Hello there my friends!!!
Here we are again with some tasty post!! I hope you have had a good week! I don’t know about the weather where you live, but we have had some pretty summer days in Lisbon! So, I’m enjoying some really good summer days while on vacations!
So, as you all may now in this column I invite someone to share a recipe, always a tasty one, of course, and some pictures made during the cooking/baking session! And to end this, the honourous guest has to finish a sentence about his/her feeling about the kitchen!
For this session, I invited someone really special. Oh yes, you must believe in every word I say about this person, because as you all may know talent has no age and you may be very talented even at the age of six, but even so… there are certain subjects where you have to me mature, and this gal is very young, yet mature and talented as she shares with us her world in unique images.
She’s 21, going on 22… and a student. She lives in Romania. She has green eyes, not blue. She has the dearest of friends and boyfriends, that has been with her for six years, and she’s no afraid of telling everyone “ti amo punto”. Her name is Smaranda.
So, this week I asked Smaranda to be my lovely guest here on {shall we eat something?} and as I was saying that I would do some cookies too, she made this amazing suggestion… “why don’t we share the same recipe, bake the same cookies and share the pictures and results?”
It would be a nice project, one recipe, two girls, two countries… one/two results :)
Oh boy, I was thrilled by this!!! I should thank Smaranda right this instance by this, because it was my very first time as a baker of cookies!!! :) So, as you may see, I agreed and we baked some cookies!
What was the recipe?
Coconut and Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup softened butter
1+1/2 cup sugar
2 whole eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules
2 table spoons flax seed
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1 cup grated coconut
2-3 tablespoons coconut dehydrated flakes for decoration
{twiggs’ version}
How to bake it?
Stir together the butter and sugar until well combined, then add the eggs, the vanilla extract and the lemon peel and mix them.
{smaranda’s version}
{twiggs’ version}
In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, instant coffee, baking soda and salt. Add to the previously mixed wet ingredients in batches, stirring gently. If desired (and I do recommend it), add the flax seed.
{twiggs’ version}
{twiggs’ version}
Finally, add the coconut and the chocolate chips and mix everything together gently.
{smaranda’s version}
{smaranda’s version}
{smaranda’s version}
Smaranda added coconut.
{twiggs’ version}
Failing to go to a proper grocery store, I boutgh 200g of dark chocolate and sliced it. Next time, I must slice it in smaller pieces.
{twiggs’ version}
Instead of coconut I added some sliced almonds!
Now chill the dough for 30 minutes and dream about warm cookies. Don’t forget to preheat the oven.
{twiggs’ version}
{twiggs’ version}
Drop small balls of dough on a cookie sheet, distanced from one another. Add some coconut flakes on top of each one and bake in the oven for 11 to 13 minutes, until they are golden brown.
{smaranda’s version}
{smaranda’s version}
Remove the cookies from the sheet and place them on a cooling rack. Then call your friends.
{twiggs’ version
{smaranda’s version}
{smaranda’s version}
Quite delicious, don’t you think?
{smaranda’s version}
The cookie jar that actually started all this delicious cooperation!
{twiggs’ version}
{twiggs’ version}
Guess which one is homemade?
{twiggs’ version}
{twiggs’ version}
I’m not grabbing, but I’m very proud that after one day, they still have this melting chocolate!
So, this is a means to say…
Yay to homemade chocolate and coconut/almond cookies!!!
To finish this… let’s see what Smaranda has to say about her kitchen…
Dear Kitchen, for me you…
…are a place of joy and experiments, of quick breakfasts before leaving for school or long time spent with the cooking book in my hands. You’re the tiniest room in my small apartment, but you can still hold together surprises, failures, successes, deliciousness, long talks over a good coffee, inviting flavors and hours of phone conversations with my mum (that would be me calling to ask about how to make a particular soup or the missing ingredients to my French potatoes and ending up talking about all the kitchen-unrelated things in the world). All in all, my dear kitchen, I couldn’t do without you!
I would like to thank Smaranda for being the nicest guest in giving her support while I was baking these cookies! And of course, I would like to thank her, also for being so fast in answering and sharing pictures and recipe!! I surely made it because of you, always so supportive! Thank you in every way!
Have a nice weekend, my sweet friends!!!
Hugs,
Twiggs
