Cranberry Coconut Bread

All right, Mother Nature. Can we please get back to spring? Pretty, pretty please? With a cherry on top? The weather this weekend was so gorgeous and beautiful and fantastical. Like what end of April is SUPPOSED to be. I feel like we've totally earned a warm and lovely spring with the winter that we had (I love how I say "we." I wasn't even here for the worst of winter -- I was off in Madrid enjoying blue skies and warm sunshine. But, shhhh.) ANYWAY. We're back to like the beginning of March now with the raw wind and rain and it's so not cool, Mother Nature. Not cool at all.

Anyway, I digress. Onto the bigger and better things -- this cranberry coconut bread!!
Okay, so this bread might not be the prettiest looking bread ever, but oh man. It is DELICIOUS. I would have photographed more slices, but by the time I got around to photographing the bread, I may or may not have already eaten like the entire loaf. This bread all started with a purchase-on-a-whim from the grocery store. Langer's had a cranberry coconut juice, which I had never seen before and sounded quite intriguing, so into the cart it went. Unfortunately, actually drinking the juice was not as intriguing. It was, well, kind of odd. So, I needed to figure out what to do with an entire bottle of cranberry coconut juice. I love baking quick breads and thought about orange juice bread. Why not just swap out the orange juice for the cranberry coconut juice? Throw in some cranberries that were sitting in the freezer, add some shredded coconut, and bam! The cranberry coconut bread was born. The tangy-ness of the cranberries pairs so super well with the sweet flavor of the coconut. It's a little tropical from the coconut and a little New England-y from the cranberries. And the juice helps prevent the bread from getting too dry. SO GOOD. I think I need to make some more, like, right now.

PS - You want to know what is the most amazing baking tool for gluten free baking?? This bread loaf pan from King Arthur Flour made specifically for gluten free baking. It's taller and narrower than your standard loaf pan which is super helpful for gluten free baking. I use it ALL. THE. TIME. I discovered this little gem when I visited my mom's cousin last fall. She works at King Arthur Flour, so naturally we had to stop in and do a little shopping. While we were ooh-ing and ahh-ing over King Arthur's abundance of baking pans, she pointed out this bread loaf pan. Genius. AND I got to use her discount. Score!

Now, onto the recipe!

CRANBERRY COCONUT BREAD

Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 50 - 60 minutes Yield: 1 9x4-inch loaf


INGREDIENTS

1 large egg
3/4 cup cranberry coconut juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose gluten free flour
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 Tablespoons cold Earth Balance spread, cut into pieces
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
1/2 cup of shredded coconut, plus more for sprinkling on top



DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease a 9x4-inch loaf pan (or 9x5 works just fine) with shortening (I like to use Spectrum's Natural's Organic All Vegetable Shortening).

In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, xanthan gum, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the Earth Balance to the dry mixture, blending the ingredients together with your fingers until the Earth Balance is well incorporated.

In a small bowl, whisk the egg with the cranberry coconut juice and vanilla extract.

Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and then stir in the cranberries and shredded coconut. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and sprinkle the top with extra shredded coconut.

Bake the bread for 50 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Let the bread cool for 10 minutes, then dig in and enjoy!


Print it out!

Lael Cakes

So I just found this website and I felt that I must share. Emily Lael Aumiller just launched her new website, Lael Cakes. Lael Cakes is a bakery dedicated to baking vegan and gluten-free cakes.

Not only are they vegan and gluten-free, but they're beautiful cakes to boot.

I love that more places are becoming aware that there are people can't eat gluten and wheat, and lots of people are turning to veganism. Gluten-free products have certainly come a long, long way since I started eating gluten-free around 3 years ago. Just look at these gorgeous cakes! I don't think very many gluten-free cakes look liked this 3 years ago.

Yay for vegan and gluten-free!

Yay for Lael Cakes!

A Wednesday List: Five Things

Five things I couldn't possibly live without:

1. My cat

2. My Chucks

3. The ocean

4. Chocolate (looove the chili chocolate...soo good)

and 5. My friends and family!

Okay, so maybe that last one was more than one thing, but I kind of feel like family and friends are interchangeable. They're one thing, like familends. Or frienamily.

PS - I apologize that not all familends/frienamily have been represented equally as I do not have access to all my photos at the moment. But you all are represented in thought and spirit.

We'll pretend that made sense.

The end.

Roadtrippin': City Guides

So, while I was link-clicking during my lunch break, I discovered these really neat city guides on the Design*Sponge blog. Each city guide breaks down the different must-see/must-go-to design stores, restaurants, museums, and other places of interest.

Boston

Boston's guide is broken down into the differents areas of Boston and surrounding areas: i.e., Back Bay, North End, Brookline, Cambridge, etc. Some more places and things to do were just added to my Boston bucket list!

Savannah

And this will be helpful once I've moved! That is, if I have the time to go check out all the neat things listed, what with being in grad school and all. Ha.

Atlanta

And this is just wishful thinking that I'll make it to Atlanta while down South. 4 hour drive. Yeeaaah.

Adelaide

I just want to go back to Australia.

Go check out the rest of the city guides here! It's an awesome combination of cities within the U.S. and cities abroad!

Now I want to travel abroad.

Or at least take a road trip.

Food + Photography = A Beautiful Thing

Well.

It's been a while since I last updated this thing. My initial plan was to try to blog every other day.

Right.

I also planned to not only blog every other day, but finish designing my website (which now is being completely redone since I'm switching website builders/domains) and maintain my Etsy site (and I still haven't even finished that yet).

HAHAHA. Oh boy. I laugh. I set these goals, and they're way too high.

Anyhow, neglected goals aside, I want to talk about the blog, What Katie Ate. Um. I LOVE her photography. It's so rustic and real and all the food looks really scrumptious and I want to eat it all. In fact, I really want to eat this:

Chili Macaroni and Cheese

Yes. This needs to happen this week.

And also what I really love about What Katie Ate is the story behind the blog. She went to school for graphic design and after a while of working in the graphic design field, Katie decided that it wasn't for her (this is really weird talking about someone who has the same name -- I feel like I'm talking about myself!) Anyhow, Katie quit her graphic design job and went for what she really loved: food and photography. She started up her blog, sharing recipes and her food photography. Katie's blog is now crazy popular AND her work was featured recently in Martha Stewart Living, not to mention the countless other crazy popular blogs and websites out there.

How awesome is that? So, it just goes to show that you can do what you really love. You just have to make that jump!

It's Friday!

Vanilla Cupcakes with Lemon Filling and Meringue Frosting

I need to make these. Right. Now.

Salted Chocolate and Pecan Cake Bars

And these.

That is all.

TGIF!

A Tuesday List

It's Tuesday. It's windy, damp and icky out.

And it still doesn't feel quite like spring. Sure, it's getting up to about 60 degrees today, which is better than what we've had. But, it's cloudy, gray and rainy. I'm ready for sunshine, barbeques and sitting out on the porch drinking iced tea. I am so ready for warm weather and the food that comes with it. Here is a list of spring and summer food to help me pretend that it's not disgusting out:

1. Peach Crunch Cake: This is a different take on the peach cobbler -- a version with more oomph, if you will. Looks delicious to me.
2. Blueberry Pomegranate Granita: Two of my favorite flavors: blueberry and pomegranate!
3. Lemon Triangles: Nothing says summer quite like lemons.
4. Blueberry Lemon Buttermilk Cake: I made this the other day and I'm in love.
5. Fruit Salad with Honey Mint Lime Dressing: It just sounds so fresh and so spring-ish!

1. Citrus Marinated Jerk Chicken with Mango Salsa: Mmm. I love anything with mango salsa. And this looks so yummy!
2. Spinach Feta Turkey Burgers: LOVE LOVE LOVE turkey burgers.
3. Grilled Pineapple Mango Salmon: When I think of spring and summer, I think of grilling. And I think of fish. Delish.
4. Fish Tacos: You cannot possibly have summer without fish tacos.
5. Grilled Zucchini Fries: Because I love zucchini. And see #3.

1. Sunshine Nectar: I could go for some sunshine nectar right about now.
2. Just Peachy Lemonade: Peach lemonade? I'm in.
3. Blackberry Iced Tea: There will be summer evenings spent sitting on the patio, sipping blackberry iced tea.
4. Montgomery Mint Tea: A Southern classic! I vote to bring it up North.


Now, I am starving. And I want to be on a sunny patio sitting in a rocking chair sipping iced tea. Instead, I will be sitting in my cubicle, sipping my Nantucket Nectars Half Lemonade Half Iced Tea. It's close, right? Well. I'm pretending it's close.