Tag Archives: Coconut oil

Coconut Blondies

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Life is good.

Coconut Blondies | Beautiful Disasters

I finished all my AP tests last Friday. We are a few breaths away from summer. Charles Ramsey’s heroic actions and great humor got me through AP testing week last week. And I have some delicious coconut blondies to share with you all.

Coconut Blondies | Beautiful Disasters

Maybe I am getting a little coconut-happy lately, but I kind of like it. Coconut signifies summer and tropical things to me, so being land-locked, coconut is one of those ingredients that has grown on me.

Coconut Blondies | Beautiful Disasters

I hope you all have a great day full of smiles, sunshine, and most of all, some coconut blondies.

Coconut Blondies

1/2 cup coconut oil (room temperature)

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon coconut extract

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons whole wheat flour (all-purpose is fine, too!)

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup unsweetened coconut

1/4 cup chopped walnuts (or desired nuts)

1/4 cup chocolate chips

  1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Spray an 8 x 8-inch baking pan with cooking spray and set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, cream together coconut oil and brown sugar unti completely combined. Mix in eggs until incorporated. Add in extracts. Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt. Finally fold in coconut.
  3. Spread dough into the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle chocolate chips over the top and slightly press into the top of the spread dough. Bake in preheated oven for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean. Let cool and cut into bars. Store leftovers in sealed container or cover with plastic wrap.

Random Fact of the Day: The blesbok, a South African antelope, is almost the same color as grapejuice.

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Coconut Pound Cake

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Do any of you guys do Lent? I feel like not many people do anymore. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but my family always gives up treats for Lent.

Coconut Pound Cake | Beautiful Disasters

Yes..treats. ALL treats.

Coconut Pound Cake | Beautiful Disasters

I am sure you can all imagine how painful this is for me, the cookie dough-cake batter-frosting-licking-addict.

Coconut Pound Cake | Beautiful Disasters

This was about as close as I could come to making a dessert without the Lent police coming after me.

Coconut Pound Cake | Beautiful Disasters

I had my dad, the coconut connoisseur, just about on his knees praising me for this cake.  This recipe fell under the “Don’t change A THING” category for him and I know he is just counting down the days until I make it again, maybe I’ll give baking it in a loaf pan a go next time?

Coconut Pound Cake | Beautiful Disasters

Coconut Pound Cake

(Make one 9 or 10-inch tube pan cake)

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

2 cups white sugar

5 eggs

1 cup milk (I used skim)

1 teaspoon coconut extract

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 1/2 oz. coconut (I used half sweetened shredded coconut and half unsweetened coconut flakes)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

pinch of salt

  1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Grease and flour a 9 or 10-inch tube pan. 
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
  3. Using a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar. Add in eggs, one at a time. Be sure to scrape down sides and bottom of bowl to get everything incorporated. Add in the coconut and vanilla extract. Mix in the milk and coconut. Finally, slowly add in the flour mixture and mix until just combined.
  4. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for 1 hour, until about golden brown and top springs back when lightly touched. Let cool in pan for about 10 minutes, then invert onto plate. Enjoy!

Coconut Pound Cake | Beautiful Disasters

Random Fact of the Day: A rainbow can only be seen in the morning or late afternoon.

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Homemade Cookie Butter

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For those of you who have not yet experienced Biscoff Spread or  Speculoos Cookie Butter from Trader Joe’s, my heart aches for you. That stuff is seriously AH-mazing. Capital AH.

Now if you have tried the stuff before, you know what I’m talking about. It’s just plain good. I have attempted to make my very own recreation of cookie butter. It’s definitely not the exact same taste, and not exactly the same texture but it’s the same concept!

I love this stuff. This is MY cookie butter. My very own version that suits my very own needs. But I thought I’d be nice and share. :) So here you go. This concoction is awesome with anything and everything. Even healthy things *gasp*, like apples! Go off and make your own cookie butter!!

Homemade Cookie Butter

(makes about 1 cup)

2 packages (18 total sheets of crackers) Graham Crackers

1 Tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 Tablespoon brown sugar

1 Tablespoon molasses

2 Tablespoons coconut oil (any other type of oil will work as well)

3/4 cup-1 cup water

  1. Place graham crackers in food processor and process until they become very fine crumbs.
  2. Keep processor running and add in cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar through top spout. Add in molasses and coconut oil through top spout.
  3. Gradually add in water until cookie butter has achieved desired creaminess. It is best to add in about 1/2 cup, lift the lid and then see where you are at and how much more water you want to add in from there. This is also a good time to taste test and see if you want to add in more spices. I store my cookie butter in an air tight container in the fridge. It should be fine in the pantry, but I have not tried it.

Random Fact of the Day: The first man to survive going over Niagara Falls later died from slipping on an orange peel.

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Super Easy Individual Crustless Pumpkin Pie

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I’m gonna be honest here for a minute (not saying I’m not always honest!)

But I have gotten pretty discouraged by some of my recipes in the past. I’ve had a Coconut Cream Pie not set up properly (however, it was still super yummy!), I’ve had fool-proof looking muffins turn out disgusting, and sugar cookies that were the biggest pain in the booty to make and didn’t even taste very good.

Anyways, my point is that even though something doesn’t turn out the way it looks in the magazines or on the Food Network doesn’t mean you should not try again.

On the other hand, some things can just be super duper scary to even think about trying. For some reason, this easy peasy recipe freaked me out. But you know what, crunch time came around and all the pressure was on me but I eventually came out a winner. *slight dramatization*

AHhh I’m tired, I need another bite.

Okay, back. So anyways even if a recipe like pudding or maybe creme brulee totally scares the bajeebas out of you, do it anyways. Suck it up buttercup and face your fears. Try something new today that you would never think of doing yourself in a million years. Make curstless pumpkin pie, it’s like pumpkin pie but with no crust. Yes, shocking. This one is actually really easy though, so maybe do something another thing that’s also super scary. Like maybe touching a spider. Just kidding… that would never happen for me even if my life depended on it

Individual Crustless Pumpkin Pies

(Similar to a pudding)

(Adapted from Natural Noshing)

2 cups of cooked pumpkin or winter squash puree (or 1 15oz can)
1/2 cup  milk
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup whole wheat flour (or all-purpose)
2 tsp ground cinnamon (more or less to taste)
1 tsp ground ginger (more or less to taste)
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/8 tsp cloves
pinch of nutmeg and allspice

1. Preheat oven to 350F . Grease four 4 ramekins and set aside.
2. Using a hand mixer, combine all wet ingredients (pumpkin through sweetener) and mix to combine well. Add remaining ingredients (flour through spices) and blend again until well incorporated.
3. Divide batter amongst the four prepared containers (or pour into one large loaf pan) and bake for 37-40 minutes or until the top is lightly browned and starts to crack. Remove from oven, let cool slightly and top with  whipped cream and toasted nuts and enjoy OR let cool and refrigerate then garnish and enjoy! I was so excited to try this I actually skipped the whipped cream, but next time I will have more self control because I know that would just make this dessert over the top

Random Fact of the Day: The odds are 1 in 25 (4%) that a food-poisoning outbreak in a restaurant came from salsa and guacamole. - Discover Magazine, 9/11

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