Kokosmakroner: coconut macaroons

Kokosmakroner (coconut macaroons) are one of the classic Norwegian Christmas cookies. I often make them with whole eggs, but this batch was with eggwhites only, and a new method of heating the cookie dough before baking. Interesting. My mother and I also made more brune pinner today, and vepsebol (wasp nests, eggwhite, almonds and grated chocolate), which are a recent family favourite. The cake boxes are filling up nicely. Good to get most of the baking done before the rest of the family arrive. I had a nice walk in the woods, skirting around icy patches on the path, marveling over how quiet it is here!

Kokosmakroner (coconut macaroons with eggwhites – makes a tray)

• 150 gr eggwhites
• 250 gr flaked coconut
• 250 gr white granulated sugar
• After heating: 1 tbs potato flour

No whisking: Mix eggwhites, coconut and sugar well in a saucepan and heat gently while stirring, for about 5- 6 minutes. This is mean to give a chewier cookie. The consistency should be like rice porridge. The dough did get a little stretchier while warming up. Keep stirring, the eggwhite should not cook. Once it is warmed through, take off heat and stir in potato flour. Drop dough in mounds in parchment-lined baking sheet. The cookie should hold its shape when dropped on cookie sheet with teaspoons. Bake 12 minutes or so in preheated oven at 180 C, in the middle of the oven, until they are lightly golden on top but not too dry. Store in air-tight box, keeps for ages.  

The sun stayed low on the horizon, but it was a beautiful day. No white Christmas expected, but nice to be home.

Ricotta cake with plum and peach

A new and improved coconut stand spotted in Accra! Normally coconuts are sold from a flatbed hand-pulled cart, like the one below at Danquah Circle. When you buy it, the top is slashed off and you get your fresh coconut, ready to drink (often with a straw).

Here’s a cake made for a Sunday lunch: more post-holiday baking. This is a light ricotta cake with plum and peach. It’s based on this Raspberry-Ricotta Cake from Epicurious, which looks lovely, but less sweet, and with fresh fruit and some crushed amaretti biscuits thrown in.

Ricotta cake with plum and peach

70 g crashed hard amaretti biscuits, like these

4 medium eggs (or 3 large)
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla sugar (or 1/2 tsp vanilla extract)
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup ricotta (250 grammes)

2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

115 grammes softened butter
1.5 cup chopped fresh plums and peaches  (about 1 of each, depending on size).

Heat oven to 180C, and line a 24 cm cake tin with parchment paper. Rub a little butter on the internal sides of pan.

Whisk eggs and sugar, then add ricotta and vanilla, then soft butter. Whisk in flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt gently.  Now you have a light but quite buttery batter. Pour half into tin, then top with half the chopped fruit and half the crushed amaretti.  Pour over the rest of the batter, then the rest of the chopped fruit and the other half of the crushed amaretti.

Bake cake until golden brown and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 50–60 minutes. This one baked for 55 minutes. Cool on rack before slicing into wedges. I wrapped it with a tea towel to keep the ants at bay, which was successful.

This is halfway through adding batter to pan: batter, then chopped plums and peaches, then half the crushed amaretti biscuits. I don’t have one of it actually baked, but it was delicious!  We enjoyed it at lunch, and the leftovers kept well.

Note: I’ve been re-reading Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures: True Stories from a War Zone, published 2004 but still very good.

Coconut carrot cake, Stranger Things round two

Fante kenkey (fermented maize dumplings), steamed in plantain leaves. Ga kenkey is not dissimilar, but is salted and wrapped in corn husks (if I have not gotten them mixed up again….). There are some interesting fermented foods in Ghana. Kenkey can be stored unrefrigerated, is produced from local crops, and has probiotic properties. This was at my local corner shop in Accra, where I had gone to buy eggs.

Groundnuts, toilet paper, biscuits, drinks: what do you need? I needed eggs.

We are still waiting for travel clearances for our return to Italy, so today I’ve defrosted the freezer and scrubbed the balcony, both sweat-dripping processes. Clothes and bookshelves are being given away, cupboards are emptied. Next weekend we might be moving all we have into three taxis and moving into an Airbnb, but everything is on standby, so I have just collapsed under the fan to watch “The Wedding Planner”. And yesterday, we finished the last four episodes of Stranger Things season two, with a friend, homemade pizza and this cake.

It’s basically BBC Good Good Food’s Coconut carrot slices  which looks amazing. See link for recipe. But the recipe calls for 250g butter and 300g light muscovado sugar, which a) seems like an awful lot and b) we did not have. We are emptying the kitchen and making do with what we have. So I made it roughly following the recipe, but with only 100g butter and 100g sugar + 2 tbs honey, and it turned out just fine. The grilled coconut topping makes the cake really good, with a pinch of vanilla salt added.

Note: the recipe calls for 2 tsp mixed spice, which we did not have either, so I used cinnamon and allspice. Maybe 3 tsp next time, or fresher spices. The buttery coconut topping reminds me of Danish Drømmekage, which is on my to-make list. But looking at what is left in pantry and fridge, I think sticky toffee pudding is next, also to celebrate my husband’s birthday. Despite all being so uncertain about our move, we have to breathe a bit. 

The rest of Stranger Things was also excellent!