>Coconut Extract

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I’m working up a recipe for dark chocolate cupcakes made with coconut oil, coconut milk and coconut extract. I plan on topping them with a creamy, dark chocolate icing and shaved coconut – these will be vegan, by the way. Except, little did I know, one of the above ingredients hardly exists.  Not in pure form, at least.

I made two trips to the store this morning and fetched all of the required ingredients for my day of baking (I’m making raw brownies and oatmeal spice cookies, along with the cupcakes).  However, I forgot one, small, yet very major, ingredient: coconut extract.  I marched back over to Whole Foods only to find they carry no such thing; all they had was coconut flavor, and it wasn’t even organic.  I figured it couldn’t hurt to check out King Soopers, so I went over there and searched endlessly for a product they didn’t have either.  Some nice man helped me search, too, and when we spotted imitation coconut flavor he said, ‘why don’t you just get this? No one will be able to tell.’ He was right, but knowing I didn’t use the real thing would haunt me for days. I’m not quick to convert to the artificial side, especially not when it involves my precious baking. So, back to Whole Foods I went. I walked in, cut straight to aisle 2, and was very, very bummed to find 2 ounces of coconut flavor was $6.99. SEVEN DOLLARS FOR COCONUT FLAVOR!!!?!?!@#($%&!@* I walked around for a bit, thinking about our grocery budget, and how I just spent $30 on ingredients and another $7 really isn’t much, but.. I decided to put off the recipe until I could find the real deal (which apparently doesn’t exist).  I walked out of the store defeated – how can Whole Foods not carry coconut extract when they carry every other coconut product in existence?  I got about 2 blocks away from my house and decided I was going to go back to King Soopers and search one last time.  

Google search for coconut extract, this is all I got.

Labeled as pure coconut extract, however, the first ingredient is artificial coconut flavor. THAT IS NOT PURE!!!!!!!!

Water, alcohol, agave and coconut milk? Why would I buy this product when I could make it at home?

So, after an hour of searching, and 4 trips between Whole Foods and King Soopers, I settled on the imitation coconut flavor.  Shame on me for buying an artificial flavor, but I’m pretty sure the consumers of this particular baked good are not going to mind.  Besides, I’d venture to say the fact that I searched endlessly counts for something, right? 

PS – I will be posting recipes (and photos) for the raw cacao brownies, chocolate coconut cupcakes and oatmeal spice cookies as soon as I am finished constructing and baking them.

Oh, also.. EXCITING NEWS:  I was going to wait until it was finished, but.. I am happy to announce that my bakebook is officially under construction: each recipe will have a regular and vegan version (some will even have a raw version). And eventually I want to take a regular bakebook and turn all of the recipes vegan/raw – maybe that’ll be my little side job while constructing my bakebook. Big thanks to my knight in shining poly-cotton for giving me a reason to bake (and dealing with our perpetually messy kitchen) – I love you, mister.