#19: Coconut Bread

This would be another "Brent requested" recipe, and it is AWESOME. I was kind of skeptical, because it's a really basic recipe, but the results were great. I am currently in the kitchen post baking project, and it smells like Hawaii- all... "coconutty," kind of like suncreen that you'd LIKE to put in your mouth. Plus, on top of that, upon tasting this bread, Brent told me it takes him back to his mission... oh yeah? Mission accomplished. I suppose a compliment doesn't get much better than that.

#19: Coconut Bread (as provided by... some woman Brent knew on his mission. Oops.)

Ingredients:

4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup shredded coconut
2 tsp. coconut flavored extract
1 cup chopped nuts

Glaze:
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1/4 cup butter
1 tbs. coconut flavored extract

Directions:

1. Blend eggs, sugar, oil, and extract.

2. In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients together.

3. Alternatively add dry ingredients and buttermilk to egg mixture until blended together.
     - I went ahead and dumped in half the flour mixture, half the buttermilk, and then alternated the last two halves of the mixtures. Worked perfectly. This batter is surprisingly super thick though! P.S.- I'm still thoroughly grossed out by buttermilk.

4. Add coconut (and nuts if desired)
     - Yeah, so the woman Brent actually got this recipe from states that she never adds nuts to this bread. Naturally though, as soon as Brent tasted it, he asked where the nuts were. Evidently I can't please everyone, ha ha.

5. Pour into five or six well greased mini loaf pans and bake at 325 degrees for approximately 40 minutes.
      - Hmm, I managed to keep mine in for 55 minutes. Why are my times always so stinkin' off? Here's a little sneaky peek at what the pans looked like- don't mind the messy counters around them, I AM at Stephen's apartment (yuck).

6. Boil sugar, water, and butter during the last five minutes of baking. Remove from heat, add extract.
      - Yeah, this step was of really no help. It didn't give a temperature, so I put it on a low-medium for at least 15 minutes, trying to get the water to burn off and the glaze to get thicker.

7. Pour 1/4 cup of glaze over each loaf.
     - I literally grabbed a 1/4 measuring cup, popped each loaf out of their pan (they were fairly cool by this point), smothered each loaf in glaze, and then popped them back into the pans... to give as gifts! Yay!

DELICIOUS. Highly recommend these babies. Brent is telling me that they are even better if you freeze them, so experimentally, we're popping one into the freezer to see what he's talking about. Enjoy the following pictures, I'm off to play merry homemaker and give a few of these loaves out...

#18: Chocolate Molten Cupcakes

I asked for Brent's opinion on if he could have ANY dessert in the world, what would it be? His response? Coconut bread, fruit pizza, or molten lava cake. Done and done, buddy. Luckily for me, Miss Sandra Lee had a recipe for molten lava cupcakes that I had been dying to try, and NOW I had the perfect excuse to try them out! They were pretty good, although maybe a little time consuming. Lots of refrigerating and freezing involved with this one. Nothing like pulling apart a cupcake and having a little gooey goodness in the middle. Shoot, Applebee's has got NOTHING on me...

#18: Chocolate Molten Cupcakes (as taken from Sandra Lee's Bake Sale Cookbook)

Ingredients:

1/2 of a 12 ounce package semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 package (18.25 ounces) German chocolate cake mix
1 1/3 cups chocolate milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
Powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Place chocolate chips in a medium bowl; set aside. In a small sauce pan, heat cream over medium heat until nearly boiling. Pour cream over chocolate chips; stir until smooth. Cover bowl and refrigerate for 2 hours.
     - I only had the chocolate in the fridge for like an hour and a half. No big deal, worked beautifully.

2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (OR DON'T! Ha ha). Using a 1 teaspoon measure, scoop 24 balls from chocolate mixture. Place balls on baking sheet; freeze for one hour.
     - There was A LOT of mixture left over, so I went ahead and made the 24 balls considerably larger than the recipe called for. I'm still not sure if this was a brilliant idea on my part, or detrimental to my recipe later. You'll see.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line twenty-four 2 1/2-inch muffin cups with paper bake cups; set aside.

4.  In a large bowl, beat cake mix, chocolate milk, oil, and eggs with an electric mixer on low for 30 seconds. Scape down the side of the bowl; beat for 2 minutes on medium. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each about half full. Place a frozen chocolate ball in batter in each muffin cup. Spoon more batter over each chocolate ball, filling each muffin cup about 3/4ths full (Do not push ball down into batter).
     - Oh man, this step was a headache. For me. First of all, my frozen chocolate balls (... yeah... go ahead, jokes...) were HUGE! (... that's what she said... I'm sorry, I had to before someone else did, sigh), so I had to literally fill up the entire muffin cup with batter... which naturally resulted in my having less batter than needed to fill all 24 muffin cups. So I ended up only having enough batter for 20 cupcakes. Which worked fine, but I just wanted to give you all a heads up if you try this recipe out. You're welcome!

5. Bake for 16 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the cupcake comes out clean (this was the full 20 minutes for me!). Cool cupcakes in muffin cups. Just before serving, sift powdered sugar over the cupcakes.
     - The boys didn't have a sifter, so I improvised with a spoon and a fork. It didn't work the greatest (note to self- buy Stephen a "sifter" for Christmas. Got it.)

All right, I'm still not completely sold on these cupcakes, now that I've reflected on the recipe. Upon tasting one, Stephen turned to me and asked "Hey, did you use a cake mix for these?" He meant it to be a compliment, as in "These are good, IS THERE cake mix in here, no way?!" As soon as he said that, all I could taste was the cake mix. It didn't blend really nicely with the SUPER rich chocolate centers that came from the... tee hee... melting chocolate balls. Either I would want to find another, more rich cake mix to use in these cupcakes, or find a rich, from scratch recipe for a dark chocolate cake. Is this a recipe I'd want to try again? Hmm, probably not, but I am DETERMINED to find a FANTASTIC molten chocolate cake recipe. Now... what to do with the cupcakes we have just SITTING around at Steve's apartment six days later, hmmm...

Again, this is not a picture of my actual pictures. It looks a lot like them though, so I pulled this bad boy off of Google images. Stephen actually took quite a few pictures of my cupcakes... I just haven't gotten them from him yet, and I am impatient. So here you be!