Toasting Coconut: oven or stove-top?

If you've ever wondered if it is easier/better to toast coconut flakes in the oven or on the stove-top, never fear, I just tested it for you. Or maybe you don't care, but I just have to share my fount of knowledge.

When done in a skillet on the stove, the coconut toasts unevenly and it is easier to burn parts of it, you have to pay close attention and stir it a lot to make sure that it is toasting as evenly as possible. When toasting in the oven, coconut toasts more evenly, it takes longer to burn, but it is easier to forget about, and you have to preheat the oven. I dislike preheating the oven for prep-work if I'm not using it later for the final project, so when Older Sister used the oven method of toasting coconut for the Great French Toast breakfast, I was surprised that she did it in the oven instead of on the stove.

Toasted Coconut: OVEN vs. SKILLET 

In the picture you can see they have different aesthetic qualities, so if you think the variegated colors of the skillet toasting will suit your needs, then do it and pay close attention and keep the burner on very low heat. If you like the more controlled, even color of the oven-toasted coconut, then do it and set a timer to help you remember that something is in the oven and be sure to stir it every couple of minutes.

What happens when you . . .

Freeze an egg?
I have a friend who told me that she freezes egg yolks or whites if she has a recipe calling for one part of the egg and not the other, and later uses the frozen part for a different recipe that needs the other egg part. I've wondered for ages what would happen if an egg is frozen whole, and this weekend, I found out.

The shell cracked quite neatly, which is exactly what I was hoping for. Here's what it looked like an hour later:

Then I was able to pull the shell right off, leaving this:

After which I put it in the fridge to finish thawing. I ate it for breakfast, and it was edible, but didn't taste or act very fresh anymore. It spread out a lot instead of being thick and firm and didn't have much flavor. I forgot to take a picture of the cooked egg, being hungry at the time.

After the experiment, I thought to read up on the subject in On Food and Cooking: the Science and Lore of the Kitchen (2004). McGee on page 83 says: "Eggs can be stored frozen for several months in airtight containers. Remove them from the shell, which would shatter, as its contents expand during freezing." He also notes that the whites freeze better than the yolks or blended whole eggs, which become pasty  from protein aggregation and do not combine well with other ingredients without proper pretreatment by blending with salt, sugar or acid.  I did not notice pastiness in my egg, and I was still able to keep the yolk soft during cooking. Perhaps my egg was not frozen long enough to experience protein aggregation. What happened to my frozen egg sounds more like the deterioration that normally happens to eggs as they age, which McGee describes on page 81; the white was runny and the yolk membrane was delicate and very easily broken.

Here is one more thought from McGee: "Each [chicken] egg is about 3% of the hen's weight, so in a year of laying, she converts about eight times her body weight into eggs. A quarter of her daily energy expenditure goes toward egg-making; a duck puts in half"(page 73). It makes me think about the chicken named Speck that we had for a little while when I was about 12 years old. One she one day started disappearing for all but 20 minutes a day to come and eat. When we finally found where she was hiding, she had a nest and about 20 eggs that she was determined to hatch. We threw them out, since they would just rot, and she persisted in hiding and laying for several months. Isn't biology amazing?

Apple Harvest Phase 2

I've been able to use up almost all of the apples by making applesauce (that isn't very good because some of it got burnt), dried apple slices (which we'll need more of) and a couple batches of apple muffins, recipe from the King Arthur Flour website. For the second batch of muffins, I used half apples and half carrots and made them miniature and added extra spices. I think they're pretty cute as well as delicious.

dried apples, applesauce, and the remains of the harvest

Laying out slices for drying

miniature carrot-apple muffins

I used my apple corer-peeler-slicer, which I picked up second-hand for $3 after no one got me one for Christmas several years ago, and which I think I will now call "The Spiraler" because it makes them into neat spirals. It looks like this one, but mine is silver in color, instead of red. 

The Spiraler

I saved all the peels and cores and froze them in the event that I need to make jelly. I also used "Fruit Fresh" to prevent discoloration, and it works better than lemon juice, but the price is a little steep.

no brown apple slices here!

If there is a Phase 3 to this project, it will probably be more dried apple slices, we eat a lot of dried fruit in this house. 

Apple Harvest Phase 1

I had high hopes of preserving a lot of apples yesterday, but I first had to learn if fuji apples would make a good pie. After reading here that they are good for eating fresh and good for a sauce that needs no sugar added, I wasn't sure if making ready-to-bake frozen pies would be a good idea. So I whipped up an apple crisp for breakfast that turned out okay. The apples didn't fall apart or shrink too much, so I was assured that they would bake well in a pie, and there are now two rustic tarts now residing in the freezer.

I like to make this kind of pie because it's easy and quicker than assembling a regular 2-crust pie and you can usually get two almost whole pies out of it instead of just one. There was some leftover pie filling, and this morning it was simmered on the stove and used as a topping for French toast. It was really sweet, so I can certainly be sure that the applesauce I (hope to) make today will not need any extra sugar at all. I am a tiny bit concerned that the pies will be too sweet . . . . . but they'll still get eaten.

Harvest Time: or I wish I had an orchard

Today I was lucky enough to be able to go to a pick-your-own farm with some friends to pick my own apples. I'm so grateful for friends who let me tag along with them and have a great time with them and their kids.

Since I apparently can't resist fresh produce, and since this year I haven't had a chance to do any jamming yet, I ended up bringing home 60 pounds. I think they are mostly fuji apples, but there might be some cameos too. And they are delicious! This is how apples are meant to be eaten, fresh from the tree.  I'm excited to do something with them, hopefully over the next couple of days there will be dried apples and canned applesauce stored away and maybe even some ready-to-bake pies in the freezer instead of all this . . . . .

Peach Hotcakes

Have you ever noticed how hard it is to find good peaches at the grocery store? We've gotten lucky and our not-as-close neighborhood grocery store has had really good peaches lately. We went there to get some emergency ice cream rations to prepare for the coming hurricane and the peaches reached out and grabbed us and we bought a couple pounds. That hurricane was a bit of a let down for us (the earthquake was scarier), but the peaches were quite good.

I made some peach pancakes based on the buttermilk-blueberry pancake recipe in my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. I used cardamom instead of cinnamon, and it was okay, but it didn't have a spectacular flavor. I would just go with cinnamon for this one next time. But if you want a recipe for pancakes with cardamom, here's one from Mark Bittman. I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds delightful. 

Oh, and for some reason in my family we call them hotcakes instead of pancakes, I've always figured it's because they're bigger than the usual pancakes. If you're reading this and you know the answer, please comment and let me know!

cooked peach pancake

We like them big, but this one was almost unflippable

Peach Hotcakes

1 c. all-purpose flour

2 Tbsp. semolina flour or cornmeal

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon (or your favorite complementary spice)

1 Tbsp. honey (or sugar)

1 egg, beaten

1 c. buttermilk or yogurt or whey from draining yogurt or a combination

2 Tbsp. cooking oil

1 peach, cut into blueberry-size pieces, peeled if desired, covered in lemon juice to keep from browning

Mix together flour, semolina/cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon (and sugar, if using) in a bowl, set aside.

Mix together the honey (if using), egg, buttermilk/yogurt/whey and oil. 

Start heating up a griddle for cooking, then mix together the wet and dry ingredients until they are just barely mixed and still lumpy, then add peach pieces gently. 

Cook pancakes on lightly oiled griddle, eat with your favorite topping. 

Blueberry Mascarpone Turnovers

I really need a good pastry fix, and these turnovers will do in a pinch. These have a cheese filling (mascarpone cheese, lemon zest and juice, sugar and cornstarch) topped with blueberries. Made with puff pastry from the frozen aisle.

Fold puff pastry over fillings and sprinkle with sugar or cinnamon sugar. Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes (the puff pastry should have instructions for how long to bake it) and the fillings might explode everywhere. I'm not sure how to fix the exploding, but the cornstarch helps a little bit.