The boys and I have been hunting for signs of spring for the last few weeks. We've found pink blossoms on trees, irises peeking up in a neighbor's front yard, the first purple pom poms on the ceanothus we planted two years ago, strawberries (!) at the farmers market, and gaudy advertisements for plastic bunnies and easter dresses.
I'm all about spring, but I've only just started thinking about Easter. I've got as far as biscuits. Coconut biscuits. We'll have them in the morning with guava jam and coffee while the dudes hunt around Grandma's backyard for plastic eggs. (I think the easter bunny might put legos in them this year, but I haven't got that far. I'm at biscuits.)
I was reading about a family that hunts for their Thanksgiving dinner, pilgrim style, but different - someone hides the canned pumpkin and cranberries and french fried onions - ingredients all over the house - and the family sets out to find them before embarking on cooking dinner. I find this hilarious. This was from the bit on creating family traditions in The Secrets of Happy Families
If you're hunting for more easter brunch ideas, (Did I really just say that? Is that really how I'm tying this all together? Felix woke me up at 5 this morning. And I seem to be on my fourth cup of coffee. So, we may just let this one go.) here are a few I think you'll like -
Breakfast Panini (ooh, this would be good for an easter brunch picnic!)
What are you making? Oh, and happy, happy spring, friends.
Coconut Drop Biscuits
The combination of the lusciously coconut-ty unrefined oil and rich coconut milk give these biscuits a delicate nutty tropical aroma and flavor. They're wonderful. I almost always use Trader Joe's light coconut milk which is still very rich. The coconut milk beverages that you can buy now by the half gallon would be way less than ideal.
makes: 10 - 12
takes: 20 - 25 minutes (10 active)
- 2 cups semi-whole wheat self-rising flour
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- pinch of salt
- 1/4 cup unrefined coconut oil
- 1 cup coconut milk
Heat the oven to 450. Measure and chill your coconut oil: in my kitchen right now it's in the low seventies. My coconut oil is soft, so I scooped 4 tablespoons (= 1/4 cup) onto a plate and chilled it for 5 minutes in the fridge while I whisked together the dry ingredients, shook my can of coconut milk, measured out a cup, and got out my baking sheet. If it's colder in your kitchen and your coconut oil is already very solid, you can skip chilling it. If it's hot and your oil is liquid, pour it into a measuring cup and chill until solid.
When your coconut oil is approximately the firmness of chilled butter, chop it into small pieces, and quickly rub the fat into the dry ingredients with your fingertips. Make a well in the center. Pour in the coconut milk. Smash the flour into the milk with a rubber spatula. Grease an ice cream scoop or large spoon and scoop 1/4 cup blobs of dough onto a baking sheet, leaving a couple inches between each one, and bake for about 12 minutes, until just beginning to brown.
Serve warm with jam.
