Lime-Pepita-Coconut Cookies

I've had some pepitas hanging around and decided to make some cookies with them. I played around with some recipes, and this is the second batch:

Lime-Pepita-Coconut Cookies:

¼ cup unsalted butter

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

seeds from ⅓ of a vanilla bean
zest of 2 limes

1 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 oz. lime juice (about one lime if fresh) [lemon also works]

1 cup unbleached flour

¾ cup whole wheat pastry flour

½  cup pepitas, toasted and roughly chopped

⅓ cup shredded coconut

½  teaspoon baking soda

½  teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Blend the butter, vanilla, zest and oil and then cream that with the sugar. Add the egg, blend, and then add the lime juice. In a separate bowl, mix the flours, baking soda, salt, pepitas and coconut. Add the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl and incorporate.

I shaped these using a #70 scoop (½ oz), which seems ideal. Press into disks. Bake for 10-11 minutes until set, but not brown. Makes about 3 dozen 2¼-inch cookies.

(These are modified from Impeccable Taste).

vegan kabocha pots de crème

I love the texture of kanten but imagined agar agar had more possibilities — It does.

I found this recipe for pumpkin custard with agar agar. I continued my love affair with kabocha (try it in pumpkin pie!) and substituted kabocha for the pumpkin. I used brown sugar instead of the suggested agave syrup (I find the agave craze ridiculous), used a quarter teaspoon of agar powder and upped the cashews just a bit.

The topping is coconut milk whipped over ice with some agar-sugar syrup. I then let them set (overnight, as I was pressed for time).

This was creamy like a pot de crème, which is thanks to the wonders of cashews and just enough agar agar to get a light set. Raspberries from the farm share were a perfect topping.

red bean ice cream

As just posted, I made red bean paste. To that I added 1 ½ cups coconut milk, 2 tablespoons tapioca flour, and 2 tablespoons sugar. I cooked that until it was thickened, added a half teaspoon almond extract and chilled it overnight. I then froze it in an ice cream maker, and here it is:


This was rich, creamy, and well-balanced. The azuki beans have an earthiness that goes perfect with coconut. And it's vegan!