white chocolate, coconut blondies

Posted on April 19, 2013 by lovettlovett

These white chocolate, coconut blondies are a dump everything, mix, and wait dessert. No fuss, no frills. Just a pretty decadent, delicious treat that’s the perfect hybrid between brownie and cookie. The coconut keeps them oh, so moist and the creamy white chocolate’s the perfect companion to the coconut’s chewiness.

This was a Sunday night improvisation a few weeks ago, and I encourage you to do the same. Swap coconut for pecans or white chocolate for dark chocolate or butterscotch chips! Mix in peanut butter instead of coconut oil and add peanut chips. The pantry’s full of possibilities, but this version’s definitely worth a whirl!

1 cup coconut
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick unsalted butter
1/2 c coconut oil
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
4 tsp vanilla
1 cup white chocolate chips

Start by creaming together butter and coconut oil in the bowl of a stand mixer.

Add vanilla.

Add brown sugar and cream until well combined.

Add your two eggs.

Remove your bowl from the stand mixer and fold in flour, salt, baking powder, coconut, and chocolate chips. That’s right. Dump everything in!

Pour into a greased square pyrex dish and bake at 350 for about 25 minutes or until the top of your blondies glisten and the middle passes the toothpick test.

Cut into squares and shower these blondies’ deliciousness upon adoring coworkers.

xo,

Julia

cupcakes we can believe in

Posted on January 16, 2013 by lovettlovett

Even though Obama ate more custards than cupcakes during his first term in office, there are few desserts more “DC” right now than cupcakes. We took a tropical, Hawaiian twist on the DC favorite with these Pineapple-Coconut Cupcakes. What makes these cupcakes extra-special is they use crushed cookies instead of flour. You read right…cookies! One bite of these coconutty, cookie cupcakes & you’ll want to forget flour all together!

For the cupcakes: (makes about 22)
1 stick unsalted butter
½ c coconut oil
2 c sugar
1 ½ tsp vanilla
6 eggs
1 c sweetened coconut flakes
¼ c crushed pineapple
1 box of crushed vanilla wafers, crushed into a fine crumb
½ cup of pecans, crushed into a pecan meal

For the icing:
8 oz cream cheese
4 tbl butter
1 tsp vanilla
4 c powdered sugar (or until reaches desired thickness)
2 tbl pineapple

Start by creaming your coconut oil & butter together with the paddle attachment of a stand mixer. Once your fats are combined and a nice pale yellow, add your sugar & continue creaming.

Splash in your vanilla & then start adding eggs. Add eggs one at a time allowing enough time for each egg to integrate (scraping the side of the bowl as necessary). Once you’ve added all six eggs, your mixture should look almost custardy.

At a slow speed fold your coconut and pineapple into the batter. Once combined, add your vanilla wafer & pecan meals to the mix thickening it all up. Scrape the sides of your bowl and give your mixture a final few paddle rotations.

Prep your favorite cupcake pan with liners.

Fill close to the top. These cupcakes will rise a little bit, but not too much, so be generous with your fill!

Bake at 325 for 25-30 minutes or until they’re golden and pass a toothpick test.

For your pineapple cream cheese frosting, start by creaming softened butter & cream cheese together. Add vanilla & pineapple. Begin gradually adding powdered sugar until your frosting reaches your desired thickness (we erred on the thinner side). Once your cupcakes have cooled, frost ’em up!

Excellent room temperature or chilled, we dare you to eat just one!

xoxo,

Hungry Texans

one bowl brownies

Posted on December 4, 2012 by lovettlovett

Consider yourself warned, you’ll be a hazard to yourself with these brownies nearby. The Saucy San Diegan made quite the feast of collards, kale & pork chops, so I volunteered to whip up dessert last night. Since our kitchen is just now, two weeks later, beginning to recover from our Pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving festivities, nothing sounded better than only dirtying one bowl & I had all the ingredients on hand for brownies. I improv’d a little with my chocolate varietals & I encourage you to do the same, but let it be known these brownies turned our to be better than I could have ever imagined, so it might be worth sticking to this choco ratio. My perfect dessert – a tad bit of crunch on the outside & gooey goodness on the inside. I began devouring them the second they got out of the oven (the roof of my mouth is still recovering), enjoyed round II as a midnight snack, and woke up promptly this morning to enjoy a few nibbles for breakfast. I can’t quit these brownies. Also important to note, Boston Boy & Saucy San Diegan–both of whom have slim to no sweet tooth–loved ’em too!

Gather the following:

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup + 2 tsp boiling water

3 oz finely chopped Belgium chocolate (it’s all we had on hand thanks to one of One Sock Wonder’s friends who visited from Belgium!)

1/2 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup butter

2 eggs + 2 egg yolks

2 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 c sugar

1 3/4 c flour

3/4 tsp salt

6 oz semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350. First, dump your cocoa powder into the bowl & dissolve it with your 1/2 cup of boiling water. Then add your belgium chocolate & whisk, whisk, whisk until it’s all melted. Melt your coconut oil and butter together and then pour that into your mix until it’s combined. Add your two full eggs & two yolks & your vanilla. Then whisk in your sugar & finally, slowly add your flour/salt mixture. The final touch is to fold in your chocolate chips. There you have it! One bowl, a couple utensils, a liquid measure, a dry measure and a few guesstimates later and you have yourself One Bowl Brownies.

It’s important that you prep your pyrex accordingly. I used a square dish and lined the bottom with parchment so they popped out perfectly! Pour your batter into your prepped pan and lick the bowl (not joking! taste the batter, it should be sweet sweet with a hint of hmmm…what is this delicious vanilla, coconuty sweetness?). Pop the brownies in the oven and wait oh, so patiently as the sweetest smells start wafting from your oven. These babies took longer than I expected (~1 1/2 episodes of Homeland) or 45-60 minutes. Remove from the oven once the top is set and your brownies pass the toothpick test on the edges (I took mine out when the center was still a little rare!).

I recommend taking these to a party, where you can have as many bites as you want, but it’d be uncouth to take the whole pan home with you. If you keep them around the house too long, you’ll be like me desperately scavenging for crumbs & desperately resisting the temptation to lick the chocolate that’s smudged between your “r” & “t” keys directly from the keyboard.

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