How to Toast Coconut Flakes

I recently finished reading a book that describes the story of my life, called Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food by Jeff Potter. Aside from all the scientific equations and principles, one of the beautiful things I learned about in this book, very applicable to creating appealing food, is called the Maillard reaction.

In short, the Maillard Reaction is the difference between perfectly toasted bread, just before it's smeared with strawberry freezer jam, and a pasty piece of white bread. The Maillard Reaction takes place most effectively at 375 degrees Fahrenheit (or 190 degrees Celcius), and then the top of your muffin turns deliciously golden-brown. The elusive, desirable golden-brown. Maillard makes it all possible by the heat affecting the water molecules and creating glycation.

So, what to do with this? Toast stuff. One of my favorites is toasted coconut. It's a little bit caramel tasting, a little bit toasty. By changing the structure of the sugars in the food, it becomes more appealing.

So, here's how to toast coconut. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (for a lower application of the Maillard reaction).

You can start with sweetened or unsweetened dried shredded coconut.

Measure the needed amount and spread it thinly on a sheet tray.

Put it in the oven for 5 minutes or less. If it starts to smell strongly, it's about 3 seconds from burnt! Watch it closely.

Pull it out of the oven when more than half of the coconut is toasted (don't wait for all of it to change color), and immediately transfer to a cool plate. If you leave it on the sheet tray, it will continue to toast.

Cool and use in your recipe.