Perfect Summertime Lemon-Lime Coconut Lace Cookies!! (with icing, of COURSE)

I have a secret love, ok not all that much of a secret... I loooove to bake! The warm summer months make it that much more fun as you can experiment with summer flavors that lead to light and happy treats!

However, I usually forget to take pictures until AFTER they are all gone. granted, they don't stick around too long...

This time though, I actually made these three times before I was able to get pictures to show the whole thing! insanity... (and yummy!)

Below are the pictures and the recipe is at the end. (also, cannot recommend the Martha Stewart Banking Handbook enough! She knows her stuff and it ALWAYS turns out awesome! Even when you experiment hehe)



On the stove, melt the brown sugar, butter, and light corn syrup (yes, it's only 1/4cup for the
entire batch - RELAX (it's not high fructose!)


When it gets all pretty and melted (about 3 minutes) take it off the heat


Then add in the shredded coconut (mmmmmm)

Zest a lime (or a lemon, whatever you have - I did both! Then J made lemon aid from the lemons... yum!)

Pretty!! now mix it all in gooood! it's pretty sticky...


now scoop! and MAKE SURE you scoop onto silpat, silicone, or parchment paper. this stuff is GLUE like and will not come up off of the cookiesheet all by itself... trust me! Also make them smaller than you think, like the size of a nickel because they spread out a LOT!

Also (not picture, sorry) when you take them out of the oven, put the whole paper/silpat/whatever WITH cookies on the cooling rack so they setup. you can also drape over a rolling pin and get all fancy and curly... I tried a couple but it's honestly a huge pain...


these cookies are great on their own, but you know, I think they are BETTER with a little lemon/lime icing!

See this one is the lemon zest with the powdered sugar and lemon and lime juice - mix it all up until it's thinkish and thin with water as needed (and then add more sugar if too thin and more water when you over estimate the sugar, and so on until you give up and have a gallon of icing. it's not an exact science. well ok, it probably is but I didn't measure this part and um can't even guess! But somehow ended up with only a little extra left over! luck!)



mmmm lemony limey coconuty iced lacy cookies!!!!

full recipe adapted from Martha Steward's Baking Handbook:

Cocnut lime lace tuiles (fancy name, martha)

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 2 tablespoons all -purpose flour
• 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut (look in the organic section of the store if not in the normal baking section. the sweetened is too big of a flake and too sweet for this!)
• Pinch of salt
• Freshly grated zest of 1 lime (or lemon)

Icing

• Zest of 2 Limes (or lemons or one of each)
• Juice of the lime/lemons used
• 1 Cup of powdered sugar (and possibly more)

Cookies:
Preheat oven to 350
In small saucepan, combine butter, sugar, and corn syrup
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the butter is all melty and the sugar is all liquidy - approx. 3 min
remove from heat!
In a bowl, whisk flour, coconut, and salt and then add it all to the butter mixture
add the fresh zest and mix it all until combined (will be very sticky!!)
drop about 1 1/2 teaspoons or so about 2 inches apart onto prepared baking sheets (see note above about using parchment or silpat on the cookie sheets if you want to actually eat these)
bake for about 8-9 minutes, rotating halfway through (actually is important, do it!)
Once out of the oven, pull the whole sheet onto the cooling rack and give the cookies a few minutes to setup before moving them. During this time you can also drap over various shapes to create a curl or bowl or whatever! fancy!

Icing
Mix powdered sugar, lime/lemon juice and zest in a small bowl ingrediants until you get a white thickish icing (squash those lumps!)
Add water to thin
Add more powdered sugar to thicken

Drizzle or spread or dunk cookies with icing - as much or as little as you want (or none at all really :) they are pretty darn good cookies!!)

ENJOY!!

One busy busy bee asking for lots of input and suggestions!

No, I did NOT realize it had been over a month since I posted last. I swear, I keep writing posts in my head! They just never get published. They have publishing from email and phones, why not from my brain? I promise it won't be so long before the next one! I have to tell you about these AMAZING Coconut-Lime Lace Iced cookies I made a couple of weeks ago. I even took pictures (hence the latency on the post)

I have been a bit busy while pamakana has been been on hold. I decided to dive into the world of wordpress and help out my friend and neighbor. She is a media consultant and overall great person who has built a great local business for herself just on word of mouth and a static site, but really, it was time for interaction! And I was itching to learn something new (Funny how things work out like that!). So we got together and I customized her CreativeRead.com site based on her requirements and feedback. It's still a work in progress - so if you have any brilliant insights as to ways to improve it, please let me know!

I am also using wordpress to figure out how to best display PopArtJohnny's art. It is still very much a work in progress but at leat the images are up! You still can't order yet, hopefully in the next couple of weeks that will change ;) (again, ideas and suggestions are ENCOURAGED!)

All this learning is a terrible time suck. I completely lose track of time trying to 'one more thing' and then it's after midnight and I have to get up at 6am for my REAL job (the one that pays money!). It's really fun though! And my brain is really happy to be figuring out something new that has nearly instant tangible results. It's very satisfying and I think I kinda like it a lot.

Yes, I do see the irony of building wordpress sites and talking about it on a blogspot site. If this domain name weren't already owned by someone I would have purchased and transfered! Now I am just trying to think of a new name. Ideas? thoughts?

What would you name my blog that is all over the place? Suggestions Please!!!

The Real Job takes over this week - but it still applies!

oops. Did I say we were launching www.pamakana.com on June 1st? What I REALLY meant to say was July 4th (ish). Sorry about that! We do have a pretty new banner on the sign up page though - progress!!

The best part about trying to start a company when everyone works 'real' (paying) full time jobs is that time lines are harder to meet. Especially when things ramp up at work and the time you carved out to spend on your side project (you know, that little thing to change the world?) is now taken up with work stuff because there are only so many hours in the day!

I am learning a lot though - finding the fun, the joy, the happy I had not previously noticed, in topics, situations, and my work. It's incredibly freeing to not hate your job (any of them). I know that starting a company is hard and I want to enjoy it. I figure if I can figure out how to enjoy my 'real' job on days (weeks?) when it is really hard - that's actually pretty darn helpful!

So many people complain for the sake of complaining. I get so tired of hearing 'this is soooo annoying, can you believe it? ugh this place'. What's amazing is when I start asking questions...

• "How do you think it should be done instead?"
• "What ideas do you have for a better process?"
• "What's the background, why do we do it this way today?"
• "Does it still make sense to do it this way?"
• (and so on)

Even by just changing the tone of a random conversation helps change my general mood which seems to settle those around me! I realized this week that I really enjoy looking at situations holistically and trying to figure out a solution or at least an alternate way of doing things. Even if it doesn't happen, it's energizing to give myself and others permission to talk about it! How can anything change if the ideas aren't even discussed? Eventually, a new perspective emerges and it's exciting to witness the change around me. And it's a big company, change is slow and long and involves a LOT of proving that it will work, reporting out that it is working (or not and asking for help), and in order to do all of that - I really need to be open minded and look at the various options.

AND I am able to apply all of these principles and actions to whatever career or entrepreneurial venture I take on. That's possibly the best part of a REALLY hard week - looking back and realizing how much I have learned in such a short period of time!

That and sleep - adequate sleep helps with perspective ;)

What did you learn this week?