It wasn’t until I was writing this post that I noticed that this isn’t the first time I’ve posted a recipe for Hong Kong Style Coconut Tarts on my blog.
Oops?
It’s been that long I’ve forgotten I’ve made them before!
Actually, maybe don’t click on that link- there’s some cringe worthy writing during my high school days (yes it’s been that long!). And if you’re after a good coconut tart recipe, you’ll find it on this page anyway!
As we’re nearing Easter, I’m feeling in the mood for more sweet treats. If you follow me on Instagram and have noticed the recent increase in dessert photos, that’s the reason why. All in moderation of course! Which is why slices like these Canadian Nanaimo Bars are great- particularly for sharing!
I first had a taste of these delicious bars from a Canadian colleague a couple of years ago. It is essentially a coconutty chocolate biscuit base, topped with a creamy custard buttercream and then a layer of smooth chocolate ganache. And it’s not hard to see why it was a hit within our office!
They don’t get much press here in Sydney, but in Canada Nanaimo Bars are a very classic Canadian dessert. There’s even a Nanaimo Bar trail for those who are keen on trying all the different varieties! If I ever do find myself in Canada, I’d love to try the real deal, but in the meantime, it is simple enough for me to make at home too. The base recipe uses biscuit crumbs, so when I made a batch of cookies and wasn’t happy with the texture, this was the perfect excuse to blitz them into crumbs and make something even better!
Lately, it seems that everyone’s tastes have been changing.
From being the sole avocado lover in the family, to having the family go through bags of avocado at a time. Or from only having cheese once or twice a year, to having two or three slices of cheese on toast every morning. You just can’t guess what we like to eat anymore!
With the first semester of my master’s course done and dusted, I’ve been quite lazy over the first couple of days of the holidays, not quite sure where to begin on my list of things to bake (which is quite extensive seeing as it’s accumulated over the past three months!). Although it was a semester of long hours and hard work, it was the first time I actually enjoyed what I was learning and didn’t mind too much waking up early before the sun was up to get to class.
Despite numerous classes learning about nutrition and food science, I can’t say that I know nearly as much about food as I probably should, but one thing that has come out of all those classes is my motivation to try some foods/recipes that are somewhat healthier 🙂
Boo!
Hope you all had (or are having..) a great Halloween and did not spend the day like me, at home supposedly ‘studying’ but of course, not getting much work done 😉 It’s at these times of the years (right before exams) that my list of things to bake suddenly grows exponentially- and I’m not even kidding, I’m filling out pages of my notebook with ‘things to bake after exams’. And I’m not even including the things that I might like to bake!
The list itself doesn’t consist of much bread this time around. This is probably because I haven’t been to an Asian bakery for a while now and lack a bit of inspiration- I love walking into Breadtop, looking at their overpriced buns and just imagining how easy it would be for me to make the same thing at home!!
I’ve said that I’m getting back into bread baking, but since I haven’t been to an Asian bakery for a while now, these buns are taken from my second source of bread inspiration, cookbooks. I was surprised to find a recipe for baked coconut rolls in my mum’s Chinese yum-cha recipe book, though a lot of the recipes in the book were for things you don’t normally find at yum cha
I was pretty happy with the bun dough I used last time, especially since the dough was quick and easy to make so I stuck with that recipe and used the book for the shaping method. The cutting and twisting creates thin layers of bread, coated with a sweet coconut mixture which are similar to that of the coconut buns I normally make. These layers are thinner though, and so the texture of the bread doesn’t really shine though as much which means you don’t really need to go to all the effort of making very smooth bread, but may not be the perfect recipe for people who like the balance between the soft texture of bread and the sweet coconut filling (like my parents). I personally prefer this version, as I love the crispiness and stronger taste of the baked coconut- and I think it looks prettier too! 😉
Recipe for bread dough from Køkken69
6gm Active Dry East
160gm Bread Flour
40gm Plain Flour
50gm Sugar
2gm Salt
50gm Water
1 Egg
40gm Butter
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup dessicated coconut
1/2 cup sugar
1. Mix water roux ingredients together in a bowl. Cover bowl with cling wrap and store in fridge for 12 hours.
2. In a mixer fitted with a bread hook, add flour, yeast, sugar, egg and water. Start mixing at slow speed for 2 mins. Add salt and continue to knead until dough lifts from the wall of the mixing bowl.
3. Add (1) and continue to knead for 3 mins.
4. Add butter and increasing kneading speed to speed 4.
5. Continue kneading for 15 mins on speed 4 until dough is no longer sticky and does not break when pulled to perform window test.
6. Place dough in a slightly oiled bowl. Cover with cling wrap and leave to proof in a warm area for 45mins.
7. Divide the dough into 10 portions and then roll them into small balls. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes, then roll them into a long oval shape and let rest for another 3 minutes.
8. Fold the relaxed dough pieces in half and cut 4-5 slashes with a bread knife into strips (I didn’t bother with the folding in half, I just cut 4-5 lines on the dough).
9. Lightly whisk together the 3 eggs into a bowl. Stretch the dough and dip the dough in the egg until fully covered.
10. Sprinkle the coconut and sugar onto a dish and place the egg coated strips into sugar and coconut mixture. Cover both sides of the dough with the mixture.
11. Stretch the strips gently and roll in an anticlockwise direction. Do not roll too tightly.
12. Tie the rolled strips into knots. The knots should be loose rather than tight.
13. Place the rolls one a tray and let rise for ~1 hour
14. Bake at 230C for ~8 minutes or until golden in colour
Notes
* The dough stretches itself very easily, so you don’t really need to put much effort into pulling the dough
* The original recipe was for much smaller rolls (for a total of 20 rolls) so the amount of coconut/sugar/eggs is a bit too much for the amount I made- you probably want to use a bit less.
* I realise the instructions aren’t all that great, so I tried doing an illustration on paint here. I have not touched paint since primary school…don’t laugh!
In other news, Vondelicious! now has a facebook page!
So if you like my blog, feel free to hop over there and give me a facebook like! Thanks for your support! 🙂
To be honest, I’m not quite sure what it’s for, or what I can do with it, but I figured it might be useful someday since everyone else has one 😉
