coconut and oat biscuits

Morning all, 

a little baking today...

 The practical encyclopedia of baking, Martha Day.

Well this has to be one of the biggest cookbooks I own, at a whopping 512 pages, actually a little surprised at that, I was expecting more. It is a good inch and a half thick, and takes up a lot of room on a shelf, approximately 13 inches by 8 inches. I could get a tape measure, but where's the fun in that, enough to say that it is bigger than A4. 

It breaks down baking into seven categories/chapters and I thought I might take a recipe from each one. We did one of the 'classic breads from around the world' before, but I didn't really go into any great details.  

So starting at the beginning with 'Biscuits & Bars' and indeed the first recipe in that chapter, Oaty Coconut Biscuits, I made a batch of these yesterday for the ukulele group who were coming round to practice. (big do on Saturday, very exciting).

Now this is a very simple recipe, the only time consuming bit being the need to brown the oats and coconut at the start.  I sometimes have a little trouble with browning in that I get side tracked and wander way at the crucial moment, it can only take a minute to go from golden to black and that's not good. But yesterday I was on the ball, and the oats toasted very nicely thank you. I had also gotten the butter and sugar creamed during this time so things were moving along well. 

At this point I got a phone call from the garage. Rewinding a little, my car was in for it's MOT and service yesterday and the previous phone call had said it would be ready for 4.30 so I had decided to bake before picking it up.  Now things had progressed better than expected, and the car was ready. Well I could have waited and finished the cooking, but I thought if I go now I'll miss a lot of the rush hour traffic and save time in the long run.  Wrong; abandoning the baking, I left there and then, but with the two buses to get to the garage, the 15 minutes in the car journey, took well over an hour.  The garage is close to where I used to work, and I am still tied into a service plan, which was very convenient then, but not so now. Digressing again, although I think I may be getting better at that.  

I got back home as the house was filling up with kids and Dr J. but it still didn't take long to finish the cookies, and I was still ready early for the practice, so all's well that ends well, 

And the cookies, nice chewy centres, hint of coconut, not high on the effort front; yes I'd make them again. 

In fact think I'll go and make a cup of tea and have one now, although it is a little early for elevenses. 

On the hat front isn't this the most darling shape for a fascinator, I'm covering it in pink velvet embroidered with roses. yummy.

Well more next week.

enjoy your weekend all.

ally x