My favorite holiday cookie is a Russian Tea Cake. Some people know these cookies as Mexican Wedding Cookies, or Crescents, but I've always called them Russian Tea Cakes. A delicious walnut, or pecan, studded butter dough is baked in small rounds to a very light golden brown. Then, the cookies are cooled slightly, and dropped into a Ziploc Bag filled with Powdered Sugar. Because the cookies are still warm, the powdered sugar sticks to the outside of the cookie, and creates this beautiful white crust. They are magical.
Once I moved 3,000 miles away from my immediate family, there was no telling what each year would bring for me. Snow often factors into my travels plans, but this year it was my vacation time and finances that kept me from baking with Grandpa Wally. Next Year Grandpa-I promise!
Left to create some of my own holiday baking memories, I decided to surprise my cousins with this snack mix that has been discontinued from Trader Joe's. This is not your garden variety trail mix-this is culinary bliss. Trader Joe's donned the name Nuts About Chocolate and Coconut. For me it was my culinary crack! Besides a lightly salted deluxe variety of mixed nuts-meaning no boring peanuts-there are chunks of chocolate and paper thin shavings of freshly toasted coconut.
If I was going to re-create a mixture like Nuts About C&C, I had to make it even better than I remembered it. So, instead of one kind of chocolate, I used three: dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and milk chocolate with almonds. I also amped up the amount of coconut in the snack mix.
Now toasting fresh curls of coconut was not in my forte, so I turned to my pal Martha Stewart to guide me along. After draining the coconut water, and cracking the coconuts in half, I rinsed the insides out, and lay the shells flesh side up in the oven-all according to her instructions. Now, I have to say that I love Martha to pieces, but it took nearly an hour to pop the flesh from the shells, as opposed to her quoted time of thirty minutes. It's okay Martha, I forgive you!
After successfully cracking the flesh from the shells, I peeled off the dark leathery brown skin. I began to shave ribbons of coconut into a large bowl. After each coconut half was successfully turned into ribbons of white, I lay it all out to be toasted in a very low oven.
Being careful not to burn, or even over-brown the coconut, I kept a watchful eye on my handy kitchen timer. I started out with 12 minute intervals, tossing and rotating the coconut on the sheet tray. As the coconut took on a golden hue, I decreased the minutes on my timer. Eventually I was down to checking every 6 minutes. This took me nearly an hour, but was well worth all the effort.
I let the coconut cool completely, and gently tossed it together with the nuts and the chocolate. I found these great gift bags at Target, and my home-made version of Nuts About Chocolate and Coconut was complete!
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