TWD: Banana-Coconut Ice Cream Pie

The timing of this recipe was perfect. I needed a little something to bring to a viewing get-together for the series finale of "Lost" and the tropical ingredients seemed perfect. I come from a long line of ice cream eaters, so it seemed even more perfect.

Of course, just like in "Lost" there was a complication (no Smoke Monster, luckily). I love bananas in bread, on sandwiches with peanut butter, in my cereal. But I simply do not like frozen bananas. Not one bit. It may go back to a "traumatic dessert" experience when I was a kid. My Mom would often take me to the Zoo (it's handy to have a "world famous" Zoo in one's backyard. Even more handy for my Mom since kids under 16 had free admission back then). I was fairly young and saw the advertisements for chocolate covered frozen bananas. They looked delicious! After an afternoon of whining, my Mom finally caved in. I took one bite, and BLECH! I don't know what my small child self thought it would taste like, but I was having none of it. My Mom couldn't have been less pleased! Even then stuff at the Zoo cost a lot of money, so she couldn't have been happy about this tyke turning up her whiny nose at the frozen banana. I distinctly remember her getting very quiet, and not wanting to eat the rest of mine.

Haven't had a chocolate covered frozen banana since.



Because of my aversion I opted to not have any bananas on the bottom of the pie and only mixed one banana into the ice cream. Even so I thought the banana flavor was too much. If I were to make it again, I'd just pick a really yummy flavor, or make one, and have it and the crust.



Because that crust was oh-so-good! Definitely the star of the dessert. A little difficult to get out of my brand-new Giada Pie Pan from Target, but once properly defrosted, absolutely the best thing about this pie!

I thought it needed a little something on top, so I added a bit of whipped cream. That did the trick!



If I needed a pretty easy dessert to take somewhere, I would definitely make this again, with the changes listed above. Or I might just make the crust and eat it on its own (only kind of kidding about that idea). Either way, thanks to Spike at spike.bakes for choosing this recipe (it all made sense once I learned Spike is from Massachusetts. One of my most favorite things about New England - an ice cream stand on every corner, and they all seem to have a line of people - day or night, no matter the weather).

PS - Any "Lost" fans out there? What did you think of the finale?? I LOVED it. Cried like a baby at the end, mind you, and have felt like I've had a "Lost" hangover ever since, but loved it!

TWD: Coconut Tea Cakes

Picture this - it's just after 11:30pm. I've taken the new pup for the last walk of the night as the last of my Coconut Tea Cake cupcakes are baking in the oven. After getting him settled I pull the cupcakes out of the oven, having already put the first batch in a container to take to work. I settle into bed, warm and snugly, happy in the knowledge that I have finally reclaimed my kitchen after 2 weeks of exile. This "being a new mom thing" is really hard, even if it is only being a canine mom.

Then, just as I am about to drift off to sleep, happy in knowing I have baked and baked well, I look at the clock and realize I forgot one last step - I didn't post! Since it was after midnight, I figured a few hours either way wasn't going to matter.

So that is how I am here posting on Wednesday morning about this delicious recipe picked by Carmen of Carmen Cooks.




Since I don't have a bundt pan I went the cupcake route. I used sweetened coconut as I am a huge lover of coconut. The cupcakes took about 20 minutes and turned out moist and and so good (I've already had two!). They have just enough coconut flavor without being over powering and I love the texture the shredded coconut gives. These will definitely find their way into a rotation.

Since I made cupcakes I was tempted to find a way to top them, but I think they will show up to work "naked." They are tasty all on their own. And for my co-workers who may reject them because they need a topping, then I say "more for me!"

TWD: Coconut-Roasted Pineapple Dacquoise

Sometimes there is such a thing as too small. Especially when it comes to desserts. Sometimes you get to "too small" while trying to avoid "too big." Thus is my story with this fabulous dessert, picked this week by Andrea from Andrea in the Kitchen.

All the parts of the recipe looked doable, but I did not want 12 servings. I sensed before I started that this wasn't something I wanted to transport to work, and I certainly do not need 12 servings all to myself. Using my oh-so-bad math skills, I figured I'd divide by 4. Easy enough for the most part, a little tricky with some ingredients. But rather ridiculous when it came to making the outlines on the parchment paper. The 12x6 dessert calculated into 3 x 1.5 to me, which just seemed too small.


Once I assembled the ingredients for the meringue, it was obvious my outline was quite right. So I improvised (always, always a bad idea!). Still got it all on one pan. Now the question became, how long do I cook this for.


For the last few recipes my bake times have been much longer than suggested. One would think it was the oven, but for everything else it works fine. Oh the dilemma - do I cook it the 3 hours figuring it would all even out? Do I cook it for a shorter time knowing the pieces are smaller? Ugh - I hate this kind of math.

I put it in for 1 hour, turned it and left it in for another hour, turned again and took it out 45 minutes later.

All other parts were easy enough to do. I looked and looked (meaning I went to three stores) to find white chocolate. As it turns out, I found the chocolate I used at an Italian restaurant and deli (go figure!). Another good reason to decrease this recipe since the chocolate was hard to find. I had a bad feeling about my math here, but plunged forward.



Pineapple was fine - it was good to use my pineapple cutting skills learned in culinary classes. However, can you spot the problem on the pineapple's first trip to the oven?


The ganache did not turn out quite right - it was more of a "pour" onto the meringue rather than "spread." If that wasn't enough of a sign, here's another --when your pineapple slices start sliding OFF the dacquoise, then you know something has gone terribly wrong.


I must confess I almost didn't make this dessert. I wasn't sure I would like it. But I thought the challenge might be fun and it was. As my dad used to say "win some, lose some, some you call on account of rain." I think this was a bit of all of those -- I won with the experience, I lost in the presentation, and the rain, well, if you count "raining" pineapple, then I've got all three.

CEiMB: Thai-Style Halibut with Coconut-Curry Broth

This recipe had elements I love (coconut) and elements I'm not a big fan of (fish, curry). I'm a little disturbed by my recent trend of "I'm not a big fan of......" in this blog, but on the other hand, I've definitely been pushing my culinary envelope this week.

I like shell fish much more than "real" fish, but if forced to have "real" fish halibut is one that I will pick. Curry isn't something I've had a lot of experience with, and only like if coconut milk is involved to tone down the taste and the heat. That said I had a good feeling about this pick, and was pretty excited to give it a try.

This was pretty easy to put together. I must confess I cheated by using a pre-cooked brown rice from Trader Joe's (at least it was organic!). The spinach I did fresh, and I used curry powder rather than the red curry paste. The curry powder I bought from the bulk area at my local Henry's so it only cost me 21 cents. I figured I wouldn't be out much if I hated it.

All the elements came together nicely and quickly, and I have to say I really liked it. Each individual element was okay, but I really liked all four elements blended together (the fish, rice, spinach and sauce). Together they were yummier than the sum of their parts.

Since I really should eat fish and brown rice more than I do, this is a sure bet to try again. Thanks to Liz over at Not So Skinny Kitchen for this week's recipe. Head over there for the recipe, or go to page 232 in "The Food You Crave" by Ellie Krieger.

TWD: Coconut Butter Thins

Another busy week, another last minute baking frenzy for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie pick. I was super excited about this one, as I love, I mean LOVE coconut. It's one of those things that people either love or hate. I'm a lover! So a big "thank you!" goes out to Jayne from The Barefoot Kitchen Witch who picked this week's recipe (check out her great pictures and cute kids!)

Since I'm all about the last minute often times I find the hardest thing about a recipe is getting the butter to room temperature. But other than that wait, this was super easy. I've really been loving the last few weeks where we've rubbed the zest of lemon/lime into the sugar. It's like a little aroma therapy/stress reduction treatment. And the idea of putting the dough into the zip top bag and rolling it out is genius - pure genius.

The only down side of this recipe is having left over macadamia nuts. I think I ate my daily -- or was it weekly -- amount of calories just snacking on them tonight. They are pure evil (Oh. So. Good. EVIL!).

Since it is late, and I only have one rack in my oven I'm baking two sheets worth of butter thins and I put the rest into the fridge and will bake those off later. I had a little bit of a math problem when cutting the dough into pieces (curse math!) so I have many more pieces, in a much smaller size than they should be. (Can I just take a moment to curse the bird outside my window singing. I'm all for birds singing. I truly love hearing them throughout the day. But it's 11:30pm and this guy is just warming up for his big solo. All last night I kept waking up to him singing. When the alarm went off this morning -- nothing! He must be desperate or an insomniac or something! Sorry, I feel better now).

I've been doing this TWD thing long enough to know that however the dessert tastes coming out of the oven isn't necessarily how it will taste when it cools. Usually it will taste better. Since these butter thins are unbelievably delicious (heaven I tell you!) out of the oven, I can only imagine how fantastic they will be in an hour. I was planning on going to bed. I may have to stay up a little longer than I planned (with my little birdy friend outside, this may not be a problem).

PS - I have to ask........was I the only one singing "put the lime with the coconut and shake it all up" while mixing ingredients? Honestly -- I wasn't alone, was I???