Coconut Bread

Today, I don’t have much to talk about. Life has been completely ordinary, in the best way. I’m just going to tell you about this bread.

I first found this recipe exactly a year ago, to the day, when Tara of Seven Spoons posted about it. It caught my eye, but I soon forgot about it. I always do that when I bookmark recipes, I’ve got to print them out, or they get lost in my mile long bookmarks folder.



I was looking through my pantry this morning and found a bag of shredded coconut. This bread, and Tara's post about it popped into my head. It’s just what I wanted to make. It’s dead simple, just measure and stir. It’s also really, really delicious. I love the combination of cinnamon and coconut, it’s unexpected and surprisingly tasty. I can see this becoming a staple in my household, perfect for breakfast or a snack.

If you’ve got a bag of coconut laying around, give it a try this weekend!



Coconut Bread

via seven spoons
Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients

2 large eggs

1 1/4 cups milk

Seeds scraped from half a vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups flour, more for dusting pan

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup superfine sugar

5 ounces flaked coconut (around 1 1/2 cups)

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

Soft butter for greasing the pan

Preheat an oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk and vanilla seeds. Set aside.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Stir in the sugar and coconut. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, and slowly add the egg mixture, stirring until just combined. Fold in the melted butter, being careful not to overmix.

Grease and flour a 8-by-4-inch loaf pan. Pour in the batter and bake in the preheated oven until the loaf is golden and a cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean, around 1 hour. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in its tin for 5 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack. Position it again side up to cool a bit more.

Things I'm Loving

Pretty cutlery & warm light.



The lovely Lisa Leonard was kind enough to send me one of her beautiful necklaces and I haven’t taken it off since. I love the rustic simplicity of her designs.


Snow covered evergreens.

Cooking for Seven - Erica is a super talented 21 year old, her recipes and photos never fail to delight. Also, check out her etsy shop!

Stonesoup - This gorgeous blog is dedicated to tasty recipes using 5 ingredients or less. Awesome.

Roost - I’ve been a fan of Coco’s blog for ages. It’s one of the prettiest out there, her photos are awe inspiring.

Unruly Things - Alyson always find the prettiest jewelry.



This gorgeous painting by the fabled needle. I’m on the look out for a barn wood frame for this!


Beauty in unexpected places.

She & Him - Don't Look Back from Merge Records on Vimeo.

The new She & Him video. It’s so much fun.


LetterboxCo. for all things pretty.

Tell me, what have you been loving lately?

Buttermilk Biscuits

As a southern girl, I take my biscuits seriously. I’ve tested out lots of recipes, some good, some not so good. Through trial and error, I’ve found a few tricks that lead to a tasty biscuit.

1. White Lily flour. I can not express to you how much I love White Lily. It’s a soft flour, which means it contains less gluten, making your biscuits light and fluffy instead of tough. Cake flour is a good substitute, but nothing beats White Lily.

2. Buttermilk or whole milk. Adds flavor. I've tried skim & 2%, they create a lackluster biscuit.

3. Salted butter. Most recipes call for unsalted, but I think that little extra bit of salt is crucial to a truly tasty biscuit.

4. As little kneading as possible. Just get the dough to hold together. More kneading = more gluten, more gluten = tougher biscuits. You don’t want gluten-y biscuits.



This recipe is adapted from Food & Wine, last months issue, I believe? They were on the cover, and they were calling my name. These are thinner and crisper than a lot of biscuits, but I like them a lot. They are perfect in the morning with bacon, or with dinner. Substitute garlic salt for the salt, and add 1/2 teaspoon of onion powder and they’d be perfect with spaghetti.



Buttermilk Biscuits
Adapted from Food & Wine

I cube my butter into pretty small pieces before adding it to the batter. I find using my fingers to cut it in works best. Just make sure you butter is super cold. Rub the pieces in between your fingers, until you have pea sized pieces through out.

4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 sticks salted butter, cubed and chilled, plus more for spreading
1 1/2 cups buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 400° and position racks in the upper and lower thirds. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. In a large bowl, whisk the flour with the salt, baking powder and baking soda. Using a pastry blender or 2 knives (or your fingers), cut in the butter until it is the size of small peas. Add the buttermilk and stir until a shaggy dough forms.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface; knead until it comes together. Pat the dough 3/4 inch thick. Using a 3 1/2-inch round cutter, stamp out as many biscuits as possible. Reroll the scraps and stamp out more biscuits.

Transfer the biscuits to the baking sheets and bake for about 30 minutes, until golden and risen, shifting the pans halfway through baking. Let the biscuits cool.

Also! The winner of my Tate’s Bake Shop giveaway is Anika! Congrats! I hope you enjoy your cookies and cookbook.

Tate's Bake Shop Giveaway

A couple of months ago, I received an email from Tate’s Bake Shop,
asking if I’d like to try a selection of their famous cookies. My immediate reply was “Yes! I love cookies!”.

Soon after, a beautifully wrapped package came in the mail, containing a sampling of their chocolate chip, white chocolate macadamia nut, and oatmeal raisin cookies. Let me tell you, these cookies are good. Thin and crispy, with a slight caramel-y flavor. I had fully intended to take photos of them for you, but my family devoured them. My favorite was the oatmeal raisin, a little chewier than the rest, and downright delicious.

Also in the box was a copy of the Tates Bake Shop cookbook, which is
beautiful and has lots and lots of fun recipes inside. (and a foreward by Ina Garten!)

Would you like to try these cookies out for yourself? Today I’m giving
away the Tate’s gift pack assortment, provided by Tate’s Bake Shop, with all the cookies I mentioned above plus the cookbook!


How to enter:

Enter once by leaving a comment on this post, telling me which kind of cookie if your favorite and a way to contact you if you don't have a blog.

Enter a second time by becoming a fan of Tate’s on facebook, come back here and leave a second comment telling me you’ve done so.


No entries after 11 pm EST this Friday, January 7th. US residents only.