C – My boyfriend is always talking about Be Mindful. Be Human.
… with everyone … almost every chance he gets. Sweet. So, when he had to host a hack-a-thon for 30-50 of his co-workers, he knew it was his chance to recruit me to bake for them. I was a bit freaked out. But, I was ready for the challenge.
“When is this?” I asked.
“A week from Thursday. You don’t have to do it
… if it’s too much.”
“No, I don’t think it will be too much. It will give me an excuse to bake things, post it on the blog and not eat them all myself.”
I think I was being too nice. I didn’t expect his request for baked goods to come at a time when I wasn’t going to have an oven. YUP!!!
Old Caloric is gone! That horrible oven I had been complaining about for over a year is now gone. I am so lucky that it went away. It was a disaster waiting to happen. There was only one small problem. I had to bake everything for the hack-at-thon starting the day after the new oven was installed. The Be Mindful. Be Human. kitchen was closed until then. I needed to bake for the hack-a-thon. I guess it will be a bake-a-thon for the hack-a-thon.
I couldn’t prep for his hack-a-thon or even set foot in the kitchen until then. I feared the bake-a-thon wouldn’t go too well. I was hoping to finish in 8 hours, but it was not looking good. I was making a lot of things, coconut macaroons, lemon crinkle cookies, flour-less dark chocolate cookies, strawberry lemonade bars, brownies, coffee cup cakes, chocolate pecan ice cream and fresh mint ice cream. It’s a lot to do. I hoped I could do it all. I think I bit off more than I could chew. But he’s so excited. I can’t let him down.
Stove is in! First up, an easy recipe, coconut macaroons. I needed to make a variety of desserts and not everyone loves chocolate like my boyfriend and I do. So, I had to remember to keep things simple. I needed to bake quickly and have everything taste great. I have made this recipe before. But, usually I used vanilla extract for the mix. I decided to use almond extract instead. It almost ended up in disaster.
I now have a new rule in place. Never try something you have never tried, when the thing you were doing before was already good. Especially when your feeding a lot of people. I didn’t like the almond extract taste at all when it first came out of the oven. I kept tasting it and tasting it. It had this weird after taste to them.
What the heck was going on? I had to recruit my official taste tester, Jim, to see what was wrong. He said it was fine in the beginning, but there was a strange aftertaste to them. I was not amused. After an hour of baking and I had to start from square one. This bake-a-thon wasn’t starting off well at all.
| A Bake-a-thon for the Hack-a-thon: Coconut Macaroons |
- 14 ounce package of ANGEL FLAKE Coconut
- ½ cup sugar
- 6 Tbsp flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- 4 egg whites
- 1 tsp almond extract
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Combine coconut, sugar, flour and salt in large bowl. Stir in egg whites and extract until blended.
- Drop about 1 tablespoon coconut mixture, each, into 36 mounds, 2 inches apart on greased and lightly floured baking sheets.
- Bake 20 min. or until edges are golden brown.
- Immediately remove from baking sheets onto wire racks. Cool completely.
- Store in an airtight container.
- Serve.
- Enjoy!
Luckily, after they sat out for a few hours and cooled down, the macaroons tasted just fine. I guess I just needed to let them settle in.
The macaroons were a hit. They tasted great. Good, moist texture and not too sweet.
Adapted from: http://www.food.com/recipe/bakers-angel-flake-coconut-macaroons-148177