Twix Bars

I want to start this blog post with a shout out to the local businesses in Halifax. If you are living or visiting Halifax, Nova Scotia this weekend please check out our downtown core for some amazing deals on local products, out of the ordinary events, and delicious food to sample as well as purchase shadily out of a side door. I’m not kidding on that last one.

For a list of participating vendors and more information please go to I Love Local Halifax. I’ve also added them to my Lovely Locals listings on the side bar for future reference. The best way to find out about these events this weekend, I guarantee, will be on Twitter, just search for #opencity!

For the rest of my lovely readers, I present to you homemade twix bars. Sweet, gooey, delicious clone of a twix bar. My version comes in a modern ‘chunky square’ shape and is made uber delicious with extra love.

These squares are great to whip up when the weather is warming up because the oven time is short and I like to refrigerate them so they are cool when served. The prep/cooking time is short so you can make them in the morning, forget about them and then eat them all later in the day, I mean share them with friends. Actually about that, these squares need a game plan. Make these for a party, a birthday, a sick friend or family member, an orphan, but do not kid yourself into thinking you won’t eat every last crumb of these if they are left in your fridge. Trust me, even if you made them for your boyfriend and you are trying to eat better. I may know this for a fact because I have eaten two squares for breakfast two days in a row, then, broke down and gave some away. Squares-4, Amy-0.

As a recipe note, I was inspired to make these squares because they are my boyfriend’s absolute favorite chocolate bar but also because one of my very lovely friend’s, Caitlin, gifted me some Mary MaCLeod’s Butterscotch Shortbread crumbs. You can only get these things in Toronto and that just isn’t fair so I played around with a few recipes to get you the same texture. Just be aware I’m giving you a few crust options and you only need to choose one.

I used creamed coconut (don’t let the name fool you, it’s a solid) in this recipe which is pretty much solid coconut oil. It gives the chocolate a smoother and glossy appearance and it gives depth to the sweetness of the caramel but it doesn’t make it taste ‘coconutty’.  I chose to use it in the recipe because coconut oil is often used in manufactured chocolate bars, making this recipe taste more authentic. If you can’t find or don’t have creamed coconut you can use coconut oil as a substitute. If you do not have either or would rather go without, leave it out of the caramel recipe completely and substitute butter or margarine for the creamed coconut in the chocolate topping.

Twix Bar (Squares)

For the crust you can use either:

•  1 + 2/3 cup of Mary MacLeods Butterscotch Shortbread crumbs pressed into a pan
• 1 + 1/3 cup shortbread cookie crumbs mixed with 1/3 cup of toffee chips pressed into a pan OR

OR the ingredients below for a shortbread crust:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup icing sugar
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup of toffee bits

Carmel Filling

• 1/3 cup of toffee bits
• 1/4 butter
• 1 can of sweetened condensed milk
• 4 tbsp corn syrup
• 3/4 cup of salted butter
• 1 tsp of creamed coconut

Topping

• 2 tsp creamed coconut
• 1 cup of chocolate chips

Method

Preheat oven to 350F and prepare a 8″ brownie pan with cooking spray.

Make the crust. 

Option #1 – If you have Mary’s MacLeod’s crumbs then all you have to do is measure out1 +2/3 of a cup and press it into the pan with your hands trying to make it as even of a surface as possible. Bake for 10 minutes, it will be golden brown but mostly around the edges, let cool on a wire rack.

 

OR option #2 – If you are using your own shortbread cookies, crush them until you have 1 +1/3 cup and mix with 1/3 cup skor toffee bits. Use your hands press into the pan and make it as even as possible. Bake for 10 minutes, until lightly golden brown let cool on a wire rack.

OR option #3 – Lastly, if you are making the crust from the ingredients above soften butter in a  medium bowl and stir in icing sugar and salt until smooth. With a wooden spoon, carefully mix in flour by hand, once it’s mostly combined add toffee chips. Press crust into a prepared pan and make it as even as possible. Bake for about 10 minutes, the whole crust should be lightly golden brown. Remove form the oven and let cool on a wire rack.

Make the caramel.

In a medium saucepan melt butter and creamed coconut over medium heat. With a whisk add syrups and condensed milk and mix well.

 

Keep heat over medium and continually stir until the mixture turns golden brown.  You want the mixture to come to a slow boil and be patient because this process takes up to 10 minutes. The caramelization tends to happen rather quickly so do not leave it unattended. Once the caramel has reached the desired colour, gently pour over the shortbread crust. Shake the pan gently to level the caramel, let cool at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

Make the topping.

You could easily make the topping in a  double boiler but I chose the lazy route. In a medium sized microwavable dish I added the coconut cream and milk chocolate chips. I microwaved for about one and a half minutes, but in 30 second intervals stirring in between.

Once the chocolate was all smooth and mixed in with the creamed coconut I used a spatula to pour over top of the squares.

 

Smooth out and let rest.

You could throw these in the fridge right now but I would score the top of the chocolate with a knife other wise it will be difficult to cut them into actual squares later. It’s up to you but looks aren’t everything, and these taste damn fine. Now for some food porn.

Caramelized Onion Hummus

I don’t know if you noticed but I love hummus! I make hummus bi-weekly, I sometimes buy hummus to try new flavor combinations and as you can imagine, I eat hummus often.

So what do I love about hummus? Two things, first I love hummus for its versatility. I use it as a dip for vegetables and pita, as a pizza sauce for pizzas topped with black olives, red onions and spinach and as a sandwich spread, it makes a great alternative to mayonnaise. I even like to dip my roasted potatoes in it when I make weekend breakfasts at home.

Secondly, I love hummus for its health properties. The add ins, such as olive oil, garlic, lemon juice and tahini contain healthy fats, and high amounts of nutrients, vitamins and minerals. Not to forget the main star, chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans) are one of the best things you can eat out of a can/bag and widely available. I’m a huge fan of the website The World’s Healthiest Foods so I did some digging to find out nutritional information on Chickpeas. Here is what I found; chickpeas are high in fibre making you feel fuller for longer and as a result you will consume fewer calories over the course of the day as well as eating them, by the same effect, helps support a healthy digestion tract. They are also high in manganese and anti-oxidants like vitamin C, E, and beta-carotene.

You may have noticed I have a few variations for hummus on V-spot. When I first started this blog in 2008, I posted a basic recipe for Hummus with three variations; Lemon Dill Hummus, Spicy Hummus and Roasted Garlic Hummus. Since then I have posted two more variations Fire Roasted Red Pepper Hummus and Artichoke and Spinach (dip) Hummus.

Today I bring you caramelized onion hummus. Serve this at room temperature, or cold with pita chips, rice crackers and loads of fresh veggies. Great as a sandwich spread, try it slathered on toasted baguette, with Brie and sautéed mushrooms.

Caramelized Onion Hummus

• 1 medium white onion or 1/3-1/2 of a Vidalia onion
• 5 cloves of garlic, peeled, trimmed and left whole
• 1 tbs salted butter or margarine
• a pinch of thyme or rosemary
• 3-4 tbs olive oil
• 1 can of chick peas, rinsed and drained
• 1 green onion, trimmed and cut into chunks
• 1 lemon, halved and juiced
• 2-3 tbs tahini
• a few tablespoons of water
• salt and pepper to taste

Method

Prepare onions by thinly slicing into rings. Use your hands to turn them into individual rings. Trim garlic, but leave in whole cloves and set aside.

In a skillet heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. Add in onions and whole garlic cloves and season with thyme, salt and pepper. Let sit about 5-8 minutes turning occasionally so it will not burn. Add in butter and stir well to coat. If you are using white onions and want a sweeter caramelized onion you can add 1/2 tsp of sugar at this stage. Cook for an additional 5-10 minutes until the onions and garlic cloves are browned well and soft. Be careful not to burn.

While the onions are cooking add the green onion to a food processor and mince.Then add in the chickpeas, lemon juice, tahini and remaining olive oil and run until the mixture is smooth and well incorporated.

When the onions are caramelized, add them to the food processor and mix around a little with a spoon. Process a for a few pulses if you want the onions to remain chunky or process for longer if you like it smooth. Add water or additional olive oil to thin to your desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper.

I actually really like this hummus served warm and you can eat this right away. However, if you leave the hummus to cool in the fridge it sets nicer up and the flavors improve. I did not try this, but I imagine you could bake this in the oven for a few minutes, top with some gruyere or daiya for a warm dip served with toasty bread and it would taste kind of like a french onion soup dip. Yum, now I need to try that too!

Coconut Bacon

Now the recipe, I hope, you all have been waiting for. A recipe so good, it needs to come with a warning. Don’t worry it’s not a mean warning, it’s a helpful warning, because it really is, that good.

You are going to want to make this facon, you probably are not going to want to de-construct a coconut right away but think of my writing voice being your future self. Your future self who is standing at the stove stuffed to the gills and still picking away at the cookie sheet. The future self who feels like, ‘why, WHY didn’t I do this sooner?’

Now picture my writing voice as insight for right before you go to the grocery store.  If there was a time that you did eat bacon, and there is some meal or food you miss the taste of, get the ingredients for that. Write them down now, with the ingredients from the recipe below and go shopping immediately.

So if your favorite breakfast was pancakes and maple syrup with a side of bacon, you better be picking up stuff to make pancakes and triple checking you have maple syrup (you need it anyway).

For me that food was a BLT and my favorite way I remember having it was, was made on a bagel with tons of mayonnaise. I traded up my mayo for avocado sandwich spread to keep this indulgence vegan, but the next day I ate it on egg sandwiches, I crumbled it on salads, I snacked on it , cold, right out of a ziploc container. It’s that good.

After eating this facon, you may feel like you have to write fan mail, you may be compelled to comment, or you may decide you have to call in sick today from work. On second thought, maybe plan to make it this weekend.

 Coconut Bacon

• a fresh coconut shelled and cut into thin strips (yields 2-2 1/2 cups)
• 1 1/2 tbs maple syrup
• 1 tbs sesame oil
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 2 tbs soy sauce
• 1 tsp liquid smoke
• 1 tsp smoked/not smoked paprika
• 1/2 dried rosemary
• Freshly ground pepper and salt to taste

Method

You can get large flaked coconut, I am not sure if you can get it at the bulk barn but you may be able to get it at a health food store and this will do the same thing. Personally and without trying it that way, I still think I would prefer the fresh coconut. Luckily for you I just posted a step by step guide on how to to open one.

Pre- heat oven to 350.

Make the marinade by combining everything but the coconut in a medium bowl. Pour marinade over coconut and let sit for 15-30 minutes, turning every once in a while to make sure it’s evenly coated.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Turn out marinaded coconut onto parchment. Place in oven and bake for about 20-30 minutes overall.

After 10 minutes, remove from oven, salt and flip coconut. Place back in the oven and check on it about every 5 minutes after that turning when the edges seem to brown. The longer you bake it the more you should be checking on it because it will burn quickly once it gets to a certain stage.

Not every little piece is going to brown deeply but that is ok, when I reheated it I always did so in a non-stick skillet and browned it while I heated it through.

I like mine salty and I found adding sea salt during the cooking phase made it taste more authentic. If you are on a low salt diet, skip this step because it is a lot of salt and make sure you use the low salt/ light soy sauce.  Store in the refrigerator, it keeps for a week but it won’t last that long, trust me.

Ok…one more then I’m done.

Under Construction – Please Hold

Hello Everyone!

As you may have noticed, I have updated my About section with some FAQs and As, please check it out and tell me what you think!

I have been working hard lately doing tedious tasks for my blog such as remaking recipes to get photos for old posts which are/were photoless such as the newly updated Ginger Apple Cake and Spiced Raisin Bread! Check them out!

Lastly I’ve been painstakingly indexing my blog and going through old archives to check for grammatical and formatting mistakes. This has been taking up the bulk of my energy and while it shouldn’t affect my posting schedule, you will notice my mistakes as I go along. I just posted my Wine Index, a list of wines I have featured on my site, as well as a Recipe Index which I just posted today. I was nervous to post a Recipe Index without having all the back work done but the back work has been taking me so long I feel like I just need to get it published and it will help me see what is missing! Well here’s to hoping!

I’ve added For the Love of Dogs, a page where I tell you about my dogs and local (and some not so local) resources and products we love as dog owners. I’ve also made a short list of rescues I know and love in the Halifax Area.

This post is totally a forewarning, as well as an apology to you and myself for not getting this done sooner. I hope these improvements make it easier to check out some of my older posts and navigate my site.

As always, your feedback is appreciated, and I will update this posting as soon as I feel I am done with updating the archives.

Thanks for reading!

Amy

How to Open a Coconut

I bought a coconut because I dreamt of making coconut bacon. I figured having it in my house staring at me while I made breakfast was my best course of coercion. I hummed and hawed, I felt intimidated, how can such a delicious perfect food intimidate me, I’ll never know.

My friend and co-worker Rebecca sent me an instructional video. It looked simple I needed a hammer and a coconut, I got this. Oh no my friends, I did not have it in the least. I tried the seemingly simple method and failed. As you will see I resorted to a more caveman approach, but it worked, so I figured I would share with you my tips, tricks and now, new-found wisdom, of my coconut pioneerdom.  Later, we will talk bacon; sweet, salty, smoky and perfectly textured coconut bacon.

Step One

Gather your weapons!…… um, tools. You will need a sturdy and small blade with a pointed end, a tea towel large enough to wrap a coconut in, a chopstick, a glass to hold the coconut water, a cutting board and a bowl (container) to store to coconut in. Wait, did I mention you need a coconut yet? Well you need one of those too.

Step Two

Place the coconut on your tea towel on a hard surface. These little gems like to roll so you need to be especially careful in this section.

The coconut will have three dents on the top. Two of them will yield to pressure, one of them will not. Using a sharp knife, find the two that yield and use a turning motion to eat away at the soft exterior. Try not to tip the coconut because you don’t want to lose out on the water inside.

You may be able to totally clear the way with your knife but if not, that is what the chopstick is for. With the tapered end jam that inside one of the holes you have made to make a cleaner path for the coconut water.

Step Three

Drain the water. This one is pretty easy, once you have cleared a way for the water to drain, it should siphon out pretty easy. Turn the coconut upside down over a glass and let to do its thang. I shook mine once in a while because, by nature, I’m impatient.

Once it’s completely drained, set the coconut water aside. I don’t like the taste of coconut water so I mixed it in with one of my green smoothies and I did not notice it in there. Coconut water is kind of a health fad right now, it’s high in potassium and some other minerals I can’t remember. I do know it has been used in some countries as intravenous fluid which I find to be an amazing use of a natural resource.

Step Four

Back to the coconut; it’s time to do some cracking! If you watched the video above that Rebbecca provided me with, it looks pretty easy. You gently hammer around the coconut almost like you are hammering out longitudinal lines around the circumference.  When this failed to crack, even when I put in some extra effort I resorted to the towel and beat method which I’ll explain to you now. I have no clue if the tea towel you use will yield different results, but just in case, the one I used was a mircofibre-esque one. I think if it did help with anything, the exterior of the coconut stuck to it as the flesh separated from it. So if you use a different textured towel and this doesn’t work, please let me know.

Place the coconut in the towel. Gather all the edges into your hand and go outside and swing the coconut at something hard. You don’t have to ‘hulk-smash’ it, gravity does most of the work, I promise. The initial crack isn’t enough to do what you want. You want to swing about two more times to lodge the flesh from the shell. At this point I do a check and any smaller pieces or, pieces that have separated I remove from the towel and discard the shell. With any remaining large chunks, or flesh and shell-fused pieces, I simply repeat the bandaging and smashing process. The second and third time around be a little more gentle, as there is less work to do.

If at the end, you have smaller chunks of coconut left that are still fused together with the shell you can remove them with a knife which is my next step.

Step Five

I laid my tea towel over my cutting board to not damage the surface of my kitchen table.Use cation with this step as you could hurt yourself if you apply too much pressure and slip.

Think of your knife as a wedge. Slip the tip of the knife under the edge of the piece of coconut. Gently use a turning and sometimes a lifting motion to pry the flesh from the shell. Discard the shells.

Step Six

Your coconut is free, now what?

First I rinsed mine because my method tends to deposit shell-dirt on the flesh. Next, and this was the part I hated the most, you need to remove the exterior skin from the flesh. I used my paring knife and cut it off each piece. If you don’t it’s tough and bark-like and just generally not pleasant.

Once the bark was removed I then cut mine into thin strips as my whole plan for this coconut was to make vegan bacon. You could also use the same sized strips for toasted coconut, it looks pretty on desserts as Joy the Baker demonstrates here with her White Bean Bundt Cake. Or if you want something savory, try here for a Triple Lentil Stew with Red Quinoa and Toasted coconut from Kale and Cardamon. Depending on what you want to do with the coconut you can now process it many different ways.

You can use a grater or grating attachment on a food processor to shred it to use in desserts and curries. Try my Coconut Lover’s Cake or the this Coconut Tres Leche Cake with loads of toasted coconut!

You can choose to sweeten with sugar or leave it unsweetened which is generally my preference. I like to eat fresh coconut as it, but the flavour does become a tad sweeter and nuttier if you toast it. You can toast it in the oven with a careful eye, or in a non-stick skillet on the stove. Either way keep your eye on it cause it goes from golden to burnt wth a turn of a head.  Anyway you cut it, it’s delicious and good for you! Store in the fridge, it should keep for a week.