the oven's back with a carob coconut loaf

Good news! Our shipment finally came! Two days ago to be exact :) And the first thing I did was unpack ALL of my baking equipment and set up my beloved convection oven in my new workspace a.k.a. my bedroom. My dad was skeptical about this at first, but I finally convinced him after showing him how far away I placed the oven from my bed frame and closet, so as to not accidentally set anything on fire...

I can't explain how happy I am to be baking again! It's been about four months since the last time I legitimately baked with the oven, so I was actually a bit hesitant to begin. The numerous recipe ideas I've bookmarked in my head didn't help the cause much either.

But the hesitation easily subsided once I set my giant bowl before me--my other gadgets and ingredients positioned off to the side, bordered along the edge of my peripherals. Even with the tabbed recipes in mind, I immediately dropped my initial plan for a banana-based recipe when I came upon a shelf stacked full of cans of coconut milk at the supermarket earlier that evening. I have been--and always will be--an almond milk-type person (even though they don't sell almond milk in Taiwan *cry*), so I never really got around to trying coconut milk. I already set my mind on using carob powder no matter what I was making, and well, coconut and chocolate do complement each other...

So a carob coconut loaf it was! I highly doubted the loaf was going to taste any good because I didn't add honey. Yeah I know--extra sugar and calories and all--but I approve of honey-use since it is a natural sweetener, and just a tablespoon or two enhances the mildly sweet flavor every tasty loaf of bread needs. So I opted to melt some dark chocolate instead, even though I expected the other ingredients would mask its sweetness.

To my surprise, my improvised carob coconut loaf actually tastes...quite good. Forgive my limited vocabulary range when it comes to describing some food (even though I run a food blog...), but it was! Good, that is. The coconut flakes sprinkled over the top was slightly toasted and crisp after baking, and the bread itself was a bittersweet, dark cacao flavor reminiscent of espresso. The coconut flavor wasn't as strong as I had hoped, but that means more opportunities to remake the loaf in the future and tweak the recipe a bit. Trial and error; try, try again; practice makes better.

In the end, it's all about learning and enjoying the experience, right? :)

I haven't followed written recipes in a long while. It's become a sort of tendency--habitual, familiar, natural--to just improvise along as I cook or bake. I enjoy the whim of spontaneous creation; it peaks my imagination--forces me to think harder, contemplate longer--on the causes and effects of a single action, the repercussions of a particular decision. But my improvisation happens only along the way, not purely from the start. Before that, I run around the house, checking and double checking the refrigerator and pantry for all of the ingredients at hand. With that, I blueprint in my head: putting one component together with another, considering the flavor balance, the cooking methods, and finally, the presentation.



Just as I contemplate the flavor of on ingredient in contrast with another, thinking of how well they would combine as a finished product, I ponder my everyday choices, wondering how it'll affect my future, if at all. If the dish goes wrong, I add to it, deduct from it--which is a lot easier for cooking--or if the pastry fails after baking, then so be it (for now). Try, try again. Recently I've been having a lot of those days where I brood over my lack of productivity and mentally chide myself for not progressing in anything; sometimes I even forget that I simply needed to remember to take a breath, step back, and take time to digest it all. I believe in working as hard as I can to yield the fruits of my labor, but I also believe that over-excessive planning ahead, mapping out, setting deadlines, will only throw me off when reality doesn't meet up to the expectations. So I've been trying this thing where I improvise as I go along--learning and enjoying this experience here in Taiwan--but with ideas of what I do hope to accomplish in my future, just without all the detailed outlining and time limits :)

If  you're wondering if any of my recipe improvs have failed to meet up to my initial expectations, the answer is YES, OF COURSE. I actually have several drafts of said recipes since they didn't quite reach my standards as "blog-able", so once I test trial again and make a few tweaks, maybe you'll see them on here in the future!

Carob Coconut Loaf

yields about 4 servings

Ingredients:
  
4 oz dark chocolate
1/2 cup + 2 tbs coconut milk
2 tbs olive oil 
2 eggs
4 tbs coconut flour
1 1/2 tbs carob powder (I used Bob's Red Mill Toasted Carob Powder)
1 tsp baking soda 
4 tbs oats
2 tbs whole flax seeds
coconut flakes/dessicated coconut (optional) 

Directions:

- Preheat the oven to 375° F and line a loaf pan with parchment paper or spray it with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a small bowl, sift together the coconut flour, carob powder, and baking soda. Set aside.
- Over a double boiler, melt the dark chocolate in a medium to large bowl. Turn off the stove once the chocolate is all melted, and add in the 1/2 cup of coconut milk and whisk until well combined. 
- Remove the bowl and add in the olive oil. Then beat in the two eggs and whisk until all the wet ingredients are well incorporated.
- Add the dry ingredients with wet ingredients and mix well. Then add in the whole flax seeds and oats and combine. Pour in the 2 tbs of coconut milk if the mixture is a bit dry. 
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan, then sprinkle as much or as little coconut flakes as you want over the top of the bread. 
- Bake for 25-30 minutes until the coconut flakes on top are slightly toasted and golden, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Remove, cut into slices and enjoy! (Top with peanut/almond butter and bananas TRUST ME)