What to do with Coconut Butter

Healthy fats like coconut oil beat sugar and flour every time for clean, sustained energy and a happy metabolism. 

So, in the midst of the Easter onslaught of factory-churned-out chocs and candies with additives galore, I just got out my beautiful marble Easter eggs for color, and made Nancy's coconut-date energy balls.

These are really, really, good, plus, as you can see from Nancy's description, they have all kinds of positive health implications.  I increased the organic citrus peels to two teaspoons each, which gives these little citruspheres a powerful resemblance in taste to those horribly unhealthy lemon bars which we all remember fondly for their ability to make our teeth hurt.  We should have listened to our teeth!  Our bodies didn't want that much pure refined sugar.  Nancy kept going on her theme and developed raw cacao superfood truffles, which look tempting to me to try.

As often happens, finally having found a recipe that used the coconut butter I'd bought on impulse, another way to use this luscious stuff appeared.  Ryan's coconut cream and blueberry bark is incredibly delicious.

As with the citrus balls, you soften the jar of coconut butter (or coconut cream) in a pan of warm water on the stove, pour it out (I used a Silpat; Ryan used parchment paper) and slap frozen blueberries evenly across the top.  The frozen blueberries solidify the coconut butter.  Just break the bark into bite-sized pieces (this is important, because chomping into a big piece may cause a blueberry laundry crisis) and store 'em in the fridge.

Many thanks to Nancy and Ryan for adding variety to my energy arsenal!

More ideas for making coconut bark here.

Update:   Here's a seriously convenient way to keep coconut cream and coconut butter accessible.  If you've ever tried to dig 'em out of the jar with a pointy knife, you know what I mean.  Warm the coconut cream or coconut butter in the uncovered jar set in a pan of water on the stove.  May take 15 minutes or so at a simmer.  Stir occasionally.  When soft, spread coconut cream or coconut butter onto a Silpat.  Let harden, and either cut or break into roughly tablespoon-sized pieces.  Store them in a jar or other container.  For coconut cream, one tablespoon heated with 1/4 cup water makes 1/4 cup.  Stir a piece or two into curries, with a little water, or into sauteed veggies with Asian seasonings.  For the coconut butter ... you can either resoften with your preferred warming method, or just enjoy it as a snack.

Coconut cream pieces ready to reconstitute ... or just eat!

Mixed Berry Flaugnarde with Vanilla Bean

Mixed berry what?

This lush, earthy yet sophisticated dessert proved a beautiful, delicately vanilla-scented solution for a Costco-sized bag of mixed berries that had crouched for months (years?) in the bottom of my freezer.   You know, the one you keep moving around when you're looking for other stuff.  And you think, "What can I do with two pounds of mixed berries?  Why did I buy them in the first place?"

I love The Nourished Kitchen blog, and was enchanted by this recipe that is so satisfying to the senses, uses my berry largesse, and assuages my conscience for ignoring that bag 'o berries for so long.

A flaugnarde (flewn-YARD) is apparently kin to the clafoutis (kah-floo-TEE), but it is flourless and more custardy.  As it happened, my aunt had given me a tube of vanilla beans (she'd been to Costco, too, and shared), and my Pure Eire cream was ready for something new.

It does add a little continental flair to say "we're having flewn-YARD" for dessert, but this lovely dish would be good even without announcing it with a French accent.
______________________________________________________
MIXED BERRY FLAUGNARDE WITH VANILLA BEAN
Adapted from The Nourished Kitchen

2 pounds mixed fresh or frozen berries
2 tablespoons vanilla extract

1 egg
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup maple syrup

1 vanilla bean (optional)

Preheat oven to350 degrees.

In a large bowl, toss berries with vanilla extract.  Put berries in a baking dish, and roast them for 20 minutes. They should have released most of their juices.

Carefully spoon berries into a colander set over a bowl.  Let them drain thoroughly; a screen mesh colander is best.  You want them to be as juice-free as possible.  Save the juices to use for flavoring other things like smoothies and ice cream, or simmer the juices down to make a lovely, vanilla-scented syrup.

In a small mixing bowl, whisk thoroughly the egg, egg yolks, cream and maple syrup.

Pour the strained berries into a shallow baking dish.  I used a 10 1/2-inch Corning ware dish with 1 1/2-inch-tall sides.  Spread berries evenly over bottom of dish.  If using vanilla bean, lay it on top of the berries.   Pour batter over berries and bake for 45 minutes or until the flaugnarde browns and the egg is just set.

Best served warm, after it cools just a bit.

Makes 4 generous servings, or 6 smaller ones

Cranberry Pluot Sauce

Rummaging in the freezer, I found cranberries from last year.  And beside them, a container of pluot sauce frozen this summer.  Combine them?  Why not! 

I usually make cranberry sauce with orange juice concentrate, but these fruity things seemed drawn to each other by some invisible force of culinary serendipity.  It happens!  It's fun, momentarily at least, to free oneself from the same old combinations of things and take a risk. 

In this case the payoff was an amazingly great cranberry sauce with summery pluot undertones.  I used a little honey to bring a not-too-sweet balance to the sauce and harmonize the flavors.

_________________________________________
CRANBERRY PLUOT SAUCE

8 cups frozen cranberries
3 cups pluot sauce (plum sauce would work, too)
1/3 cup honey

Put cranberries and pluot sauce in a large pot.  Add a little water to get things started.  Heat over medium heat until pluot sauce is fully incorporated and berries start to pop.  Cook, stirring, about 10 to 15 minutes more until sauce thickens and most of the berries have burst.  Stir in honey.

Makes about 8 servings.

Raspberry Cream Scones

For some reason, I always thought a "cream scone" meant that you sliced it and put clotted cream on it. But no. You put the cream, a whole delectable cup of it, right into the dough. This makes a scone that puts anything you'll find at Starbucks, or almost anywhere else, into oblivion.

Be sure to use divine, local Pure Eire cream! Other fruits, fresh or dried, and nuts would work wonderfully here, I think. The key is to be quick and gentle when handling the dough.

_____________________________________________
RASPBERRY CREAM SCONES
Adapted from America's Test Kitchen Cookbook

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

5 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1 cup heavy cream
1 cup raspberries

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425°F.

Place flour, baking powder and sugar in food processor. Pulse a few times to blend.

Scatter butter pieces evenly over dry ingredients. Cover and pulse (about 1 second per pulse) 10 times. Butter should be evenly chopped. Transfer mixture to large bowl.

Quickly stir in heavy cream using a rubber spatula, just until mixed and a dough begins to form, then gently and quickly fold in raspberries.

Gather dough and knead gently on a floured board for about 30 seconds. Flatten dough with you hands into an 8- or 9-inch round, then quickly cut the round into eight wedges, using a long, sharp knife or a pastry scraper. (You can cut rounds, as in biscuits, but the more you handle the dough the less tender it will become.)

Place scones on Silpat-lined or ungreased baking sheet and bake until tops are light brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 8 scones

A Berry Good Strategy

It's easy to be overwhelmed at the farmer's market when you survey the beautiful and not inexpensive berries that draw you in with their aromatic scents and luscious colors, tempting you to buy. But if berries are a part of your life and you're not willing to pay even more for faded, odd-colored, corporate-frozen berries from the supermarket, simply gird yourself with a Silpat and a baking sheet, and stride confidently into the world of having your own local berries all winter long. You'll be glad you did.

Set aside the berries that you want to eat fresh, and prepare the others as if you were going to use them right away ... wash, stem, slice if desired. Drain the berries well, and spread them in one layer on a Silpat-lined, rimmed baking sheet. Set the sheet in the freezer, and when the berries are frozen, carefully and gently fold the Silpat sides up, and then the ends, to loosen the berries. When the berries are rolling around freely, gather the two long sides of the Silpat into a chute and guide the berries into a one-gallon freezer bag. Seal well, double bag if you'll be storing them a long time, and put the bag in the freezer.

The frozen berries will keep their shapes fairly well even when thawed, so you can use them for compote or cobblers, as well as for smoothies. I can't overemphasize the usefulness of a Silpat silicone baking liner. They're available at Ariel in Richland (they're open on Farmer's Market morning!), so do stop by and pick one up. You'll use it for lots of things, and will find yourself thinking up new uses for it, like I did with freezing berries!

The same technique works with all fresh fruits ... cherries, peaches, nectarines. Give your freezer a colorful collection of local, summer fruits that will cheer you in winter.