Cindy-Campbell.com

My website is in the middle of a good face-lift/restructuring*. In the meantime, enjoy a great kitchen tip: How to toast coconut!

Toasted Coconut adds a little bit of class to your desserts. It is a great way to make up for a lack of cake decorating skills, turning an ordinary white cake into something elegant (like the Charleston South Carolina cake). I also prefer the texture of eating roasted coconut as opposed to raw. But I am finicky like that.

Don’t worry, it is not scary.
Just Remember: Don’t abandon the coconut during the toasting process and you will be fine.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Spread the coconut out in as thin and even a layer as possible on a cookie sheet.

Put the pan in the oven and set a timer for 20 minutes.
DO NOT WALK AWAY!

After about 5 minutes, open the oven and use a spatula to “rake” the coconut (like raking and in those little desktop Zen Gardens). This rotates the shavings from the bottom to the top… it’s the coconut touching the pan that gets toasted. So if you don’t rake, the bottom will burn and the top will still be raw.

Repeat the raking process every few minutes, especially if you see the bottom edges start to look crispy.

You’re done then the coconut is no longer moist… the dried coconut has the consistency of hay and the shavings doesn’t stick to each other anymore.

That’s it! You did it!
Now go dip a frosted cupcake in your toasted flakes or goodness… or even add some to your next batch of cereal-crispy treats!

*My Master Plan is to turn this web space into a Reference Guide for all of the thing I love that make up my life… and less of a blog of my random ramblings. We’ll see how it goes!