bill's Coconut Bread

I got so excited when baking this one that I forgot to take photos! (Also, I was running late for Easter Sunday lunch and I was determined to finish making this so I could take it with me (and score a return invitation!) With or without photos - this is a winner.

Rumour has it that this is so popular that it cannot be taken off the menu at bill granger's restaurants in Sydney. Having lived a block away from bill's 2 I can only lament that my undying obsession with scrambled eggs meant I never even looked at anything else on the menu - I have learnt my lesson.

bill granger's coconut bread

From Bill Granger, via smitten kitchen, via Wednesday Chef, via The New York Times ...

I made roughly 1 1/2 batches ( to serve as 1 1/2 hostess gifts ... I ever so politely stay long enough to ensure I'm served some!) with the amounts as below.

4 very small eggs

1 cup coconut milk

7/8 cup (I know ... why bother? ... but that's what I did) 

     semi skimmed milk

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 3/4 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon table salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
210g dessicated coconut
125g melted salted butter

Heat oven to 180 (I used fan-forced this time so had it down at 160).

Whisk together eggs, coconut milk, milk and vanilla.

In a larger bowl whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, cinnnamon and sugars, before adding the coconut. Then gently fold in the contents of the other bowl before adding the melted butter.

Pour mix into one regular and one small loaf tin. This time I buttered and floured and it came out wonderfully. That said, the crust on this is pretty amazing so I have a feeling it'd probably be fine to leave any non-stick tins as is.

Now, the bit that made me late ... bake for and hour, or so, until a skewer comes out cleanly. I pulled the smaller one out just before the hour was up and after 1 hr 10mins I cranked the oven up to 180 (fan forced, remember) for another 10 minutes or so. Not ideal, but I had roast lamb waiting for me, and any 30-something Aussie girl knows that a lamb roast is better than a date with Tom Cruise (oh, how the times have changed!).

Let cool in the tins for 5-10 minutes then wrap up loosely in a teatowel and hurry off to Easter Sunday lunch! (As an aside, taunting people with the smell of freshly baked cake/bread on the train may be my new favourite pasttime!)

Next time: I'd soak the coconut in the coconut milk, and maybe use a higher proportion of coconut milk; I'd use more brown sugar (I ran out this time); I might brown the butter, or replace it with coconut oil; I think I'd add some sort of tropical fruit somehow ...; and mainly I'd like to convert it back to a cake. If nothing else (but trust me, this is so good it doesn't need anything else) I'd like to use this as a springboard to creating my very first cake recipe ... we'll see...

Nutty Balls: An unassuming champion

In the foodie feast that was New Year's Eve 2012 ... On a side note, it feels wrong to write 2012 when it was actually the eve of 2013, though my figuring is that it was New Year's Eve in 2012 and I shall stick with that until Google tells me differently ... but back to our gluttonous celebrations ...

Despite the effusive praise heaped upon the those marvellous meringues and luscious lemon possets there was a small little sweet treat that made its appearance after everything had been cleared away, after we all insisted that we never wanted to look at food ever again, that seems to have been the dark horse.

My New Year crush (Please note those awfully healthy apples in the background)

Small melting mouthfuls that are suitable for eating at any time of the day (honest) these 'Cashew Butter Balls', now affectionately known as 'Nutty Balls' - variations of which are called Russian Tea Cakes, Mexican Wedding Cakes, Polvorones - came to my attention the weekend before Christmas and my life has been the better for it.

Perhaps as I write more, and more frequently, my utter devotion to Smitten Kitchen will become a wee bit obvious. I love Deb's style of writing, I love the way she photographs her food, I love her somewhat obsessive nature, I love that we have quite different tastes. 

I also love cashews. When – in her post about these mouthfuls of melting yumminess – Deb wrote "...I’ve never made them or absolutely anything else with cashews because I don’t much care for cashews", I was mildly appalled, before figuring that if these had converted her, even momentarily, it was rather likely that I would not be averse to their charms.

I made these as Christmas gifts, I took them with me on Christmas Day, and at last, triumphantly they made their full public debut as 2013 dawned. 

My advice: take the cashews out of the oven before they're done and/or take them off the hot tray immediately; I prefer to roll the biscuits by hand; the sugaring is fiddly but worth spending the time; and never, ever, think that you've made too many - there is no such thing.

I don’t think I can improve on Deb’s recipe – not yet at least -  though I thoroughly intend to try her many variations as soon as humanely possible.