Baking with Mum - Coconut Pyramids/Macaroons

This blog post is one of my favourites, simply because it's about baking with my Mum. Now let me give you a little bit of a bio on me old mukka' (please don't tell her I called her old!) My Mum is an absolutely amaaaazing cook. She can literally whip up a masterpiece from nothing. I personally don't know how she does it. She's the type of person that'll come home from an overnight shift at work and no matter how late, or tired she is she will always cook. Thinking about it now, for the most part I've always thought my love for baking has come from my Nanny, which it has. But my kitchen habits have most definitely been handed down to me from my Mother, my ability to bake however, has not.

 

She is absolutely useless. My earliest and most fun memory of baking with my Mum is from when I was 9 and we decided to bake muffins. This is a time I always flash back to when I'm baking nowadays, particularly when I'm measuring out ingredients. Anyway when I was 9 we had decided to bake muffins, we had no scales (so we were already off to a terrible start) and we used plain flour, which haunts me to this day! Whenever I come across a cake recipe that calls for plain flour I hear 9 year old Beans saying, 'NOOOOOO! BLUE BAG! BLUE BAG!' (For those that don't know what I'm talking about Plain Flour comes in Red Bags and Self Raising in Blue.) So we baked, and we baked, I was so excited! And when the cakes came out they looked okay, they smelt amazing! We poured on our mixture of icing sugar and water, while the cakes were still hot might I add. And when we tasted them, they tasted like over salted Yorkshire puddings with sugar on top. It had gone so wrong and I still can't figure out how it went so wrong. In fact the only thing we did get right was the baking tray. We used proper muffin trays to bake so the shape was perfect and very deceiving, but the taste. The taste! Awful. Never-the-less we had fun and the experience has been added to my collection of fun memories with my best friend. 

I'd decided to give my Mum one more go and nearly a decade later we found ourselves back in the kitchen having lots of fun. This time with me in charge! I decided to choose something quite simple for us to do, this recipe doesn't call for many ingredients or much attention to be honest. It's easy and fun for any pro-baker or beginner. Plus my Mum absolutely LOVES Coconut pyramids. She used to always bring me one home in a paper bag after her rounds when she was a carer. They really are a guilty pleasure of hers and she did them justice! For someone who falls asleep at the drop of a hat and has the attention span of a cat she did so well! I was so proud, In fact at one point she was telling me that I need to pack more of the mixture together so they didn't collapse! Wit woooo, get you! Lol. 

Hope you guys enjoy this really tasty and uber simple bake courtesy of All Recipes UK. Enjoy x

Coconut Pyramids/Macaroons
Makes 12-16

My Mum kept her Pyramids simple and traditional and I covered mine with chocolate and decorated with white chocolate coloured pink. 

Ingredients 

2 free range eggs 

225g (8 oz) desiccated coconut 

150g (5 oz) caster sugar 

glace cherries to decorate

200g Milk Chocolate (for chocolate macaroons)

100g White Chocolate 

Method 

1. Preheat oven at 180 C

2. Line 1 or 2 baking trays with greaseproof paper

3. Beat eggs well then stir in the coconut and sugar

4. If you have time, leave mixture to stand for up to 20 minutes. If not, don't worry! 

5. Dip hands in cold water. Shape mixture into 'pyramids', using your hands or an eggcup as a guide.

6. Place on baking trays, decorate with glace cherries if desired. 

7. Bake at 180 C /gas 4 for 25-30 minutes or until golden. Remove from sheets and cool on a wire rack.

8. Once the Pyramids have fully cooled melt the milk and white chocolate (separately).

9. To colour the white chocolate use a colour PASTE as liquid colourings caused the chocolate to klump and lose it's smooth consistency. Add a tiny drop at a time from a toothpick or skewer. Then mix.

10. To coat the pyramid you can dip it directly into the Milk chocolate. I placed my pyramid on a fork and used a spoon to pour the chocolate. Place the coated pyramids onto greaseproof paper to set a little.

11. Scoop up the coloured chocolate with a tea spoon, let some of the excess chocolate drip off then drizzle over the coated pyramids. (Be sure to do this whilst pyramids are on greaseproof paper.)

12. Store in an airtight container to retain moisture.