Zucchini Coconut Muffins

 Summer is one of my four favorite seasons, and zucchini is one of the main reasons.  For me, there is no such thing as too much zucchini, and no such thing as too many zucchini recipes.  I didn't have one that pairs it with coconut yet (and you know I love me some coconut), so when my KAF catalog came with this recipe on page 22, no brainer.  Whip 'em up, feed 'em to house guests.  Don't even ask if they like them, because they'd be crazy not to.

I think I read somewhere that a new "flavor trend" is pairing coconut with ginger.  Which sounds like heaven to me, and which pairing also comes packaged up in this what's-seeming-to-be-practically-perfect-in-every-way cakelet.  And no, you don't have to order "coconut milk powder" from King Arthur just to mix it with milk for the glaze.  You can just buy a can of actual coconut milk; it's even better, and with the leftover, make one of these.  Here's to a summer full of fruity - and zucchini-y - recipes!

Zucchini Coconut Muffins (print recipe)
Makes 12 muffins

Muffins:
2 large eggs
1/3 cup honey
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp coconut extract
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 cups (8 ounces) grated unpeeled zucchini (about 1 medium)
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

Glaze:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 T coconut milk powder, optional (I substituted coconut milk for the powder & milk)
2 T milk
1/4 cup toasted coconut

1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Lightly grease a 12-cup muffin pan.

2.  For the batter, combine eggs, honey, oil, sugar, and coconut flavor until smooth.  Add the dry ingredients and mix until well combined.  Stir in the zucchini and coconut.

3.  Scoop the batter into the wells of the pan, about 1/4 cup per muffin.

4.  Bake for 24 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Remove from oven; cool in pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

5.  For the glaze, sift together the dry ingredients; mix in the milk.  Dunk the top of each muffin into the glaze and sprinkle with toasted coconut, if desired. 

Recipe from King Arthur Flour

1 year ago: Caramel-Hazelnut Brownies
2 years ago:  Chock-Full of Chocolate Chip Cookies
3 years ago: Magnolia's Famous Banana Pudding

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

 Yes, yes, yes, it's another banana recipe.  You know I can't get enough of them.  But it has been awhile since I posted one.

My kids love chocolate chips thrown into most muffins and breads.  And I am happy to oblige.  Why not?  Especially with these - hello, whole wheat flour!  Whole wheat flour, and cinnamon chips (optional but amazing!), and chocolate chips and either rum or coconut extract?!  So awesome.  Either one adds a very subtle but yummo flavor everyone you know will love. 

 Put these in your "no fail" folder, your "crowd pleaser" bookmark.  Always, always, always a hit.  Perfect in any season, for any occasion.  So delicious.  And that's all I have to say about that.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins (print recipe)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup mashed bananas, about 2 medium
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 to 1/4 butter rum or coconut flavor, optional
1/3 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat or white whole wheat flour
3/4 cup chocolate chips
1 cup chopped toasted walnuts or pecans, optional
1 cup cinnamon chips, optional

1.  Preheat the oven to 350.  Lightly grease 12 to 14 standard muffin cups.

2.  Beat the butter and sugar until smooth.  Beat in the banana, then the egg, flavorings, and milk.  Add the baking powder, baking soda, salt and flours, stirring until smooth.  Stir in the chocolate chips, nuts and cinnamon chips.

3.  Heap the thick batter into the prepared muffin cups, mounding them quite full; you'll make 14 muffins if you've used all three add-ins.  Bake the muffins 20 to 23 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.  Remove the muffins from the oven and transfer them to a wire rack to cool.  Makes 12 to 14 muffins.

Recipe from King Arthur Flour

Coconut-Filled Lemon Cake

Mmm. This one was borderline for Lemonade Week since it is oh-so-lemony and the glaze could just as easily be lemonade syrup. But in the end I had family coming into town and I just didn't get a seventh recipe up, so here it is a little later. No complaining.

So I know it doesn't look perfect but you can see this is a tunnel-of-coconut cake, right? A very lemony tunnel-of-coconut cake. Which makes it perfect and amazing. I made it for 4th of July - Bundts are always a great choice for picnics or potlucks because they travel so well and everyone likes them. And they're not melty, at least this one isn't. But it is fun! Different! Flavorful beyond description! Moist! Summery!

And it uses one of my new favorite ingredients - I can't remember if I've mentioned it before. Lemon juice powder. Laaa! It gives you that super strong true lemon flavor you want without compromising your chemistry with liquid or artificial stuff. Love it! And if you're wondering what to use it in, you can start with this cake and go from there.
Coconut-Filled Lemon Cake (print recipe)
Filling:
2 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon coconut flavor OR 2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups shredded or flaked sweetened coconut
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Cake:
1 cup unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
finely grated rind of 2 lemons OR 3/4 teaspoon lemon oil
1 T lemon juice powder, optional

Glaze:
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
3/4 cup sugar

1) Beat the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt in a large bowl till the mixture is soft and fluffy. Add the confectioners' sugar, and beat at high speed till the mixture forms fairly stiff peaks. When you scoop some up in a spoon, it should hold its shape easily. Stir in the coconut flavor or vanilla. Toss the coconut with the flour, and add to the egg white mixture, stirring till thoroughly combined. Set it aside while you make the cake.

2) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a a 9" to 10", 9- to 10-cup capacity Bundt-style pan, or a 10" tube pan.

3) Beat together the butter, sugar, and salt, first till combined, then till fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, and scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl after you've added the first 2 eggs. Add the baking powder, then add the flour alternately with the milk, starting and ending with the flour. Mix until smooth. Stir in the grated lemon rind or lemon oil and the lemon juice powder, if using.

4) Spoon about 1/3 of the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with a spatula. You want to add enough to cover the bottom, and start to come up the sides; but not so much that you don't have enough left over to cover the filling. Distribute the stiff filling atop the batter, centering it within the ring of batter so it doesn't touch the sides of the pan. Pat it down gently. Dollop the remaining batter on top, again smoothing it with a spatula.

5) Bake the cake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

6) While the cake is baking, make the glaze by stirring together the lemon juice and sugar. Set it aside.

7) Remove the cake from the oven, and set it on a rack. After 5 minutes, run a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen, and turn the cake out onto a rack. Place another rack on top, and flip it over, so it's right-side-up. Poke the hot cake all over with a cake tester or toothpick. Stir the glaze to combine, and immediately brush it on the hot cake. Let it sink in, then brush on more glaze, continuing until all the glaze is used up. Allow the cake to cool before slicing. Makes about 16 servings.

Recipe from King Arthur Flour

Key Lime Bars in Coconut Crust

The weather starts warming up, and I start dreaming of the tropics. Pineapple. Mango. Coconut. Key limes. Yes, please.

Unfortunately these bars are as close as I am getting to a tropical vacation this year, maybe this decade. So I might as well enjoy this crunchy-chewy-smooth-sweet-tart-creamy consolation prize. The toasted coconut in the crust and topping adds that sweet nutty flavor as well as a crunchy texture, to make it perfectly balanced against the sweet-tart citrus filling. Enjoy!

Key Lime Bars in Coconut Crust (print recipe)

Crust:
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3 cups shredded sweetened coconut, toasted
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp coconut extract
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into cubes

Filling:
One 8-oz. package cream cheese, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
Pinch of salt
3 T unbleached all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
1/3 to 1/2 cup Key lime juice, or fresh lime juice, to taste

Zest of one lime, optional

1. Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 9x13 pan.

2. To make the crust: Combine all the crust ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl or in the bowl of a food processor. Mix or process until the mixture is crumbly. Set aside 1 cup of the crumbs, and press the remaining crumbs into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake the crust for 16 to 18 minutes, until it's golden brown.

3. To make the filling: In a medium-sized bowl, beat the cream cheese until soft. Add the sugar and salt and beat until well blended. Stir in the flour, then beat in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the lime juice and zest, mixing until smooth. Pour the filling onto the crust.

4. Bake the bars for 15 minutes. Sprinkle the reserved crumbes adn bake an additional 10 minutes, or until set around the edges but still slightly wobbly in the middle. Remove from the oven and cool at room temperature for 1 hour. For easiest slicing, refrigerate for several hours.

Recipe from The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion

Bread Week #3 Coconut Bread

This was one of my favorite contenders at Dessert Club. Rich, sweet, and very coconutty - how could it not be with all that extract? Mmm... A wonderful loaf for breakfast, teatime, or to take a friend for any occasion.

Coconut Bread (print recipe)
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
2 tsp coconut extract
1 cup buttermilk or sour milk
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 325. Mix first five ingredients together. Add dry ingredients. Fold in coconut and nuts. Line two 8x4 loaf pans with parchment or spray with cooking spray. Bake for about 1 hour. Remove bread from oven and poke holes in the top with a fork.

Topping:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 T butter
1 tsp coconut extract

Put ingredients in saucepan and warm up to, but not quite to, a boil and spoon over cooked bread.

Recipe from Dessert Club member SS

Coconut Bread (in the Bread Machine!)

The thing for me about coconut is that I love the smell and flavor, don't love the texture (I am coming around.) I can handle it in cookies, and will tolerate it on and around cakes because it just tastes so good, but I can't have too much of the straight stuff. Luckily there are such things as coconut milk and coconut extract to boost flavor without overwhelming texture.

I was recently trying a new recipe for Polynesian Chicken for dinner, and was looking for something exotic but easy to accompany it. Google "bread machine coconut bread." I skimmed through a few results until I came to this one, which had good reviews and an ingredient list I could live with. Some folks said the flavor was too mild but they had also left out the extract, so what did they expect? Also, the recipe said to cook it on the Sweet cycle, which I've never used, so I looked it up in my machine manual and it explained that the sweet cycle is for breads that have more sugar and/or fat and therefore brown more easily. It's 10 minutes shorter than the Basic cycle. I figured since coconut milk is the only liquid, and there is also an egg yolk, we'd try Sweet. It came out beautifully.

The smell, as you might imagine, was heavenly. The bread was sturdy but very soft and was pretty much all I would hope for. It was slightly sweet, as it should be, but not like a dessert or quick bread. It was perfect for our polynesian dinner, and equally perfect toasted for breakfast the next day. Since it only took 1 cup of coconut milk, and there was almost as much left in the can, I made another loaf after dinner and took it to my sister at 11pm - why not? Next time I'll make the second loaf for myself and see what kind of French toast or bread pudding it makes - mmm!

Coconut Bread
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 T vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp coconut extract
3 cups flour (recipe says all-purpose is fine but I used half all-purpose and half bread flour)
1/3 cup coconut (the stuff from a bag in the baking aisle)
2 1/2 T sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast

Measure ingredients into bread machine pan according to manufacturer instructions. Cook on the sweet or basic cycle. Makes one 1.5 lb loaf.

Recipe from Recipezaar.com

Coconut-Cream-Filled Chocolate Cupcakes

Man. I have been waiting four months to make these. I saw them in a chocolate spread in the February Family Circle, and have just been waiting for the right time to make them. I even made sure to stock up at Fran's with a piping bag and long filling tip for whenever I got around to this recipe.

I'd never made filled cupcakes so I was excited to try. There are two ways to fill:

1 - Using a long tip and a piping bag. Stick the tip in the bottom of the cupcake, and up about halfway. Squeeze hard and very slowly ease tip out, squeezing all the way. If the top or sides bulge you know you're filling it. For me, they didn't bulge so I just had to hope I was getting some in. For most of them, I did. And there was a cute little hole on the bottom like a Hostess.
2 - Use a melon baller to scoop the top of the cupcake out. Fill in the hole with filling, then replace the top and frost to hide the damage. This way there's no hole in the bottom and you are sure to get a good glob of filling in there. But it's kind of messy and you have to be super careful when frosting so the crumbs and cupcake top don't get all over.
Actually they're both pretty messy but I think I prefer method #1, at least for this cupcake.

Chocolate and coconut are fast becoming one of my favorite combinations. Even though there's no actual coconut in here, just coconut extract, it still totally counts. The smooth cream amid the dense chocolate crumb is decadent in a very sexy kind of way. No wonder it was published in February.

Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup plus 2 T unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 350. Generously coate 18 indents in two cupcake pans with nonstick cooking spray. In a bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.

2. Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl on medium speed for 2 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each . On low speed, add flour mixture, alternating with milk, in two additions. Divide batter among indents, about 1/3 cup each.

3. Bake at 350 for 17 minutes or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove cupcakes to rack and let cool completely.
Filling
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup shortening
2 cups confectioners' sugar
2 T milk
1 T coconut extract

Beat butter, shortening, confectioners' sugar and milk until smooth. Mix in coconut extract. Transfer cream filling to a pastry bag and fit with a small tip. Insert tip deep into cupcake and fill with cream until you can see top bulging. Slowly back out.

Frosting
Family Circle says to use "1 container prepared dark chocolate frosting" but I'm not really a store-bought frosting kind of girl so I made my own - it's not an exact recipe, just a rough buttercream in which you keep adding milk or sugar until the consistency is right.

4 to 5 T butter, softened
1/4 to 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
Pinch of salt
2 to 5 T milk or cream

Sift together the cocoa powder and 2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar. Add the butter and beat for about 30 seconds to a minute. Add a pinch of salt and milk 1 T at a time, beating with whisk attachement, until frosting reaches spreading consistency. Frost cupcakes.

Recipe from Family Circle, February 2009