Baking with Coconut Oil

Last weekend I popped into our local Health Food Store Health at Hand in Arklow and met with Ashling and had a great chat about coconut oil as I wanted to use it as a substitute for butter in our scones. I bought Bionas’s Organic Coconut Oil and did a little bit of reading around on the internet about it and it really has so many health benefits. 

The website OrganicFacts gives a lot of information on it  It is antimicrobial, antioxidant, antifungal, antibacterial, soothing and can be used for hair care as a moisturizer and one girl even uses it as deodorant. 

 If you want more scientific research on the benefits of coconut oil the Coconut Research Centre has plenty!

 I substituted 56g of butter for 56g of solid coconut oil and made the scones in exactly the same way as I would normally do.

I added cherries and walnuts for a change and they really turned out great. The texture was excellent and it was so easy to rub the coconut oil into the flour. 

They really tasted great and they did have a hint of coconut but I like coconut and it added a lovely flavour to the scones. I even went as far as to use it as a spread to replace butter and it wasn’t bad at all. I will be using this again for sure and next time with the Flapjacks so I’ll keep you posted!

Tinahely Show 2012

 Yesterday we were at the Tinahely Show it was a really great day our third anniversary! Our first time we were located in the prime position between two massive tractors in the machinery section! We have since worked our way up into the IFA food tent.








Its a great show which has been running since 1937 which is amazing and all voluntary. Its a 73 acre site so I didnt get a chance to look around all the tents and displays. Everyone was in such good form. Its great to meet so many new people and characters.
So until next year!

Our cup for best Wicklow Product

Lovely wellies!

Tomato and Herb Spelt Muffins

Its been a while since we last posted but better late than never! So last weekend we were doing a spot of baking trying out new recipes and getting a few new pics for the new website which is a work in progress at the moment.

We tried out our tomato and herb mix and added in some grated cheese chopped olives and popped them in some 'non-stick' muffin cases which did stick but this is probably because they are muffin cases not designed for our mix! Next time I'll use baking parchment. They tasted great with smoked salmon, creme cheese and a squeeze of lemon. A nice treat for the weekend!