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Saturday, November 20, 2010

Tropical Vegan PiñaColada Muffins - Messy Indie Cooking (Baking) Vol.5


It's been a while since I last posted a recipe. Sorry! 
I was trying to make Indian food today with coconut milk and for quite a while I've been having the idea of making new muffins. I had a can of pineapples and grated coconut, so the idea of making PiñaColada muffins came naturally. I didn't put Rum in them...besides, alcohol when burnt or cooked loses every property. This is my first attempt and I can say it came out perfect! I managed to bake 8 muffins with this much ingredients and I'm glad it is all vegan! 
So, here you have the ingredients:

(Mom is holding the tray)

1 cup of whole wheat flour
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup of sugar cane
1 cup of pineapples in chunks
1/2 cup grated coconut (leave some for topping)
1/2 pineapple syrup (the one that comes in the can)
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda
salt

Preheat oven at medium heat (175C/350F)



Start by pouring to a bowl all the dry ingredients: flour, sugar,  grated coconut, baking powder, baking soda, and sprinkle a tiny bit of salt. Mix well and let it become homogeneous.

Should look like this.






Then, start pouring all the we ingredients, first the coconut milk. Mix well.



Then put the pineapple syrup. Mix even better.


And lastly, place the pineapple chunks and mix for the last time.


Your dough is ready, not get your paper cups out... I wanted to show them to you first.


I bought them when I went to Prague. I found them beautiful and delicate, the most colorful paper cups I've seen! Hope you like them too.



Now, back to the recipe! With a tablespoon start filling the cups with approx. 2 spoons, don't fill them, I filled one and it was messy. Well, after all this series is called Messy Indie Cooking for a reason.



Place your filled cups in the oven and bake for 25 min in medium heat.


OH! I almost forgot! Before you place them in the oven, you make sprinkle some shredded coconut on top!



Now off they go inside the oven!



Bake, bake, bake for 25 min and take them out.
A tip for knowing when muffins or cakes in general. Take a spaghetti and insert it on to the dough, if it comes out clean, it means it's ready, if it comes out with some dough on it, it means you still have some waiting and baking to do. Do be delicate when inserting the spaghetti, it could easily break.


Tah Tam! Ready to be eaten! Enjoy!

Oh, this is how my Indian dish looked like in the casserole. I put all the spices I had at home, turmeric, curry, cardamon, cloves, cayenne, black, and white pepper, paprika, nutmeg, ginger, dried garlic and cinnamon. It came out fantastic. I might improve it next time and put it as a new Messy "Indian" Cooking! Plus the coconut milk! Oh it gives it such a nice taste and texture! NIAM NIAM!


Enjoy!

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Crochet Granny lines Laptop and camera pouches + Blanket update!


My latest project. This is a pouch I made for my Mac. My Mac's name is Pupa. 
So this is called the "Pupa Pouch".
Additionally, I had made a tinier pouch for the camera. 
Well, the principle is very straightforward. You take up your crochet hook and start in the same way as the Granny Squares. You make up a line with chain stitch about the length of one side of your laptop or camera, or what ever thing you want to make a pouch for. You then proceed in the same way with three double stitch.


http://schizoart.blogspot.com/2010/06/granny-crochet-squares.html
Here is the previous tutorial. Instead of going in rounds, you just go in a straight line. It's easy.
I'm glad I came up with this pattern. It's nice and simple. And it's very therapeutic, too! 
I made the laptop pouch in 2 days and the camera pouch in a couple of hours. So don't worry, even if you are not an expert, it's pretty simple.


This is how it started. As you can see when you start the pattern and crochet across, you need to crochet in both sides. I made it  as it didn't require any sewing up so it's done in one piece.


It shows you how to crochet the piece.



End results! The color combination is up to you. I like mixing thing, and I used all the spare yarn I had. I still have some. :P

UPDATE!


So far I've made 375 Granny Squares! I still need to make 405 more! I'm almost half way! Yay! I thought this was going to take forever to make, but now, I just feel that maybe in a month or so, it will be done!



Yippy! I still need to sew pieces together.



Have fun crocheting!