Coconut & Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

I can't wait, one more week and me and the hubby will be off to the east coast for a much needed vacation.  I think its been about 2 years since we've been on a vacation.  Our last one was in 2011 after we came back from a 8 month deployment in Iraq.

In the military we earn 30 days of leave a year and when you dont use that leave up they just roll over to the next year. Basically we earn about 2.5 days of leave every month.  

Some people dont normally have issues with taking leave from their work centers. But then if you are one of those unlucky people who have jobs where its very hard to coordinate leave, you can end up not taking leave for several years and have about 70-80 in the books to use. But it doesn't help to save that much leave because you are only authorized to use 30 days at anyone given time, you can never go over 30 days without commander approval.  When I was a mechanic it was extremely hard to take leave beause of low manning and workload so I only took a vacation about every other year.  My new job as a paralegal is pretty much the same, only because we dont have many people in the office and we can get pretty busy with court-martials.  Im fortunate enough that I was able to coordinate some leave for about 3 weeks and now we are off to a family reunion in New York plus a Dave Matthews concert in Hersey PA! Plus I'm pretty excited to go back to the states and shop.

These cookies were a big hit at work the combination of chocolate and coconut combined within a oatmeal cookie seemed like the perfect match. Plus it helps when you just overload the batter with chocolate chips so every cookie and every bite took you got come chocolate chips and coconut. 

Coconut & Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
Adapted from the Messy Baker

Yields: 25-30 cookies depending on size

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temp
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups old fashinoned rolled oats
3/4 cup chocolate chips (your favorited kind)
3/4 cup sweetened coconut flakes

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a medium sized bowl, whisk togehter the flour, baking soda, salt and oats, set aside.

3. In a electric mixer on medium speed, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy about 3 minutes, add in the eggs and vanilla extract until completely combined.

4. Switch the mixer to low speed and gradually add in the flour mixture until combined, making sure the scrape down the sides of the bowl to incorportate everything together.

5. Fold in the chocolate chips and coconut into the batter and depending on how big you want to make your cookies roll a 1 to 2 inch ball together slightly flatting it and place it on the parchment paper 2 inch apart from each other  Bake for 12-15 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Remove cookies from oven and cool on a wire rack. Enjoy with a giant glass of milk!

*This cookie dough can be made ahead and kept in the fridge up to 5 days in an air tight container.

Green Tea Coconut Ice Cream

I love ice cream, you've probably heard this statement from multiply people, cuz come on who doesn't  love ice cream? But no seriously I..LOVE..ICE CREAM.  It's my go to dessert of choice, hell I could probably eat ice cream everyday for the rest of my life and never get tired of it.  If I had to be stranded on a deserted island and could only have 1 choice of food, it would be ice cream.  I told you I'm pretty serious about my ice cream. 

Samoa Girl Scout Cupcakes

I've been dying to make these cupcakes since the girl scouts at Misawa Air Base started selling them a few weeks ago.  I already made my dulce de leche sauce for my carmel component and I have the best chocolate cake recipe for the cake portion.  

Many thanks to one of my friends and his wife for sharing his moms chocolate cake recipe.  Which is one of the best chocolate cakes I've ever baked, I received the blessing from him today in order to share it on my blog.  the way I came to have his moms recipe was his wife messaged me asking if I would make him a cake for his 23rd birthday since she wouldn't be able to be here in Japan to celebrate and I said of course I'll make him a cake.  So she sent me his moms recipe because its his favorite and we came up with the brillant idea of also incorporated cheesecake into the birthday cake since it was his other favorite flavor.  So I'll be sharing a chocolate cake cheesecake soon.  but for now lets just drool and savor these samoa girl scout cupcakes.  

Samoa Girl Scout Cupcakes
Oishii Treats original creation and
a friends family recipe adapted slightly.

Yields: 24-26 cupcakes

Ingredients for the Chocolate Cupcake

Sour Milk
1 cup Milk + 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cups cocoa powder
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
2 eggs

Directions

- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and insert paper liners into your cupcake pans
- Make your sour milk: In a separate bowl add your milk and vinegar and set aside while you make the batter.
- In a large mixing bowl add flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt and mix together with a whisk.
- In a small mixing bowl add your cocoa powder and boiling water and whisk until the cocoa powder is nice and smooth, let it cool down for about 6-8 minutes.
- add your cocoa mixture to the dry ingredients and whisk together, add the milk, oil and eggs and mix until fully incorporated.
- Fill your cupcake liners about 3/4 full and bake for 14 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack.

*You can either used store bought carmel or dulce de leche or you can make your own the night before with this simple and easy recipe. Crockpot Dulce De Leche

Dulce De Leche filling 

1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons dulce de leche
1 cup shredded coconut (unsweetened might be best cause the dulce is sweet, but you can use sweetened coconut as well)

Directions

- Create a whole in the middle of your cupcake
- Combine the ingredients together in a small bowl and fill the cupcake wholes with the filling

Dulce De Leche Buttercream

1 cup unsalted butter at room temp
4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup dulce de leche
4-6 tablespoons milk

Directions

- Whip the butter in a electric mixer until light and fluffy. 6-8 minutes on high speed
- add your powder sugar 1/4 cup at a time until fully incorporated
- add in the dulce de leche and 4 tablespoons milk and whip for 3-4 minutes. (add more milk to get your desired consistency)
- Top your cupcakes with buttercream, toasted coconut and drizzle with chocolate sauce.

I link up to these fun linky parties 

I'm Back!!! with Ganache Filled Banana Cupcakes and Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

I know I've been MIA for a long 2 months, but I can now officially call myself a bona fide Paralegal!  (I have the badge and certificate to prove it ; ) I've spent most of the long hot summer in Montgomery Alabama, studying and pouring over legal books to finish my retraining in the Air Force.  Though it was nice to go back to the states for a little bit I'am finally back in Japan and happy to be cooking and baking in my kitchen once again.


Chocolate Ganche filled Banana Cupcakes with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting
Adapted and inspired by Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publication 2012

Banana Cupcake

Ingredients
3/4 cup Butter
3 Eggs
3 cups All purpose Flour
1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
3/4 teaspoons Salt
1/4 teaspoons Baking Soda
3/4 cup Mashed ripe banana (about 2 medium)
1/3 cup Almond Milk
1/4 cup Sour Cream
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 cup Sugar

Directions

- Preheat your oven for 350 degrees and line two cupcake pans with paper liners
- Allow butter and eggs to at room temperature for 30 minutes
- In a medium bowl combine your flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda together in a medium bowl and set aside
- In a small bowl combine the mashed bananas, almond milk, sour cream and vanilla
- In a large mixing bowl beat the butter for 30 seconds, gradually add the sugar about 1/4 at a time, beating on medium speed until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Alternately add your flour mixture and banana mixture to the mixing bowl, beating on low speed until just combined.
- Fill your paper liners till 3/4 full and bake for 17 minutes, immediately remove from oven and place on a cooling rack.

Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients
1 cup Whipping Cream
12 ounces bittersweet Dark Chocolate

Directions

- In a medium sauce pan bring whipping cream just to a boil over medium high heat. Remove from heat and add chocolate (no not stir) let stand for 5 minutes. Stir until smooth, cool for 15 minutes in the fridge
- Make a hole in the middle of your cupcakes (I used a 1/2 teaspoon to scoop out the inside of the cake)
- Fill a pipping bag with your ganche and fill your cupcakes


Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients
1/2 cup Butter (1 stick)
6 oz Cream Cheese
5 cups Powder Sugar
1/4 teaspoons Coconut Extract
3/4 Tablespoon Coconut Milk

Directions

- In a electric mixer beat the butter and cream cheese together
- Add in the coconut milk and extract beat until combined
- Add the powder sugar 1/2 cup at a time until combined, scraping the side of the bowl when need.
- Fill a pipping bag and frost your cupcakes.