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Writer’s Kitchen: Quick coconut cookies

My book group starts in just two hours and I have a delicious tarte Tatin in progress. However, I got to thinking, if I was low on time and still wanted to offer hospitality with some homemade baked goods, some Scandinavian coconut cookies would be a great alternative to a French tart.

With just four ingredients and no fancy cooking techniques (just measure, stir, form, and bake), they come together so quickly. That makes them perfect not only for company, but also for a sugar craving that might hit while you’re writing. Happy baking!

Coconut Cookies
Adapted from Aquavit

2 1/2 cups unsweetened, medium grated or shredded coconut
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat butter in a small saucepan until melted. Remove from heat and stir in coconut. In a separate bowl, beat eggs to combine, then add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Mix everything together and drop by rounded teaspoons onto a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. Using the bottom of a glass, gently press down on each cookie to slightly flatten. Bake for 8 to 11 minutes, until golden.

Serves about two dozen.

Photo and recipe originally published on my blog Outside Oslo.

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Home Writing Nooks: Hemingway’s House

Here at Nooks & Cranberries, we’re all about finding inspiration in the world around us, whether we’re at one of Seattle’s many wonderful cafes, bakeries, or bars, an inviting hotel lobby, or even out in the great outdoors. One of the secrets to writing is being able to find inspiration wherever you are. And that includes at home.

Last week we took at look at the home office of Emily, the blogger behind Cupcakes and Cashmere. Her focus on white and pale hues, with pops of color and contrast from fresh flowers and a chalkboard, surround her in beauty, style, and simplicity.

Today’s featured Home Writing Nook is Ernest Hemingway’s Key West writing studio.

Notice the typewriter, trophy mounts, and book collection, not to mention the spacious interior. It’s considerably more masculine than our previous featured Home Writing Nook, but just as inspiring and personal.

Separated from the main house, Hemingway’s writing studio occupied the second floor of a former carriage house. A cat walk ran from the house’s veranda to the studio, allowing Hemingway to get out of bed in the mornings and walk directly to the studio, according to the Hemingway Home & Museum’s website.

Hemingway spent more than ten years at this house in Old Town Key West, and wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls, To Have and Have Not, Death in the Afternoon, Green Hills of Africa, and many short stories here (source).

Surrounded by lush landscaping, balmy heat, and the blazing sun, wouldn’t this be a pleasant oasis, just the place to inspire a writer?

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Writer’s Kitchen: Absinthe Cake

Absinthe Cake

Earnest Hemingway didn’t like to talk about writing. Fearing that talking about it would remove the magic, he chose to let the ideas and stories percolate in his subconscious after a day’s work.

However, what worked for Hemingway doesn’t work for everybody. Personally, sharing the writing process and experience with Sarah creates inspiration in itself. Whether we’re camped out with our laptops and working on our novels or just checking in on each other’s process and ideas while enjoying a glass of wine or a pastry, that community we share helps unblock a stalled story and creates accountability. And sometimes it’s just good to leave the writing behind for a while and share an experience. Like baking a cake.

Our husbands joke that we were separated at birth. In addition to the childhood subscriptions to Cat Fancy magazine and an uncharacterisic propensity toward loud, angst-filled music, we’re both passionate about two things: writing and good food. And we often find the two connecting in some way.

For example, cooking and baking are methodological. A recipe spells out the ingredients and steps, and when the instructions are followed, the result is a cake, loaf of bread, entree, or hors d’oeuvres ready to be enjoyed. Likewise, when ideas and writing tools are combined, the writer produces a poem, short story, article, or novel that may someday engage and delight readers.

We all have our own processes, whether we keep our lips closed on our book like Hemingway or work with a critique group to get feedback. Hemingway probably wouldn’t agree with my way of doing things, but given his time in Paris during the 1920s, I wouldn’t be surprised if he approved of this cake.

Absinthe Cake
Adapted from David Lebovitz’s The Sweet Life in Paris

3/4 teaspoon anise seeds
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup almond flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 Tablespoons unsalted butter (bring to room temperature)
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs (bring to room temperature)
1/4 cup whole milk
1/4 cup absinthe
Grated orange zest

For the glaze:
3 Tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup absinthe

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep a 9-inch springform pan by buttering it and then lining the bottom with a round of parchment paper.

Crush the anise seeds with a mortar and pestle, then combine with all the other dry ingredients and sift into a small bowl.

In another bowl, combine the milk, absinthe, and 1-2 teaspoons of orange zest; reserve the rest of the orange for another use.

Beat the butter and sugar, preferably in a stand mixer, until light and fluffy, then add eggs, one at a time, letting the first one become incorporated before mixing in the second.

Stop the mixer at this time and add half of the flour mixture. Stir briefly, then add the milk and absinthe.

Taking care to not overmix, add the rest of the flour mixture and stir by hand just until incorporated.

Pour the batter into the pan and gently smooth the top. Bake for about 35 minutes, using the toothpick test to determine when it’s done. Let it cool somewhat before removing it from the pan, and let cool completely before beginning the glaze.

When you’re ready to glaze the cake, liberally poke holes in the cake with a toothpick to help the glaze soak in. Stir the sugar and absinthe together in a smooth bowl, taking care so the sugar doesn’t dissolve. Brush the glaze over the top and sides of the cake, continuing until you use all the glaze.

Enjoy!

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Daily Writers’ Fix: Taste

It’s all about the weather. You hear it from the meteorologist on the TV, make small talk about it, complain when it gets too hot or too cold. Weather can set the tone for your scene, too. But can you write about the weather without actually saying “It’s cold”? For today’s Daily Writers’ Fix, skip forward a few months and imagine breathing in the chilly winter air through your mouth. What does it taste like? Describe it in a paragraph and see if you can use this sense to make your readers feel the chill without actually telling them it’s cold outside.

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Daily Writers’ Fix: Touch

Tree climbing, fantasy tree houses, enchanted forests–everyone has a tree story. What’s yours? Return to your childhood and describe the feeling of bark on your hands as you climbed a tree. Or make a wildly enchanted forest seem believable by describing the feel of things your readers can relate to such as branches scraping one’s skin, fallen leaves crumbling under one’s feet, or the feeling of the sun shining through a break in the trees.