coconut Archives - A Calculated Whisk

Cranberry Chocolate Truffles (Paleo, Vegan, Gluten-free)

December 18, 2013 By Becky Leave a Comment

I promise that after today’s post we will take a *short* break from all the cranberries.

Did you make a batch of cranberry maple syrup and cran-maple compote yet? You’re going to need it for these amazing cranberry chocolate truffles!

The inside of these candies is a beautiful dark pink color thanks to the cranberry maple syrup, and has just a hint of cocoa powder. The truffles are dipped in dark chocolate to make their snappy outer shell, and then sprinkled with shredded coconut or chopped pecans just before the coating has time to set. They may be the most festive thing I’ve ever made, other than this tart. They are great for gifting. I love the way the tart cranberry filling tastes with the rich dark chocolate, and I bet you and your lucky giftees will, too.

I think I just made up a word. It’s probably time to for me to stop and just get on with the recipe.

One more thing: these are adorable packaged in an egg carton. Wrap that all up and see how befuddled people are when they open it and think you’re giving them a carton of eggs for Christmas.

Paleo Poached Eggs with Creamy Spinach

July 18, 2013 By Becky 4 Comments

Okay, big news. A Calculated Whisk is going paleo for one month. There. I said it. Now if I go and try to post some kind of insane ice cream cupcake cookie sandwich, you guys will call me out on it. Right?

Nobody tells you this, but the ugly downside of starting a food blog is you EAT so much of the delicious food you make that your figure kind of falls by the wayside. I love desserts, obviously, but you can only have so much. It’s time for a change. In the past I’ve lost a lot of weight following the Zone diet, but this time I wanted to try something different.

I’ve been hearing so much about paleo, and it makes sense to me that eating the foods we evolved eating would be the healthiest way to go. I checked out this website for the Whole 30, and thought I would give it a try. I got The 30 Day Guide to Paleo Cooking: Entire Month of Paleo Meals, and I’m ready to go. The book is great, but I always think it’s more fun to create my own recipes. So, here it is! My first paleo breakfast. It tastes great, and I didn’t feel like anything was missing since it’s so filling, rich, and creamy.

Oh, and by the way! I’m on an exercise program, too. I’ve started barre3‘s 28 to Great. That’s six days of workouts a week (they have an awesome online library of 10, 30, 40, and 60 minute videos) for four weeks. I’ve done two workouts so far, and they are exhausting. It’s really targeted muscle work and I can tell it’s going to have an impact.

Phew. This is a lot of changes, but I hope you guys will support me and try some of the recipes. Let’s start with the most important meal of the day.

Ingredients (serves one):

2 teaspoons coconut oil, plus extra

2 eggs

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups baby spinach (or more!)

2 teaspoons coconut milk or cream

Salt and pepper to taste

In a large skillet, heat the coconut oil over medium low heat. Add the garlic and saute until it starts to brown. Turn the heat up to medium high, add the spinach, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook the spinach, tossing frequently, until just wilted, 3-5 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in the coconut milk or cream.

Meanwhile, poach your eggs. See this post about how to do it on Smitten Kitchen, or use an egg poacher. I greased the cups of my egg poacher with a little bit of coconut oil.

When the spinach is ready, make it into a nest on your plate. Slide the finished eggs into the nest, sprinkle with more salt if desired, and serve hot.

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Strawberry & Cream Margaritas

May 5, 2013 By Becky Leave a Comment

You didn’t think I was going to leave you without an idea of which margarita to enjoy with your cupcakes, did you? I am here for you!

This is delicious. I am not sure if it really counts as a margarita, but it has tequila in it. And it has something on the rim (not salt, but who’s counting?).

Ingredients (makes two servings):

1 cup frozen strawberries

1 cup coconut milk

4 ice cubes

2-3 shots silver tequila

Squeeze of lemon or lime juice, plus extra

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2-3 tablespoons honey (for a paleo-friendly version) or agave nectar (for a vegan version)

Sugar for glasses

Blend all ingredients except the sugar in a blender until smooth. Taste, and add more lemon juice or agave nectar (or tequila!) if desired.

Dip the rims of two glasses into lemon juice and then sugar. Pour into the glasses and enjoy!

¡Salud!

Make Your Own Chocolate Truffles (plus Vegan Coconut Almond Truffles)

April 8, 2013 By Becky Leave a Comment

Chocolate truffles are so easy to make, it’s amazing that places like Godiva get away with charging so much for them. If you want yours to be even more like the ones at the chocolate shop, you can melt your favorite milk or dark chocolate and dip the chilled truffles in it instead of rolling them in cocoa powder and confectioner’s sugar. Use a fork to remove the truffle once it’s covered in melted chocolate. Let the extra drip off, and place the truffle on wax or parchment paper or in a candy cup. This is a deliciously rich, fancy, no-bake dessert that will impress anyone. Chocolate truffles also make a great gift wrapped up in a cellophane bag or placed in a decorative box or tin. This recipe makes about 20 truffles.

Ingredients (adapted from Barefoot in Paris by Ina Garten):

½ cup heavy cream

3.5 ounces bittersweet chocolate

3.5 ounces semisweet chocolate

1 tablespoon brewed coffee

½ teaspoon vanilla or other flavoring

Pinch of salt

1 tablespoon Grand Marnier or other liqueur of your choosing

5 ounces melted chocolate for dipping (optional)

Cocoa and powdered sugar for rolling (optional)

Break the chocolates into small pieces and place in a bowl (don’t use chocolate chips instead of bars, because they have additives you don’t want in this recipe). Bring the cream to a boil, then quickly pour it through a sieve into the bowl with the chocolate. Use a whisk to stir until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. If your chocolate isn’t quite melted, put the bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir until smooth.

Add the coffee, vanilla or other extract, salt, and liqueur and whisk until smooth. Chill the mixture for at least 45 minutes, until firm enough to scoop.

When the mixture is firm, use a melon baller or small ice cream scoop to form balls, and place them on a sheet of parchment paper. Don’t worry if the balls aren’t totally round and smooth; you will have a chance to perfect them later.

Chill the balls for about 15 minutes, then roll them in cocoa and mold them into spheres. Chill overnight is possible, then roll in powdered sugar before serving. Or, roll yours in a mix of cocoa and powdered sugar like I did. Alternately, place in the freezer for about 15 minutes, then dip into a melted chocolate of your choice.

Vegan Coconut Almond Truffles

Ingredients:

3.5 ounces bittersweet chocolate (check the label to make sure the brand you’re buying doesn’t have any milk products)

3.5 ounces semisweet chocolate

½ cup coconut milk

½ teaspoon vanilla

½ teaspoon almond extract

1 tablespoon brewed coffee

Pinch of salt

4 tablespoons shredded coconut

4 tablespoons sliced almonds

Melt the chocolate as described in the recipe above, using coconut milk instead of cream. Add the extracts, coffee, and salt and whisk to combine.

Grind the coconut and almonds in the food processor until fine. Stir half of the nut mixture into the chocolate and save the rest for rolling.

Proceed as in the above recipe, chilling the chocolate mixture before forming it into balls. Instead of cocoa, roll the chocolates in the coconut and almond mixture.

Chocolate Mousse with a Secret Ingredient

April 5, 2013 By Becky 2 Comments

Here it is…another fabulous vegan dessert! You
have to try this. It’s easier than easy, and super delicious. No
cooking is involved, and it comes together in less than five minutes.

So, I told you it’s vegan. Can you guess what
the secret ingredient is? I will give you one hint: it’s not avocado
(although I have been wanting to try this recipe for chocolate avocado pudding).

Here’s a picture of the process:

Have you figured it out? It’s coconut cream!
Isn’t that crazy? Maybe you already knew about this whipped coconut
cream miracle, but I had no idea until I saw this photo tutorial
the other day. Today after dinner (I tried to make shrimp korma—it was
pretty good but I want to tweak the recipe before I share it with you) I
had an extra can of coconut milk and a hankering to try it. But, I
felt like it would be lame to just make and eat a bowl of whipped
coconut cream. So, I searched for a dessert featuring this amazing
stuff, and found and adapted this recipe from
Baking Chic. If you have a can of coconut milk, go put it in the
refrigerator right now so you can make this tomorrow. If you don’t have
a can of coconut milk, go out and buy one, then put it in the
refrigerator so you can make this tomorrow. If you’re in a big hurry,
put your can in the freezer so you can make this in half an hour.

Ingredients (serves one):

Cream from one can of coconut milk, chilled
1-3 tablespoons cocoa, to taste
1-3 tablespoons sugar, to taste
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Open the can of coconut milk, and spoon the hardened cream off the
top. Save the liquid for something else, like a smoothie. Using an
electric mixer, whip the coconut cream until fluffy. Mix in sugar to
taste and vanilla. The original recipe called for three tablespoons of
sugar, but I thought that would be way too sweet once I saw how little
cream I had (maybe the yield varies by can). Mine was perfect with a
tablespoon and an extra teaspoon of sugar. Set aside a few tablespoons
of the whipped cream to use as a topping. Mix in the cocoa to taste (I
used a tablespoon and a half). Serve the chocolate mousse with the
reserved whipped cream on top.

Lemon Coconut Cupcakes

March 31, 2013 By Becky Leave a Comment

I love cupcakes! I love them so much that I
named a kitten after them (she was the size of a cupcake when I found
her, so it totally makes sense). To go with my lemon kick, I decided to
create these lemon coconut cupcakes. The bird’s nest idea comes from
Martha and can be found here, and the recipe is inspired by Ina’s in the Barefoot Contessa cookbook and Gaby’s found here.
I know this may not be getting out there in time to be part of your
Easter dinner, but with regular decorating these could be enjoyed
anytime.

Ingredients (makes 18 cupcakes):

1/2 lb butter (2 sticks) at room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon lemon zest
3 teaspoons lemon juice
5 eggs at room temperature
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup coconut milk
3/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut

Lemony Cream Cheese Frosting (makes enough for 18 cupcakes):

1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temp
8 oz. Neufchatel cheese (or cream cheese), at room temp
Zest of one lemon
1/8 tsp. almond extract
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

To fill and decorate:

1 cup lemon curd(about half a recipe)

1 cup toasted sweetened shredded coconut

1 recipe cream cheese frosting

Cadbury mini eggs or other candy eggs

To make the cupcakes:

1. Preheat the oven to 325. Cream the butter and sugar in an stand
mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. With the mixer on low, add the
eggs one at a time, then add the lemon zest and juice.
2.   Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
3.   Add the dry ingredients to to the mixer in three parts, alternating with the coconut milk, and mix just until combined.
4.   Fold in the coconut.
5. Divide the batter among the cupcake cups, and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

To make the frosting:
Cream the softened butter and cream cheese together. Sift in the powdered sugar. Add the lemon zest and extracts and mix well.

To fill and decorate:

When the cupcakes are done, cool them completely. Use a paring knife
to cut a cone-shaped piece out of the top of each cupcake, making sure
not to cut all the way down to the bottom. Use a small spoon to fill
the empty cones with lemon curd (and have fun eating the little
cone-shaped pieces of cake! No one is going to miss those!).

Transfer the frosting to a large ziploc bag, and cut off the tip of one corner to make a dime-sized hole. Pipe a circle of frosting onto the outer edge of each cupcake. Sprinkle toasted coconut on top to cover. (To toast coconut, cook it in a dry skillet over medium-low heat until golden brown, about 8 minutes. Don’t turn your back on it because it burns easily.) Then, place 3 Cadbury mini eggs in the middle of each nest.