Coconut & Lime Waffles

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
3 tablespoons unsweetened, dried coconut
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 tablespoon lime zest
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
pinch salt
1 egg

Directions:
Whisk together the flour, sugar, coconut, baking powder, salt and zest in a medium sized bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, oil, vanilla and milk. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir to combine. Follow the instructions included with your waffle iron to complete the waffles. For most large, Belgian-style waffle irons you would use 1 cup of batter for each waffle.

Yield: 2 large Belgian-style waffles

My thoughts:

I bought a Belgian-style waffle iron a week or so ago to supplement the one we have that makes the flatter style of waffles in cute heart shapes. I've been very pleased at how our waffles are turning out! Our first attempt at using it was just plain waffles, I thought I'd make some coconut & lime waffles in honor of the blog's 5 year anniversary. They were pretty great; there was a light coconut and lime flavor throughout and minimal chewiness from the coconut. The texture was the real star, crisp on the outside and moist and soft on the inside. I also liked how they were thick but not dense so they were filling without being heavy.

Note: You can easily double this recipe to make four waffles. Two is all we can handle!

Lime & Coconut Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 sweetened flaked coconut
5 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 egg
zest of one lime

glaze:
juice of one lime
1/2 cup confectioners sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Line or grease 2 cookie sheets. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, coconut, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and the sugar. Beat in the egg. Add the lime juice, zest and mix. Add the flour and mix until a soft dough forms. Drop heaping teaspoons of batter on the lined cookie sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake for 10 minutes or until just golden. Remove to a wire rack to cool. In a small bowl, whisk together the glaze ingredients, adding more confectioners sugar if needed to thicken. Brush on cooled cookies.

Yield: about 2 dozen cookies

My thoughts:

These are remarkably light and fresh tasting cookies. They have a slightly chewy texture and the glaze highlights their sweet-tart flavor. They also freeze well.

Coconut Key Lime Pie

Ingredients:
14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk (fat free is fine)
3 egg yolks
2/3 cup toasted coconut
1/3 cup key lime juice*
2 1/2 teaspoons key lime zest
9 inch round coconut crust or graham cracker crust

Directions:
Preheat oven to 300. In a large mixing bowl, using your electric mixer, beat the egg yolks, lime juice and zest until the eggs are creamy. Slowly add condensed milk and toasted coconut and mix until well combined. Pour into crust and bake 15 minutes or until the pie is "set" and no longer feels liquid to the touch. Cool on wire rack, refrigerate.



*Note: For an authentic pie, you need the juice of fresh key limes. Using a juicer is the most efficient way to extract the most amount of juice from tiny key limes limes. If you have to use bottled juice, make sure it is from actual key limes (the juice will be a pale yellow) and not just (Persian) lime juice with citric acid added to make it tart. Of course, you could just use regular lime juice but then it won't be a "key lime pie".

My thoughts:

I am lucky to live near several great grocery stores. This results in my having access to fresh key limes several times a year. My husband loves key lime pie so I came up with this recipe for him. I basically used the same recipe I usually use to make key lime pie and added coconut to it. I also baked it in a homemade coconut pie crust instead of a graham cracker crust. I bet some people reading this will think that it would be coconut overload to have coconut in the pie and into the crust, but I assure you, it isn't. The amount of coconut in the pie is just enough that it ties the flavors of the pie together.

Coconut Lime Icing

Ingredients:
1 cup confections� sugar
� cup sweetened, flaked coconut
3 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons buttermilk
1 tablespoon lime juice
zest of one lime



Directions:

In a small bowl, combine butter,zest and sugar throughly. Add buttermilk and lime juice. Mix on high 1 minute until well mixed Spread over cooled cupcakes. Sprinkle each cake with coconut.

My thoughts:

This icing is barely more than a glaze but has a very strong lime flavor. You can see the flecks of zest peeking out when you bite into the cupcake. This icing is excellent on buttermilk lime cupcakes.

Coconut-Lime Rice Pudding

Coconut-Lime Rice Pudding

Ingredients:

1/3 cup white basmati rice
14 oz can coconut milk (not cream of coconut)
1 1/2 cups milk
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons lime zest*
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 lime, quartered (optional)


Directions:
In a small bowl soak rice in about 2/3 cup of cold water for 30 minutes. Drain rice. In a medium sized saucepan bring coconut milk, milk, rice, sugar, and salt to a boil, Reduce heat to low and simmer, for about 40-45 minutes, stirring occasionally. It should have cooked down to a thick, creamy texture. Remove from heat and stir in lime zest. Serve with lime wedges. Delicious warm or chilled.



*For plain coconut rice pudding omit lime zest

Coconut-Lime Macaroons

Coconut-Lime Macaroons

Ingredients:

3 egg whites
2 cups sweetened coconut flakes
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
zest of 1 lime

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients thoroughly. Form into small balls and place 1/2 inch apart on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake 12 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Cool on wire racks.

Lime juice often loses some of its flavor during baking due to high heat. These macaroons, however, bake for such a small amount of time, it's not an issue.