March 27, 2010

NO SHOES = NO RUN

It's 20 after 7 and the sun is just about the set. I've got no shoes to run outside in, so instead I thought I'd post a bunch of stuff I've been meaning to get to. Let's start with a no-bake baking session Jessie and I had a while back...

We had two things on the menu, Cherry Almond Chocolate Clusters (for my dad) and Coconut-Chocolate Patties (for Jessie's dad). Well, the latter was for the benefit of everyone since Jessie, Jessie's dad and I all love coconut. And the recipe contains toasted coconut. Nothing, absolutely nothing is better than toasted coconut--woot! Side note: sometimes at work we get samples of toasted coconut and when the sample request form comes in, it smells so strongly of toasted coconut. I try to snag the form to log in the samples just so that I can smell the toasted coconut. I also cross my fingers that it's not contaminated. Blech!

The best thing about both recipes were the minimal ingredients. For the clusters we needed 6oz. dark chocolate, 1/2 cup of dried cherries and 1 cup of toasted almonds. Jessie and I started with the cherry almond clusters. We began by chopping up the almonds and dried cherries and what better way to chop them by using the Slap Chop:I couldn't stop laughing when I found out that Jessie had a Slap Chop! We had to bust it out and give it a shot. Here we are prepping it...
And after Jessie gave it a go:
Clearly it left something to be desired. But who cares...I had to give it a shot...
The almonds got stuck in the blades so here I am picking them out:
If you're wondering why I look so top-heavy it's because I have one of those "Magic Bags" under my Canada 2010 hoodie. I had a migraine all throughout the day but didn't want to cancel our no-bake baking plans with Jessie that night so took some pills (boo) and used the Magic Bag on my shoulders all night long. It did the trick and no-bake baking was a blast!

Check out Jessie and her new haircut. Doesn't she make a great Vanna White?If you want the recipe, you can check it out here but basically you melt the chocolate and then just mix it with the two ingredients. Then you spoon onto a non-stick baking sheet and voila, the finished product:And a closer-up...
Next up were the Coconut-Chocolate Patties. Ingredients included 1.5 cups of sweetened shredded coconut, 3 drops of pure almond extract and 3 and 3/4oz of semi-sweet chocolate, melted. I had forgotten to bring the almond extract over to Jessie's house so instead we rolled with vanilla extract. If you want proper instructions, you can go here--or just follow my directions below:

First thing's first...toast the coconut! This makes your house smell super yummy and afterwards you can gather your coconut into a rectangle like Jessie did:Then you put your coconut into a bowl and add the almond (or vanilla) extract and mix. Then you add the melted chocolate and mix again:Then you spoon onto a non-stick baking sheet and smush down a little to form patties, like so:You then stick the pan into the fridge to harden. Or, if you're like me and you want to enjoy your "toasted coconut chocolate mounds of heaven" faster, I'd suggest sticking them in the freezer! Afterwards they look like this:And they are so ridiculously good and addictive!

Here's a lovely haystack:They really are addictive. I normally share all my treats made at Jessie's with the rest of my family but these stayed in my mini fridge and were consumed all by myself. I don't even remember if I shared them with Sean. I may not have *gasp* I don't even have any guilt...it's toasted coconut--covered in chocolate!!! Anyway, they're ridiculously easy to make and take hardly any time at all. Thanks Martha!

Side note: Is it weird that I'm smelling fresh-baked brownies even though I'm not baking right now? We-ird!

1 comment:

RudePrincess said...

YAY SLAP CHOP! You'll love my nuts!