Coconut pyramids

Coconut pyramids

My colleagues at work are aware that I'm a so called 'foodie', and 2 years on the trot they've bought me a book of recipes for my birthday. It's very generous of them, but I can't help but think it's just so I'll cook them treats :)
I'm fine with that!

One of my work mates has coeliac disease, and so every now and again I'm obliged to make something nice that doesn't have gluten in. So here is a really quick and moreish recipe called Coconut Pyramids, or coconut macaroons.

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Yummy haggis samosas

This evening I decided to try making these yummy haggis samosas (with a twist). As you can sea from the pic - they worked out just great!

I first heard about haggis samosas on The Hairy Bikers' latest series "Mum's know best". Apparently they're one of the featured mums' family favourites. The twist is: Instead of using the traditional samosa pastry, you use tortillas.

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Maple taffy on snow

When I was in Canada in February 2009, one local delicacy I repeatedly bought was Maple Taffy. It's maple syrup (made in the local area), heated to boiling point and poured over snow in thin streams. A wooden skewer is then dipped in it, and once the syrup has hardened slightly it's rolled up. Thanks to the recent so called 'Big Freeze' in England, we were able to re-create this splendid treat!

I know what you're thinking; We're always told not to eat yellow snow, well this is an exception to the rule :)

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Kopparberg cake

A good friend of ours made a status update on Facebook saying she'd made Kopparberg cake. Intrigued, I  asked for the recipe, and she obliged by uploading a mobile-phone photograph of the recipe page.

Hannah, I have no idea where you got the recipe from, but it's really tasty! Especially with vanilla ice-cream. Thank you!

In fact, my attempt at the cake had to be eaten with ice-cream because, it wasn't really held-together enough to be eaten as a normal slice of cake. Hopefully future versions will be more refined!

Apple cider cake ingredients

The great thing about this recipe is all the ingredients pretty much just get bunged into one bowl and mixed together.

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Macaroons, attempt #1

Pictures of Macaroons have been taunting me for a long time. Saying, “Make me, You know you want to. But, bare in mind - I'm a bastard to get right.

They look so good. So perfect.
Being a perfectionist, I thought that meant I'd be able do it. Easy.

This weekend I finally made the effort and followed a recipe from Life's a feast blog, for the simple reason that it was on the first page of my Google Reader. In hindsight, perhaps I should have tried my usual trick of prefixing the search with "World's best" (there I go, trying to blame the recipe...)

Ingredients for macaroons Well sieved macaroon mixture

I've got to be honest with you, the first batch didn't work - but I'm too proud to put up pictures of my failings. What happened was, I didn't whisk the egg whites for long enough, so when it came to piping them out - the mixture just ran out and spread into a liquidy mess.

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