Little White Mountains

This past week was a marathon to me. I couldn't believe I survived. My architectural work has taken the most out of me and I am so exhausted! I miss my kitchen so much!

Not sure why I got myself into this, but I actually had to work on both weekends as well. It's such a nice day outside and I'd rather do something enjoyable than work. To try to balance out my life and probably try to keep my sanity, I scheduled myself a hot pot dinner and spared some time to bake something. Having time to bake or make food is a real treat for myself.

I picked this recipe mostly because of the preparation time it is involved. I have never seen such an easy recipe before.

Coconut Macaroons
(Recipe adapted from The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Pastry Arts from the French Culinary Institute, slightly altered to fit for everyday home baking.)
Ingredients (makes 8)
105g shredded coconut
52g sugar
35g egg white (from 1 large egg)

Method:
Preheat oven to 265F. Line a baking sheet with silicon pad / parchment. Combine all ingredients and mix well.
Using a spoon or a small ice-cream scoop, compact the mixture into 8 tightly packed pyramids and line them apart on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned.  Leave them on the baking sheet for several minutes before transferring to the cooling rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container and consume within 2 days.

Full of Passion

 

I love passion fruit, but in this city where half of the time is covered with snow it is not easy to find. I have always wanted to purchase frozen passion fruit puree but that's hard to find too. I was so lucky to come across some fresh ones last week when I was grocery shopping! I couldn't resist to snatch a few to make some sweet goodies from it!

This is a coconut cupcake with passion fruit buttercream. There are so many praises online so I had high hopes for the cupcakes; however, I found the taste of coconut is lacking when paired with the strong tasting passion fruit. This cupcake recipe has room for improvement.

Regardless, I couldn't resist eating the buttercream by the spoon.