tsp of cinnamon, or more, if you love cinnamon like me :P
5. Instead of toasted walnuts, use ¼ toasted almonds. Either whole almonds chopped into smaller chunks or sliced almonds. Now don't be like me and toast your sliced almonds but forget to fold them in until the loaf is already in the oven.... Fail Coconut Crumpet, fail..

Nectarine & Almond Banana Bread

Sound yummy to you? I promise you this will be the best banana bread recipe ever, the one and only banana bread recipe you'll need. Endless types of banana bread can be created with this healthy base batter. Mix in different nuts, chocolate, fruit, and flavours to create your dream banana bread. I'm thinking of adding raspberries to this variation to make a Peach Melba banana bread! Sounds so cute~

Love from Coconut Crumpet's Corner ♡

Healthy Banana Walnut Bread (with Coconut!)

Healthy Banana Walnut Bread with Coconut

Recently, I've returned to my obsession with Despicable Me minions. Last year, us Nutty Crumpets were crazy enough to put the Banana Song at the end of our YPI presentation. We thought it would be funny and end the seemingly depressing topic on a light-hearted note, but that nearly cost us not advancing to the semi-finals. Although I can't say the second movie was the best movie I've ever seen, it was definitely an entertaining movie to watch. Yes, it completely contrasts the first movie as Gru the villain is no longer doing evil deeds, but the increased amount of minion action makes up for it. 

What the banana minion says when you pull the banana

Mc Donald's currently carries minion toys as part of the kids' Happy Meal. It's extremely strange for me to want to visit Mc Donald's much less beg to go. The toys certainly do their job very well of luring children (or children at heart, ahem) into buying their food. Thankfully, Happy Meals are not the worst thing to force down your throat and are fairly priced. The portion control and healthy options like milk and apples makes for a acceptable fast food meal. By the way, the hamburger is the 'healthiest' entree option, Happy Meal or not. Anyways, back to the toys. I was disappointed to find that my preferred minion toy was not available on the first trip to get a Happy Meal with Az. Since then, I have dragged my parents to five different locations in search of the 'banana minion'. A successful Coconut Crumpet feels happy about her accomplishment. But my mother says I need to become more mature. I beg to differ.
 
Not only is the banana minion my favourite, but I've become addicted to playing Minion Rush on my phone. And I rarely ever play games, mainly because I'm terrible at them. Something about collecting bananas and running other minions over is so amusing to me. Evidently I seem to have some bias towards the combination of minions and bananas. So, with the bananas that have been sitting frozen in my freezer for months, I dedicate this beautiful banana bread to all 10 million of the minion fans out there.

Super tall Healthy Banana Walnut Bread

Flavours of Nanaimo Cake

Flavours of Nanaimo Birthday Cake

The Nanaimo bar. The no-bake three-layered bar is named appropriately after its city of origin and has been given the title of British Columbia's favourite dessert. Now, I'm not sure if all British Columbians love the Nanaimo bar, but I do know it is my brother's favourite dessert. Very well, he is a British Columbian...

Born on the seventh day of the seventh month, my brother must be a lucky boy, in certain ways. I have saved my family a lot of money baking cakes for birthdays and special events (and also doubling them up as gifts, puahahaha!) and his birthday is no exception. The reason why I didn't just make an actual Nanaimo bar is because of the few days expired carton of whipping cream sitting in my fridge door. The fastest way I could think of using it is by icing a cake. Too bad there aren't enough people to eat a two layered cake, that would've used even more whipped cream. I had to brave the hot oven on a summer day to make this cake -wipes imaginary sweat-.

Holey cake, revealing the bottom, texture of the cake

A Day of Coconut Bliss

Exam time has come for us students, which means study time occupies (or should occupy) the majority of our time and effort. Seven tests coming up in the next two weeks for Coconut Crumpet, such joy. I'm not even sure my brain has the capacity to hold four full courses worth of information at one time. And to add to my troubles, I have been feeling sick for two days now. Congested nose, headaches, fatigue... It seems like viruses and bacteria happen to only love me during test times.

Coconut Pancakes

To relieve some of this stress and pressure, I decided to allow myself to enjoy a fancy Sunday morning breakfast. Surely I can use some time to appreciate the most important meal of the day before studying for another few hours. After watching Leaftv's drool-enducing video, my mind has been set to make these pancakes. The time has come for Coconut Crumpet to do so. Although my pancake-making skills are still lacking, I thoroughly enjoyed my coconut pancakes. Get the recipe at A Cozy Kitchen and make these filling pancakes! Using my silver dollar pancake pan, half the recipe yielded me exactly 4 pancakes. My new found way to eat my pancakes is with a generous dollop of yogurt and a drizzle of honey. In this case, with the best coconut yogurt I've encountered so far, Liberte's coconut yogurt. Yes it's fruit bottom (meaning lots of sugar) and almost 9% milk fat, but everything in moderation is okay~

Coconut Bliss 'Ice Cream' in Naked Coconut

So far my weekend has consisted of eating, or studying. A pile of physics review, social studies vocabulary and 410 Mandarin vocabulary words sit on my table longing for my attention. Since studying requires a lot of brainpower, and the majority of calories are burned to function the brain, it's important to fuel the body when doing some serious studying! When my tummy started asking for food again, I went to grab my newly bought tub of Coconut Bliss. You can read about my first experience with this genius masterpiece here. Eating this just alleviates some stress and brings me to bliss~ I can't wait to eat more of it over the course of the upcoming summer season. That is, if I live to see the end of June..

Sunday is the day that passes by much too quickly; church in the morning then afternoon and evening zooms by. Before I can fully recover, is Monday again. A funny quote I saw a while back said "Why is Monday so far from Friday and Friday so near to Monday?" I wholeheartedly agree. To some, summer is right around the corner. For me, summer is so distant, it's almost unattainable. To help me get through busy times, I tend treat my tongue to some of my favourite foods, like coconut. How do you keep yourself motivated during a hard time?


Love from Coconut Crumpet's Corner ♡

Coconut Crumpet's 'To Die For' Meyer Lemon Coconut Loaf

Coconut Crumpet's 'To Die For' Meyer Lemon Coconut Loaf

As I was searching the internet for baking inspiration, I came across the To Die For Lemon Loaf. The description made me drool: "organic coconut, organic millet, coconut milk and the juice of fresh organic lemons", totally a loaf made in heaven for Coconut Crumpet! Hunting down a slice on my next trip Downtown was immediately put on my to-do list, but I can't wait that long and had to formulate one for myself.

This recipe was created by me, based on a bajillion different lemon loaf recipes I researched. Many lemon loaf recipes call for a mere 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Nononono, that's not enough lemon-ness for me! In my recipe, I added a heaping third cup of lemon juice; that should do the 'lemon' part of its name justice. Also, being Coconut Crumpet, it's important that the coconut flavour shines through too. Coconut oil adds a fabulous aroma, but doesn't contribute much to the tastebuds' experience. Shredded coconut also doesn't add flavour, but gives texture and fragrance (if it's been toasted!) The coconut flavour comes mainly from the rich and thick coconut milk. Not the kind that you get in tetra boxes that substitutes cow's milk in your cereal bowl every morning. The kind that comes in a can. It's much too heavy in calories to drink, but it works wonders to enrich cooking. I recommend you use one similar to Rooster Brand's Gold Label Coconut Milk. 

This recipe is definitely Rachel-ified since it's low in sugar and only made with a small amount of healthy fats. Don't worry, it won't sabotage your diet. I'm very thankful that this loaf actually worked; the loaf came out tall and cooked in the time I predicted. Besides the fact I overdid it with maybe more than 2 tablespoons of poppy seeds and my splash of vanilla was slightly too much, the flavour and texture of the resulting loaf is wonderful! Not too sweet, prominent meyer lemon taste, a bit of a crunch from the toasted coconut shreds and poppy seeds, richness from the coconut milk, and even moistness throughout the loaf...mmm~ It was the perfect way to use up the last three meyer lemons sitting my fridge. 

I thoroughly enjoyed my taste test of this loaf during school today. Once I get a hold of a real slice of To Die For Lemon Loaf, I shall make necessary adjustments to make this even better. So...without further ado, I proudly present to you (that rhymed!), Coconut Crumpet's interpretation of the To Die For Lemon Loaf! 

Coconut Crumpet's 'To Die For' Meyer Lemon Coconut Loaf

By Coconut Crumpet and inspired by Erin Ireland's To Die For Lemon Loaf

Yield: 1 loaf

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cup all purpose flour
• A pinch of salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• Zest of 2 meyer lemons
• 5 tbsp coconut oil, at room temperature
• 1 egg
• ½ tsp vanilla
• ½ cup coconut milk
• ⅓ cup meyer lemon juice
• 1 ½ tbsp poppy seeds
• ¼ cup unsweetened medium shredded coconut, toasted
• Large flaked shredded coconut

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F and line a loaf pan with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
3. In a custard cup, gently toss lemon zest in sugar to draw the oils from the peel out.
4. In a separate mixing bowl, cream together coconut oil and sugar until combined. Add egg and vanilla and mix until well combined.
5. Add coconut milk,lemon juice, and poppy seeds to wet mixture and stir until well combined.
6. Add wet mixture to dry mixture and fold until halfway combined. Add toasted coconut and continue to fold until just combined. 
7. Pour into prepared pan and top with large flaked coconut.
8. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until toothpick check comes out with moist crumbs. Broil on high heat for about 3 minutes at the end to achieve a golden brown top crust. 

 Love from Coconut Crumpet's Corner ♡