TWD: Banana Coconut Ice Cream Pie

This pie could be a metaphor for my life right now: A hot mess.

I mean, the components are all awesome... coconut crust, bananas, ice cream??? I mean.. you can't go wrong, right? Just like my life... work is busy, awesome vacations and busy weekends... it's all good, don't get me wrong! But it's kind of nice to get those things in small doses on their own, rather than all together at the same time.

But, when you have opportunities to do things in both your personal life and professional life you grab a hold of them and see how long you can hold on to it all (even if everything's happening simultaneously)... so far, I've been holding on tight and I have avoided the crash and burn, but I've still got a couple of weeks to go... so, we'll see what happens.

That's not the case with this pie. Things kept getting thrown into the dish until it was just too much to enjoy, for me.

First of all, I didn't really understand the concept of the pie. It felt like I was eating coconut cookies with chocolate ice cream and sliced bananas. I didn't feel like the flavors really melded all that well together. It was like instead of putting together a Dorie recipe, I was putting together a Rachael Ray dessert. It always annoys me when she makes desserts on her show. Like... seriously.. you don't need to show people how to make an ice cream sundae. Nobody is watching your show (at least the food network one, I never get to see her other show) for dessert recipes, trust me.

I made this for mother's day and was pretty disappointed in the end result. It wasn't that it was awful, cause it certainly wasn't. It just felt like so thrown together and separated. It didn't feel like a homemade dessert to me. Maybe it's partially my fault... I wasn't able to give the recipe the full time in the freezer to really freeze up. But, I kinda feel like that probably wouldn't have helped the issue I had with it. Which is that throwing sliced bananas into some chocolate ice cream and dishing it up in a delicious coconut crust does not a "dessert" make.

You win some, you lose some, I guess. In theory sometimes the idea of putting a whole bunch of things that you love together into one pot is a great idea. But in execution... it doesn's always work out that way, I guess. I'm hoping that's where the similiarities of my life and this recipe end.

Banana Coconut Ice Cream Pie
Recipe by Dorie Greenspan for Tuesdays with Dorie
Chosen by: Spike of Spike Bakes

The recipe called for chocolate ice cream, which I used, despite my better judgement. Dorie mentions that using vanilla ice cream is delicious, it's just the that bananas turn the ice cream a kinda of brownish-gross color. Which... on my own, I wouldn't have cared about. But for Mother's Day... not the best look.

I also skipped the lemon juice.. because... lemon juice and chocolate?? No thanks. But, I'm weird like that.

The real winner in this recipe is the crust!!!! Which I will use again and again.

Recipe Here.

TWD: Honey Peach Ice Cream

Yes. More Peach. Get over it.

So, let's chat for a minute about kitchen gadgets/appliances. I am a low tech gal. I don't even own a computer at home. And while initially, it was because I'm cheap and didn't want to buy a computer and pay for monthly internet. Now, I kind of enjoy it. Luckily, I can access the internet on my phone if something is urgent (because, sometimes checking the lyrics for the song Delicate by Damien Rice is super urgent), but I can't imagine how many hours I'd get sucked into the internet.

I don't own two of the major components of this recipe: An ice cream maker or a food processor. It sucks. I wish I had the space to have every imaginable kitchen appliance and utensil imaginable, but I don't. So, I have to make do.

It's not a big deal, really. I actually get a weird pleasure out of preparing things without fancy dancy equipment. Like... "Ha! I don't need no stinking food processor! That's what hands are for." But, it doesn't make for the prettiest of dishes, that's for sure.

As usual with ice creams... this was easy to make. Even without the food processor or the ice cream maker. And as much as I love peaches, I, surprisingly, wasn't all that crazy about this recipe. There was kind of weird wang to it and I'm not sure if it has something to do with the honey or if maybe I cooked the custard incorrectly. It wasn't bad... it just wasn't something that made me want to curl up on the couch and eat the whole tub (which, honestly... is probably a good thing).

If you like peaches and honey and ice cream (and who doesn't?) then you should give this recipe a try. Maybe you'll love it! At the very least, check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie peeps and be sure to get the recipe from Tommi of Brown Interior.

TWD: Chocolate Banded Ice Cream Torte

The great thing about belonging to Tuesdays with Dorie is that every week (nearly), I’m making something that I most likely wouldn’t make on my own. Seriously. I’m not a super adventurous person (particularly when it comes to my sweet tooth) and if it’s not something that contains chocolate, cream cheese, peanut butter, caramel, or pecans… I’m not initially drawn to it. So, this is a great way to not only learn new baking techniques and get practice in the kitchen… but to also stretch my culinary brain.

Granted, I may not love every recipe, but I can assure you, I do love making every one of them.

That being said… this week’s recipe was chosen by Amy of Food, Family & Fun

She chose the Chocolate Banded Ice Cream Torte. Which is basically ice cream with frozen ganache layered in it.

I do love ice cream. And I have no problems sitting down with a bowl of ice cream, but I just don’t generally eat a lot of ice cream. So, this isn’t really a recipe that I would ever make on my own. My thoughts would be…. Why don’t you just buy some ice cream and pour some fudge sauce on it… voila… lazy man’s Ice Cream Torte. And then I tell myself… well, Amy… you don’t do that because that’s just not as pretty and interesting, that’s why. (Although, yes, my looks like crap… but more on that to come).

I found myself, grocery list in hand, wandering the frozen treats section of my grocery store (a section I never venture into, because I never buy ice cream). My intention was to buy a generic-y pint (hopefully) of vanilla frozen yogurt. Which apparently doesn’t exist. Seriously? People don’t buy pints of vanilla frozen yogurt? Ugh. I vowed to try another grocery store later in the week and walked out of the store sans frozen treats.

Later in the week, I got the idea… hey… why don’t I just make my own ice cream! I had just made my first batch of ice cream a few weeks ago and found how easy it was even without an ice cream maker. Since I didn’t care for the blueberry ice cream and threw it out, I thought this would be a great opportunity to try the homemade ice cream again in a flavor I would enjoy.

This is how you know it's the right consistency...

I made Dorie’s Vanilla Ice Cream recipe and to kick it up a bit, I added some crushed Oreo’s and some Bailey’s Irish Cream once the ice cream was softly frozen. I called this frozen concoction… Cookies and Irish Cream. The ice cream turned out delicious and it was pretty initially (until I tried to soften it to use in the torte with a hand-mixer and it quickly turned from a black and white marbled look to a muddled grey).

Everything's a little better with booze, right?

Now it was time to make the ganache. It’s funny. I sit down every week with my Baking: From My Home To Yours and read through the next recipe and write down all the ingredients that I need to buy… somehow… it completely slipped my mind that I didn’t have anymore chocolate chips until I was getting a bowl out of the cabinet to start the ganache. Crap. Obviously, I could run out and pick up some… but I rummaged around my baking cabinet for possible substutions… The first thing I thought of was that I could do a white chocolate ganache instead. And then I thought that it would not only be too sweet with the ice cream I made, that the color would just look disgusting with the grey interior… I dug futher in my cabinet and spotted some unsweetened baking chocolate. At first I thought it might even have some kind of conversion chart on it for adding sugar to make it semi-sweet, etc… but, it didn’t.

I decided to just go with it anyway and I used a boatload of corn syrup to sweeten it (maybe I could have used sugar, but I thought that corn syrup would be better for the consistency).

The rest of the recipe came together easily. I got lazy with the freezing and re-freezing (I mean, heck.. when you make your own ice cream without an ice cream maker and THEN you start all this additional ganache freezing you feel like you’re in and out of the freezer about zillion times) and omitted the middle layer of ganache. I halved the recipe and used a quart size glass mixing bowl to make it in.

It’s good. The ganache is tasty and the ice cream is awesome…. But, honestly… next time I’ll just scoop out some ice cream and pour some fudge sauce on it.

Check out Amy’s blog for the recipe.

I like to think of it as... rustic!

TWD: Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream

Dorie, Dorie, Dorie... you just love all your kitchen appliances, don't you? Most recipes call for a standing mixer or a food processor (neither of which I have). And this week called for an ice cream maker and a blender (yup, you guessed it, I don't have them, either)! I always seem to make do, though. And this week was no exception.

Doing things the old fashioned way is kind of right up my alley. I mean. Let's face it. I'm a low tech girl. My lack of kitchen appliances is nothing in comparison to my lack of now commonplace technological gadgets and gizmos. Take for instance the fact that I don't have internet at home. That's right, no internet and you want to know why? Because, I don't have a computer.

**crickets chirping**

Did you just fall over dead? That's right. I'm a blogger on two blogs and I don't even own a computer.

And I won't even get into the fact that my Zack Morris cell phone doesn't have even have a camera function...

So, technology be damned. I can make some ice cream the old fashioned way, dammit. All thanks to David Lebovitz. Because of him, I was still able to participate in this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe chosen by Dolores of Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity: Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream (click on Dolores' blog to get the recipe).

On the one hand, I was super excited about this recipe. I mean, not only have I never made ice cream... I've never even eaten homemade ice cream. Ever. On the otherhand, I have recently come to terms with the fact that I don't like the flavor of cooked blueberries. Quite the conundrum, no?

I decided to give the cooked blueberries one more chance (plus, I had some frozen blueberries in the freezer...) and stayed with the recipe. (Big mistake for my tastebuds, but a lifesaver for my waistline).

The recipe was really easy. You basically just cook down some blueberries give them a good whizz in a blender (or in my case with your hand mixer, Betty).

And then you start the chilling process.

This recipe turned out awesome! The texture is great. The ice cream is so smooth and creamy. But, the flavor.... uggghhhh... it's official. I hate cooked blueberries (fresh ones, I adore, though).

I'm so glad I went through with this recipe though... because now I know I can make ice cream anytime I want (wait... is that *really* a good thing?)!!! I will be making ice cream again, just not blueberry flavored.