Coconut Monkey Bread

I'll be honest. I didn't grow up eating monkey bread. I didn't even know what monkey bread was until I moved to the States 14 years ago (has it really been that long??) The concept of monkey bread is BRILLIANT. It makes total sense with a clever name and it tastes heavenly. One of my favorite Hong Kong style buns is the Coconut Roll (椰絲包) and not to be confused with the Cocktail Bun (雞尾包). The Coconut Roll is pretty much an inside-out version of the Cocktail Bun, and it's not as sweet since you don't get the massive filling inside. Like my mom, I love any sweet things that are made with shredded coconut. So when I thought of making monkey bread, I just naturally jumped into the idea of whipping out a coconut version of it.

I've been eyeing on recipes that I can tweak to make this coconut monkey bread happen for a really long time. I'm also not much of a baker if you haven't noticed cause I like the freedom of not needing to measure everything when I cook. Sure, I can make a good loaf of banana bread on the weekends and some treats for the holiday but baking and I are not BFFs. Will we ever be? Probably not. That's why I have such admiration for Yossy Arefi's work. Oh my god, have you been to her blog Apt. 2B Baking Co.? It'll make you want to get into the kitchen and get your hands dirty. I found her amazing Chai Spiced Monkey Bread post on Food52, and adapted the recipe for my coconut monkey bread.

For someone who only bakes from scratch once in a blue moon, I was thrilled to get such an amazing turn out! (Much credit goes to Yossy's recipe!) I mean, how could I or anyone not love this gooey and caramelized goodness?

I know working with yeast may sound intimating but this is a winner all the way, and I'm glad you stopped by to share my love for coconut!

Don't have a bundt pan? Get a classic Nordic!

Coconut Monkey Bread

Prep time: 2 hours 30 mins  Cook time: 30 mins  Total time: 3 hours

You'll need:

• Dough:
• 4 tbsp unsalted soften butter, divided
• 3/4 cup milk, 110°F
• 1/3 water, 110°F
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast, 1 envelope
• 3 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• Coconut Coating:
• 6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• 2/3 cup light brown sugar
• 2/3 cup coconut sugar
• 1/4 cup shredded coconut

Approach:

1. Use 2 tbsp of unsalted butter to grease a 12-cup bundt pan. Make sure every crevice is covered.
2. Combine the warm milk and water, sugar, and active dry yeast in a 2-cup measuring cup. Let it sit for 5 minutes while "proofing" and it starts to get bubbly.
3. Combine flour and salt in a stand-mixer bowl fitting with a dough hook.
4. When yeast is ready, turn stand-mixer on low (setting 2 on a KitchenAid) and stream in the yeast mixture. Add the remaining 2 tbsp soften butter and egg. Knead the dough for 7 minutes. Dough should be soft and sticky. If it seems too wet, add more flour a few tbsp at a time.
5. Transfer dough in a large, oiled mixing bowl. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let the dough rise 'til it has double its size, about 1 hour.
6. While you're waiting for the dough to do its magic, prepare the coconut coating by combining brown sugar, coconut sugar, and shredded coconut together in a bowl.
7. When the 1 hour is up and dough is finished from rising, transfer it to a floured surface and pat it into a 8" by 8" square. Use a pizza cutter to cut the dough into 36 pieces (6 strips each way).
8. Roll each dough piece into a ball. Dip in the melted butter, then the coconut coating. Place each ball one of top of the other in the buttered bundt pan.
9. After all the dough pieces are placed into the pan, cover it with a kitchen towel. Let it sit for 1 hour. The dough will rise 1 to 2 inches, and closer to the rim of the pan.
10. Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake the monkey bread for 25-30 minutes until the top has turned golden brown and the sugar is bubbling around the edges.
11. Let it cool for 5 minutes before placing a plate on top, then flipping it over. Let it cool for another 5 minutes before serving.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches

I love oatmeal raisin cookies. I love oatmeal raisin cookies. I love oatmeal raisin cookies. Wait, did I mention that I love oatmeal raisin cookies? I love them even more when they are soft and warm, just right out of the oven. Did you see the Six Spice Oatmeal Raisin Cookies I posted a while back? They are phenomenal! You get a big kick from the spices. And how could one not think about making ice-cream sandwiches out of them?

Instead of buying the ice-cream, I decided to make it from scratch since I have an ice-cream maker. So I turned to Jeni's recipes because I LOVE her ice-cream. Jeni opened Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams in 2002 in Columbus, Ohio. Her company now operates 10 shops (9 in Ohio and 1 in Tennessee). Her goods are also sold from coast to coast at 700+ local grocery stores. Read more about Jeni here on the company's website.

I've used her recipe last time and whipped out this Lemon Frozen Yogurt with Blueberry Sauce. I brought it to work, and everyone loved it! Making ice-cream at home isn't that difficult but it definitely takes some tryouts and errors which I'm still working on. My advise to the ones who are adventurous to try... plan ahead and follow the steps thoroughly! (oh, and don't give up trying!)

Now I got these spicy and flavorful cookies, trying to pair them up with an ice-cream flavor was a no-brainer – vanilla fits the bill just right!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches

Cookies: See Six Spice Oatmeal Raisin Cookies for the recipe!

Ice cream: Buy Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home, $18.46 on Amazon!

Irish Cream Cookies

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Baileys. "Mmmm, creamy beige" – Old Gregg from the Mighty Boosh. Irish whiskey and cream, what's not to like? And in a cookie form? YES, PLEASE.

After much looking and searching for what to bake for St. Patty's Day, I decided to make these Irish Cream Cookies. Other goodies I thought about making were these Green Velvet Cupcakes, Key Lime Cake, or these Mint Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Brownies. But the Irish Cream Cookies won because I don't bake with booze often, and come on, it's St. Patty's Day.

These warm, just-out-of-the-oven, Irish Cream Cookies blew my mind. They really are Baileys in a cookie form. The cakieness of the cookie will make you feel all fuzzy inside. I even drizzled Baileys icing on top! SO. GOOD.

Irish Cream Cookies

Servings: about 40, 2" cookies

You'll need:

• 1 cup unsalted butter, soften
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 8 tbsp of Baileys
• 3 cups flour
• 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup white chocolate chips (or chopped up white chocolate baking bar)

Icing:

• 2 tbsp of Baileys 8 tbsp of powdered sugar

Approach:

1. Line parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Set aside.
2. Beat butter and sugar together. Add eggs, then Baileys.
3. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, and salt.
4. Add the dry to the wet mixture in parts.
5. Fold in chocolate chips.
6. Scoop cookie dough onto cookie sheet, and place them 2" apart. (These cookies will spread out)
7. Bake at 350°F for 12 minutes.

For icing:

1. In a medium bowl, mix Baileys and powdered sugar together. It should be thick like honey.

Christmas Popcorn Mix & Babble Cookies

I'm a huge fan of Christmas cookies. I'm not joking - just take a look at what I did last Christmas for my co-workers. This year, instead of baking hundreds of cookies, we did a "Bake Luck" at work and everyone brought in something to share.

These were my contribution:

So since we had the "Bake Luck", I decided to skip (some of the) cookies baking this year. Instead, I made this Christmas Popcorn Mix for everyone to enjoy. check out a few things I bought for the packaging: Avery® Easy Peel® Print-to-the-Edge White 2" Round Labels from Staples, and Cellophane Bags from N.Y. Cake.

And here are the "ingredients" I used for the Christmas popcorn mix: red and green milk chocolate M&M's, red and green mint chocolate M&M's, Planters honey roasted peanuts, Popcorn Indiana Original Kettlecorn, Nestle Toll House Milk Chocolate Morsels (not the best to use but that's what I had), Snyders Mini Pretzel, Toll House Premier White Chocolate Morsels, and some red and green sprinkles.

Six-Spice Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I've made different kinds of oatmeal raisin cookies before but none of them can compared to these Six-Spice Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. It's an explosion of flavors in one cookie – a cross between a gingerbread cookie and an old-fashion oatmeal raisin.

As a child, I hated oatmeal. Hot oatmeal was my least favorite breakfast EVER. Then one day, I made this Baked Blueberry Oatmeal and I was impressed. Think of it as a giant cookie that is more moist, and almost cake-like. Anyway, back to the Six-Spice Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. They are just faaaaabulous. If you like them softer, just bake them less. You can use baking raisins but I just couldn't really taste the difference at my first try (but maybe you will). So don't sweat it if you don't come across baking raisins at your local grocery store.

Some people like to dip their cookies in milk but I'm not a dipper. However, if you are, I'd suggest that you pour yourself a glass of cold milk, sit down, and dip away!

Six-Spice Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

You'll need:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2.5 cups quick-cooking rolled oats
• 1 cup baking raisins or regular raisins

Approach:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Line baking sheet with parchment paper, set aside.
3. In a bowl, sift together flour, spices, baking soda, and salt.
4. Using a electric mixer, beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy and beat in egg and vanilla.
5. Add flour mixture and slowly beat until just combined well.
6. Stir in rolled oats and raisins (dough will be stiff).
7. Using a cookie/ice cream scoop, drop and space dough about 1 inches apart onto baking sheet. Then using a spatula, flatten the dough lightly. Bake for 12 minutes.
8. Cool cookies on baking sheet for a few minutes then transfer to racks to cool completely.

This recipe is adopted from Epicurious.

Cheddar Pear Tart

This cheddar pear tart recipe is now one of my fall favorites. It's an apple pie alternative and a great party finger food. I originally saw a recipe for cheddar pear pie but remembering that my sister gave me some tartlet tins a while go, my light bulb then went on and decided to make tarts instead of a pie.

This baking session ended up taking me WAY longer than it needed to only because there were only five tartlet tins to use (kicking myself for not being prepared!). I didn't want to bake 5 tarts at a time but it was already too late to change my idea. And plan b, of going out to get more tins, was out of the question that day. I committed so I went for it.

After a few hours, there they were! :)

Cheddar Pear Tart

Servings: 50 tarts

You'll need:

Shells:

• 4 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 sticks unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 tsp salt

Filling:

• 6 bartlett pears
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp salt

Topping:

• 1 1/2 cup fine shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup unsalted butted, melted at room temp

Approach:

1. Make the tart shells by combining flour, powdered sugar, and salt. Then add vanilla extract and butter and slowly whisk in the eggs. Form dough into a ball.
2. Make the filling by chopping and dicing the pears, then mix in the cornstarch and salt. Set aside.
3. For the topping, combine cheddar cheese, flour, sugar, and salt. Then mix in the melted butter. Stir to combine but don't over mix. It'll appear crumbly.
4. Form dough into 1 inch balls (bigger or smaller, depends on the tin size)
5. Cover each tin with dough by working from the middle then outwards. When you get to the top, slightly pitch the edge so it looks like an "A".
6. Fill in the diced pears to the top, then add the topping, and sprinkle a little more cheddar cheese.
7. Bake at 375°F for 15-17 minutes or until the top has turned brown.

Bon Appétit!

Pumpkin Spice Doughnut Holes

Fall or autumn – my favorite season of all. I like it because of many reasons and one of them is that I get to bake like a mad woman! I originally wanted to bake doughnuts but since I don't have a doughnut pan I thought I'd use a mini muffin pan to make doughnut holes instead. Results? Better than I expected! These are great with or without the sugar coat and it's crazy good when it is served warm. So next time when you're just sitting at home on a chili day, give these pumpkin spice doughnut holes a try. You won't regret it!

Pumpkin Spice Doughnut Holes

Servings: 48

You'll need:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
• 1 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• 1/4 teaspoons ground cloves
• 2/3 cup canola oil
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 2 large egg
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cup canned plain pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
• 1 cup milk

For the sugar coating:

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons cinnamon

Approach:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Mix all dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ground cloves.
3. Mix all wet ingredients: canola oil, light brown sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, pumpkin, milk.
4. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients until just combined but not over mixed.
5. Pour batter in a large ziplock bag.
6. Brush or spray oil evenly onto mini muffin pan.
7. Carefully squeeze batter into each cup until 3/4 full. (A full cup will make a puffier end product).
8. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Optional: sugar coating
9. While doughnut holes are baking, melt 3 tablespoons of butter. Then in another mixing bowl, mix together sugar and cinnamon.
10. Once doughnut holes are cool, lightly coat each one with butter then with sugar mixture.

This recipe is adopted from Two Peas and Their Pod.

Simple Homemade Dog Treats

Chip a.k.a. Chippers, Chippy, Chipapa. He's such a happy little guy. This 8-month-old puppy can go through treats like it's his job. A couple days ago I decided to make him some simple homemade dog treats. I hate that some dog treats are made with ingredients that I can't even pronounce. Dog treats should be simple and high in nutrition. This is a really simple recipe and Chip seems to like it a lot. It's puppy-approved! :)

Simple Homemade Dog Treats

Prep time: 25 mins  Cook time: 20 mins  Total time: 45 mins

You'll need:

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 (4 oz.) baby food*

Approach:

1. Combine and mix the 2 ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
2. Sprinkle some flour on the table and work the dough into a ball form. (It should feel like a pizza dough)
3. Whip out your rolling pin and flatten the dough down to about ¼" thick.
4. Cut out shapes using cookie cutters or a pizza cutter.
5. Place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
6. Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes.

Notes:

*I get the Earth's Best brand because of its wholesome ingredients: Water, organic carrots, organic apples, organic ground turkey, organic whole barley flour.

Nutella Banana Bread (w/ Sugar Glazed Walnuts)

When life gives you ripe bananas, make Nutella Banana Bread!

I happen to have some ripe bananas laying around so I whipped out my favorite banana bread recipe. My mom used to make banana bread a lot, and the house would be filled with this amazing aroma of freshly baked banana bread. Seriously, if you have never made banana bread before, you've been missing out BIG time. And if you like walnut, feel free to throw in a handful. I actually had some Emerald sugar glazed walnuts in my pantry so I decided to sprinkle them on top. The bread is so moist and totally scrumptious. And come on, who doesn't like nutella!? :)

Nutella Banana Bread

You'll need:

1/4 cup (half a stick) butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3 ripe bananas
2 large eggs
1/3 cup plain low fat yogurt, low fat sour cream or buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour, or half all-purpose and half whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3-4 tbsp Nutella regular or sugar glazed walnuts (optional)

Approach:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray an 8″x4″ or 9″x5″ loaf pan with non-stick spray, or spread a thin layer of melted butter on the inside of the loaf pan.
2. Using a stand (or hand) mixer, beat the butter and sugar until well combined – the mixture will have the consistency of wet sand. Add the banana, eggs, yogurt and vanilla and beat until well blended.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
4. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture in 2-3 batches until well-combined.
5. Pour half the batter into the loaf pan, drizzle some Nutella and mix it in a little. Then top with the rest of the batter and drizzle some more Nutella. (If you find the Nutella to be too thick to drizzle, try to dilute it with a little bit of warm water or milk.)
6. Sprinkle some sugar glazed walnuts on top, and bake for 1 hour at 350°F.
7. Let it cool for 10-15 minutes before slicing.

Holiday Cookies 2011

Every Christmas I get so inspired to bake holiday cookies. Last year, I broke my own record in cookie baking – I baked close to 500 cookies! Granted they were tiny one inch cookies but it was actually quite a challenging task. I knew I wanted to package them as individual bags so I started looking around for inspiration. I saw people doing all kind of cool stuff with their packaging. Then I came across an image of cookies being wrapped in clear plastic so my light bulb went on.

I found some clear plastic sleeve on the web and ordered a bunch of them. They were about 2.5 inches wide and both ends were open. I also bought some baker's twine from Paper Treats on Etsy. The package it came in was super adorable!

And to complete the packaging, I needed paper for the tag so Paper Presentation was the place go. Then I was on a hunt to find possibly the smallest cookie cutter on the planet. And of course, NY Cake always has what I need.

After getting all the materials. It was time to look for recipes! Here are the 5 that I decided and adopted from – Lemon Shortbread, Old-Fashioned Gingerbread, Chocolate Almond Cranberry, Chocolate Espresso, and Earl Grey Tea. I did a small test using the 1 inch cookie cutter and those cookies came out just the right size to fit into the 2.5 inch sleeve. Then I was golden and started baking away!