How to Add Coconut Oil to Everything You Cook—And We Mean Everything | Bon Appétit 8/8/20, 2:03 PM

How to Add Coconut Oil to

Everything You Cook—And We Mean
Everything
When you're truly obsessed with coconut oil, it looks
something like this.
By Christine Muhlke January 11, 2017

In Pantry Obsession, Bon Appétit editor at large Christine Muhlke shares the
things from her (ever-increasing) pantry that she can’t cook without.
Literally.

The first time a chef’s recipe using coconut oil arrived in the Bon Appétit Test
Kitchen in 2011, there was a lot of discussion. Would people really go to the
health food store to find this weird, semi-solid stuff just to make a coconut
cake from some new restaurant in Tulum, Mexico? These days, you’ll find it
in every grocery store. That’s because the weird, semi-solid stuff (it liquefies
above 76 degrees) is not only good for you, it’s also versatile and delicious in
savory and sweet dishes alike. (See also: popcorn.) And so now there’s
always a jar of Trader Joe’s Organic Virgin Coconut Oil on my shelf.

Josephine Schiele Why Trader Joe’s? Well, I buy my cooking oils

there. When coconut oil popped up in the section last year, I snapped it up at
the price (about $7). I first used it to make BA’s delicious sautéed coconut
collard greens, then tried it for roasting sweet potatoes and other veg (don’t
forget the nutritional yeast!), and popping popcorn.

The coconut flavor is delicate and rich, not Almond Joy-y, adding a subtly
tropical note to any veg. Even if a nutritionist hadn’t scared me about my

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How to Add Coconut Oil to Everything You Cook—And We Mean Everything | Bon Appétit 8/8/20, 2:03 PM

unsaturated fat intake, I would have started using coconut oil as my go-to
cooking fat. Because while it seems counterintuitive: coconut oil has 90%
unsaturated fat—higher than butter and lard—it is good at boosting “good”
cholesterol levels. And if you’re star healthy staffer Alaina Sullivan, you use it
for just about everything that your IG followers like.

Start roasting your veg in coconut oil—we promise it won't taste like a piña colada.

Peden + Munk

But where coconut oil really kills is in baking. You know Magic Shell, the ice
cream topping that hardens on contact? Just stir some coconut oil into
melted chocolate and be 10 again. Coconut hearts chocolate, as proven by
this buttermilk chocolate pound cake, this vegan chocolate tart with salted
oat crust, and our vegan chocolate cashew ice cream. After years of making
granola with olive oil, I now use it in my go-to hazelnut cacao-nib granola
from one of my favorite breakfast books, the somewhat unfortunately titled
Whole Grain Mornings. And weekends have been vastly improved by BA
contributor Alison Roman’s tip to use coconut oil to grease the griddle for
pancakes, giving them a lovely crispy edge that butter just can’t achieve. (I
love Chris Morocco’s recipe for buckwheat-rye pancakes; Anna Jones’s oat-
and-apple pancakes use it in the batter as well.)

This recipe will get you baking with coconut oil and you might never go back.

Coconut oil has beauty applications, too—and not just from the inside. CAP
Beauty co-founder Kerrilynn Pamer told me that she uses it as a body
moisturizer, and also incorporates it into her smoothies as a way to add good
fat to her diet. (Some people use it in their hair and on their skin, she said,
but it’s too heavy for her. Oh, and she also turned me on to coconut butter,
which is more akin to peanut butter since it’s made from the meat as well as
the oil and can be eaten by the spoonful, spread on toast, or stirred into
beverages: CAP uses it in their house Beauty Elixir.) Pamer also inspired me

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How to Add Coconut Oil to Everything You Cook—And We Mean Everything | Bon Appétit 8/8/20, 2:03 PM

to switch to extra-virgin oil, which is less refined. And now, after researching
this story, I combine it with my other favorite trendy ingredient, matcha, to
make a face mask with Greek yogurt and honey. Try that with canola oil.

More recipes with coconut oil:

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