Banana Coconut Ice Cream Pie

Spike of spike.bakes picked Banana Coconut Ice Cream Pie for this weeks Tuesdays with Dorie. I love ice cream pies and this is a good one. The coconut shortbread crust is awesome. The crust would be good with just about any flavor of ice cream.

The recipe calls for chocolate ice cream but I'm not a big fan of bananas and chocolate together so, I decided to use plain vanilla ice cream. Dorie warned that using vanilla ice cream would produce a slightly off color filling. The banana, ice cream, and rum mixture did turn a sort of pinkish color but it tasted divine.

I served it with whipped cream, a little chocolate syrup, and some crumbled cookie crumbs. The banana that I had reserved for topping the finished pie somehow disappeared. My hubby later owned up to having it for an afternoon snack. Oh well, The pie still tasted great.

TWD Apple- Apple Bread Pudding

This weeks recipe for the Tuesdays with Dorie group is Apple-Apple Bread Pudding and it was chosen by Elizabeth of Cake or Death?. This recipe is a traditional bread pudding with a twist, you add caramelized apples and apple butter to the mix. This results in a fresh new way to enjoy bread pudding. It's really good served warm with some maple syrup.

I liked this pudding best when it was warm. I love bread pudding served cold the next day with a warm sauce poured over it. I was disappointed when I tried the apple-apple bread pudding cold. The cold apples just took away from the taste. Overall I thought this was a great recipe.

TWD Burnt Sugar Ice Cream

I love ice cream. It makes me smile. Dorie comes through with another great recipe with this burnt sugar version. Go, pull out the freezer and make this, you will love it. It's like getting a head start on summer. Thanks to Becky of Project Domestication for this great pick.

Chockablock Cookies

This weeks recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie is Chockablock Cookies and it was chosen by Mary of Popsicles and Sandy Feet. What is a chockablock cookie you ask? Well, it's a cookie that's stuffed with just about anything you can think of. I used pecans, chocolate chips, coconut, and dried apricots in mine. I changed the recipe just a bit by using dark karo syrup instead of molasses. I wasn't sure about how all the flavors would be together but, hey it worked. We all loved them. They are even better the next day. I just made half a batch and now I wished I had more. Thanks Mary for picking this recipe.

Sweet Cream Biscuits for TWD

Biscuits have always been on the southern table. They are made from simple ingredients that are found in the pantry and can be whipped up in a jiffy. Biscuits are a staple for breakfast but they can be found at every meal and they make a good snack when you add a little jam. They may come from humble beginnings but you can add a thin slice of salty country ham and you have a treat fit for a king.

Just because biscuits are simple doesn't mean they are easy. Biscuits can scare even experienced cooks. If you aren't careful they can come out of the oven flat and hard as a brick.

The best advice I have been given for making great biscuits is use White Lily Flour and have a very gentle hand when working with them.

I have made biscuits many times but never without using shortening. This weeks recipe calls for only cream.. I have to admit that I was very skeptical. The biscuits mixed up easily and looked like any other recipe that I have used. The mixture was light and easy to handle. I was able to pat it out without using a rolling pin.

I use White Lily flour so I was a little concerned when I read Dorie's comments about needing to add more flour when using it. I decided to start with the 2 cups the recipe called for and see what happened. I added one cup of milk and still had a very dry mixture. I needed to add about 1/3 cup milk to get the mixture to look right. I didn't need to add any extra flour and thought the biscuits came out great. They had a nice rise and the texture was very nice. I saw very little

difference in these and my regular biscuits.

My husband and I had these Sunday night. I fixed breakfast for dinner. We really liked these biscuits with apple butter. Yummy. I froze the rest to have with sausage gravy this weekend. Did you know that sausage gravy has magical powers? It has been known to bring home roaming children home from all over the country. It works every time.

Thanks to Melissa of Love at First Bite for picking this great recipe.

TWD-Swedish Visiting Cake

This weeks recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie is Swedish Visiting Cake. The best way to describe this cake is easy, easy, easy. It takes only about five minutes to stir it up and about 25 minutes to bake. And even better you just use one bowl and no mixer. The only thing I would change is maybe cutting down a bit on the almond extract.

I love anything made in an iron skillet. It just seems so homey. You feel like everything is right with the world, like going back to your grandmother's kitchen. My grandmother had a cake very similar to this. She called it her little butter cake. She could transform it many different desserts. She would use it for her strawberry shortcake or add a pecan, butter, and cinnamon topping and she had a great coffee cake. Add a brown sugar sauce and she had a quick dessert. She could make a great pineapple upside down cake using this recipe. But my all time favorite was her banana upside down cake. Yum yum. This cake, warm from the oven with a spoonful of whipped cream was heavenly. I need to make this cake soon.

Thanks to Nancy of The Dogs Eat the Crumbs for choosing this great recipe. Please be sure to check out her blog for the recipe. She has a great site, you'll love it.

TWD Coconut Tea Cake

This weeks selection for Tuesdays with Dorie is Coconut Tea Cake and it was chosen by Carmen of Carmen Cooks. My apologies for the picture, this is a much prettier cake than my picture shows. I loved the texture of this cake. It is similar to a pound cake but lighter. It has a mild coconut flavor. I added the rum but I really couldn't taste it in the finished cake. The cake improves after sitting overnight. It become more moist and had a richer coconut flavor. I think that a lime glaze would be a great addition to this cake. If you are a coconut lover then this cake is for you.