Sweetened Coconut Flakes

Odds are you either love coconut or you don't, and if you fall in the "I do" camp than you can appreciate how its distinctive taste can perk up practically anything.

It's a wonder anyone ever decided to crack open a coconut to see what was inside, but we sure are glad it happened. The fruits of a palm tree been around since prehistoric times and are thought to have survived because they are utterly unsinkable-just imagine all those coconuts bobbing their way to survival, and then self-cultivating once they washed ashore on the islands off the South Pacific and Indian Ocean. It wouldn't be until the 15th century before the Portuguese explorers en route to the New World called them "coco," or merry monkey, which is a pretty apt description of the way the hairy husk looks with those three dimples on its "face." You'll be grinning, too, when eating these sweetened flakes, whether in your favorite granola, muesli, and trail mixes or baked into cookies, cakes, and other homemade treats. The delicate flakes lend scrumptious sweetness to all these and more, along with what can only be described as coconutty flavor.