Coconut Balls

I am sharing an easy recipe with you today since - at least here in Germany - the sun is shining and it is amazingly warm! So, if by any chance you have some of the same luck, then maybe you won't fancy being in the kitchen for ages ... Even though that's a very nice way to spend an evening! ... But you wouldn't have expected to hear anything else from me I guess ;)

These coconut balls are an easy to make dessert or snack. They are sweet and any visitors we ever had who've tried them have always loved them. My Mum found the recipe a long time ago and since then the recipe has become a staple in hers and my kitchen.

You can make them ahead and keep them in the fridge or put into a jar and give away as a present.

Coconut Balls

Inspired by this recipe for Kokoskugeln by georgia.

Time: 10 minutes preparation, min. 1 hour cooling, 15-20 minutes forming

150 g	desiccated coconut
80 g	honey, preferrably acacia honey*
2 tbsp	cashew milk/cream/coconut milk
about 50 g	desiccated coconut for decoration

• Finely grind the 150 g of desiccated coconut in a blender or food processor until it has an almost flour-like consistency. Don't over-blend, as at some point the mixture will start to get too oily when the coconut begins to release its oils.
• Pour into a large mixing bowl. Add the honey and the cashew milk (or whatever you choose to use). With a spoon mix very well until you have a uniform mixture. Place into the fridge for at least an hour.
• Have some storage box at hand. Pour your coconut for decorating into a soup plate. If you think it is too coarse give it a short (!) blend as well. Then, using your hands, form the coconut mixture into bite-sized balls. If the mixture is hard use a spoon to break it up and if it still is too hard wait 10 minutes.
• Drop the balls in the soup plate with the coconut and every once in a while, when some balls have accumulated, give the plate a good shake so the coconut balls get coated in desiccated coconut. You might need to roll them again by hand if the coconut doesn't stick on right away.
• Store in a box in the fridge.

*Acacia honey: acacia honey is the honey that has the least own, characteristic taste. Other honey can be used, but the more neutral it tastes, the better it is to bring out the coconut flavour. I'm sure some of the honey blends you get in the stores are also fairly neutral. Just give it a try!

Ines' Hot Chocolate

Hot Chocolate! This is after my breakfast what I definitely make the most!

As a kid I used to love cold chocolate. Ordinary one. The one where you stir kaba powder into cold milk.

I remember I sometimes took it to school. Besides, on Sundays we used to have typical German Abendbrot for dinner. That means you have sliced bread or different kinds of rolls (pretzel rolls, poppy-seed rolls, ...) and you put butter, cheese and cut sausage (such as ham or salami) and possible pickled cucumbers on them. With that my Dad and I used to share a big jug of cold kaba. The jug was brown stoneware and we used to have two special glasses we always used. We perfected that over time by mixing the drink with a handheld milk frother and later a stick blender. No that's not over the top ... ;)

Well, at some point, when my Mum introduced more healthy eating store-bought kaba powder was banned - I'm not blaming you Mum, that's just a statement ;)

These days I usually make hot chocolate, but my love for that drink hasn't ceased a bit. Maybe my degree of love for hot chocolate is slightly worrying, but since it makes me happy and doesn't have any largely unhealthy ingredients in it I guess the positive happiness effect weighs up for any overconsumption.

The only issue is that I need my Vitamix blender for this ... which is really loud. My housemates always joke about it, but I hope they forgive me for the daily noise ;)

With a high-speed blender you will get a completely smooth liquid in any case. Otherwise I suggest trying different methods as to what works best with what you have.

The recipe can be adapted in terms of spices and sweetness to your liking.

Ines' Hot Chocolate

(my Mum makes a different version)

1	cup
11 g	cashew nuts
17 g	dates
2 tsp	cocoa
1/4 tsp	honey
270 g	water (boiling)
one of the following
1/4 tsp	maca powder
1/2 smidgen	vanilla powder
1/4 smidgen	cookie spice/gingerbread spice
1 smidgen	cinnamon

• If you don't have a high speed blender.
• Soak the nuts in water for a few hours before using, since then your blender will be able to break them up more easily. Drain before use because you want hot water in your hot chocolate. You could also use bought nut milk or milk and heat it up before using. In a high speed blender you don't need to bother with soaking anything.
• Cut up the dates and soak them as well. Only add water until just covered. Use that water, because it will add lots of sweetness.

• Do not use a blender that is totally closed (airtight) because mixing hot water in it will probably cause a problem due to pressure. Check if your blender is able to blend hot liquid and only do this if you are sure that you won't get soaked in boiling water because your blender is leaking.

• The hot chocolate will be much more smooth if a good blender is used, but we also used to make it when we didn't have a high speed blender. So it definitely does work, only tastes a bit different.

• Put all ingredients in your blender and blend until very, very smooth.

Nut Varieties

You could also use hazelnuts or almonds instead of cashew nuts. If using hazelnuts you might need a bit more sweetener, since they do not have a naturally sweet taste compared to cashew nuts and almonds. Their taste matches the cocoa very well, though!

Cold Chocolate

If you do have a high speed blender you can also make cold chocolate by using half ice cubes and half very cold water instead of the boiling water.

• In that case you can add a 5 cm piece of frozen banana to give it a hit of banana taste.

Coconut Cold Chocolate

When you have fresh coconut water and flesh at hand (or maybe one of these packages of coconut water) then add half the water (usually one coconut has enough water for two cups) to the cold water part in the cold chocolate and add some small pieces of coconut meat to the blender as well.

This is really, really good as well!

If you have left over coconut water freeze it in an ice cube tray and do not keep it in the fridge. It goes bad really fast without you noticing until you end up feeling like maybe you shouldn't have used that anymore. 

Mum's Crusty Potato-Bread

I travelled to Germany on Friday last week for my Easter-break, so this is where I am writing from today. Last Saturday we went to the market in a city nearby and bought a normal German bread... And it was heavenly! I had been looking forward to that for a while after having several conversations about German bread ;-)

Back in England I ordered 5 kg of rye before I left with the intention to bake some real German bread upon returning since I had promised to do so to a few of my friends.

I told my Mum about my plan and she promised to bake some bread with me for practise. So far usually I only watched her baking bread. Myself I usually only made easy bread recipes, sweet things or cake.

My Mum is a fantastic baker! ♡

She has a bread-baking oven where there is a metal plate that heats up instead of the air in the oven heating up. Further on the oven has a steam pipe, but apart from that it is fairly sealed so that moisture (in form of steam developing from the wet dough) is to a great part retained in the oven. This helps develop the crust.
A few years ago, when I was still living at home, my Mum used to bake lots of bread each Sunday morning. Sunday was baking day.

Today we shared the work when testing how to bake the bread with just normal means (no bread baking oven and no massive dough kneading machine). Now I think I’m going to be able to re-create this for everyone I promised to in England!
Of course now you could also give it a try yourself since I am going to tell you now how you can get your very own German bread. Maybe you'll have mastered it already when I am back ;-)

This bread is crunchy on the outside, flavourful and moist on the inside.
It is pure heaven if you slice off a piece while it still is slightly warm, spread dollops of butter on it and enjoy it.
I am awfully sorry if I sound overly enthusiastic today, but I had some warm, crunchy bread for lunch today ;-)

Mum's Crusty Potato Bread

time required: about 4-6 hours of on and off work - not straight of course ;-)

inspired by a recipe from "Brot und Brötchen selber backen" by Marianna Buser

1 loaf	2 loaves	4 loaves
300 g	600 g	1200 g	whole wheat flour
50 g	100 g	200 g	whole rye flour
8 g	17 g	35 g	honey
100 g +	200 g +	400 g +	water
1-2 g	3-4 g	7 g	dry yeast (double if using fresh yeast)
200 g	400 g	800 g	potatoes (the kind that mashes well)
10 g	20 g	40 g	salt
40 g	80 g	160 g	cashew milk
--> 7 g	--> 13 g	--> 25 g	for the cashew milk: nuts, top up with water (or use milk or a double cream/water mixture)
			flour for dusting

If you make four loaves you might need to make the dough in two batches since the amount is rather large.

• Mix the two kinds of flour and place in a bowl. Make a dip in the middle. Mix honey, water and yeast until honey and yeast have dissolved. Pur the liquid in the dip. Mix with some flour from the sides until a thick paste forms. Cover by sprinkling with flour from the sides. Place cling film or a lid on the bowl and let rest in a warm place for 1-2 hours or until cracks are visible in the flour covering your paste.
• In the meantime: Cut the potatoes into small cubes. Leave the skin on. In a steaming basket or a metal sieve fitted in a pot steam the potatoes over water until very soft (about 15 minutes). You could also boil them in water, but when you steam them more nutrients will be retained in the potatoes. When they have cooked save some of the cooking water. With a potato masher, mash the potatoes as thoroughly as you can. Add some of the cooking water if you feel like this will help mashing.

• Then add the mashed potatoes, salt and cashew milk to the bowl with the dough. If you have one use a dough kneading machine for this step. Start kneading. The aim is to have a soft ball of dough that doesn't stick to the bowl anymore. Add more water if necessary.
• When you have reached that consistency take the dough from the bowl and form into a ball by folding in the sides and rotating the ball of dough until the bottom side of the dough is smooth. Turn over and return to the bowl. Cover the bowl and return to the warm place. Let the dough rise until it has at least doubled in size. This may again take about 1 ½ - 2 hours.

• After that time heat up or turn on your oven. For a gas oven use gas mark 9, for upper and lower heat use 260°C, for fan heat use 240°C. Additionally place an old baking tin or any enamel dish filled with water in the oven. This helps to keep the bread moist and helps with letting the crust develop. If you happened to have a bread baking oven you could skip this step.
• Line a baking tray with baking foil or non-stick parchment paper.

• Take the dough out of the bowl and divide into as many pieces as you are making loaves. Using the same technique as before give them a short knead to shape the pieces into balls. Place them on the baking tray, the dough ends facing down. Wet your hands and moisten the loaves. Using a fine sieve dust the dough balls with flour until totally covered. Let them rest for 5 minutes.

• Place the loaves in the oven.
• Bake (these are upper and lower heat temperatures):
• 15 minutes at 260°C (whatever you started with)
• + another 15 minutes at 220°C (turn down by approx. 40°C)
• + another 20 minutes at 190°C (turn down a bit again)

• This procedure will first let a firm crust form. Then when the heat is decreased the bread will slowly bake on the inside (pretty much like a cake).

• Remove the bread from the oven. If you peek under one, tap on the bottom of the bread with your finger. If it sounds hollow the bread is fully baked. This should be the case. Otherwise you would bake it for another few minutes. Place the loaves on a baking rack for cooling.
• If you made more loaves than you plan to eat right away you can freeze them. To do so place them in a freezer bag after 20 minutes when they are still a bit warm and freeze immediately. To defrost, place them on a rack again and let it defrost in the freezer bag. If you want to you can pop it back in a warm oven for a few minutes to get it crunchier again.
• If you eat your bread right away (this is the very best option!) let it cool on the rack for a minimum total of 30 minutes and then slice carefully.
• For fresh keeping any leftover bread a good option is to wrap it in a dish cloth (preferably linen) and place in a paper bag.

Enjoy it =)