School, Baking, and Vaca

YA!!!!  One quarter of school is officially in the books.  I finished classes on Friday.  It was an incredibly stressful final two weeks of school; however, my stress was for nothing as I came out with straight A’s, Dean’s list, and perfect attendance.  However, I’m proud of the work I did.  And I have to thank my Mom because she put in a lot of effort for one of my projects.  She is very crafty and helped make my menu look amazing.  So here is a picture:

   

Aren’t those pigs so cute?  For my class we had to create a menu and this is what I envision the menu looking like in my bakery.  We had to create two menus, so I did one for allergy free food and then I put all the same info on another board and labeled it “classic” for regular food.  My teacher was super impressed=100% A!!  I am thankful for a break and look forward to start my baking class in July.  But for now, I’m off on vacation to relax and recover.

Friday I’m off to Michigan for four days and then I’m headed to beautiful Cape Cod to stay with my grandma for ten days!  I look forward to relaxing and shopping and spending time with family.  In preparation for vacation, I have baked two things to take with me and tomorrow I will be baking two more things.  (I’m sure I’ll be sharing those recipes soon.)  Breakfast and snacks are usually the hardest part for me while traveling.  So I always try to take several options with me.  One thing I baked to take is apricot coconut scones.  These are my favorite treat.  Good for breakfast or snacks.  The apricot and coconut combination is amazing!  These scones were inspired from an apricot white chocolate scone that my mom and I used to make.  I loved them.  And I have severely missed them since my diet has changed.  I decided to try and replicate the scones and replace the white chocolate with coconut.  Now, I love these scones and think I like them better with coconut than white chocolate.  I have made this recipe so many times and know that it will always be one of my favorites.

Apricot Coconut Scones
2 cups almond flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup coconut oil (melted)
1 gelatin egg (or egg white or equivilant)
1 T. vanilla powder/extract
1 cup chopped apricots
1 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup water
1/16 tsp. vanilla stevia

Preheat oven to 330 degrees.
Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
Add in the wet ingredients.
Make drop scones on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  About a 1/4 cup size.
Bake for 18-20min.
Makes 16 scones.

As with all of my baked goods, I prefer these cold or sometimes hot out of the microwave.  They taste delicious with a smear of coconut butter also.  They freeze wonderfully and make very travel friendly snacks.

Another thing I have baked to take with me is vanilla shortbread cookies.  I have been craving shortbread for the past few weeks and decided to finally try my hand at making some.  I am not incredibly happy with the final consistency of these cookies, but the flavor is great and they satisfied my craving for shortbread.   I have thought of two adjustments that I would like to try for this recipe, but I will have to wait until I have more time to bake…..I leave Friday and still have so much other stuff to do.

Vanilla Shortbread
1 cup almond flour
3 T. vanilla olive oil
Pinch salt
1/16 tsp. vanilla stevia
Pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine all ingredients in a bowl.  Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Flatten each cookie.
If you choose, you may press a pecan halve into the top of some or all of the cookies. (I made half with and half without a pecan and like each way equally well……depends on my craving)
Bake for 15min. until lightly golden.
Makes about 6 cookies.
They are super crumbly while warm, which is why I want to try tweaking the recipe.  However, upon refrigeration or freezing, they firm up and become much more stable. 

       

I’m not sure if I’ll have the chance to write or not while I’m on vacation.  So happy summer everyone.  🙂