TWD: Banana coconut Ice Cream Pie

For this week's TWD challenge, Spike of Spike Bakes chose the Banana Coconut Ice Cream Pie on page 350 of Baking from My Home to Yours.
 
I wouldn't call myself a banana lover.  I  like them in my cereal, and love banana bread and cake, but am not one to eat them straight up or to eat frozen bananas or banana flavored things.  I also am not a huge fan of the banana/chocolate combination.  So, I almost skipped this week. 

But then, I was sick yesterday and wanted something sweet...and after a year of homemade baked goods, packaged cookies just don't do it for me anymore!  I looked in the fridge and freezer, and was completely shocked to see that there were no treats to eat!!!  How is that possible?? 

So I took another look at the recipe.  I didn't have butter cookies or chocolate ice cream, but it seemed like it would come together so quickly...So I subbed graham crackers for the butter cookies and used butter pecan ice cream to mix with the banana, rum & lemon juice for the filling.  Seriously, this pie was done in like 15 minutes!  the longest part of it was getting the coconut to brown, which was my fault b/c I used a small saucepan instead of a skillet. 

I've read this on so many many other blogs, but the crust is the real star of this recipe.  I mean, how can you go wrong with butter, coconut, and cookie crumbs?? 

I don't know if I will make this particular recipe again, not being a huge fan of banana and all, but I think this crust is amazing and I will definitely use it again.

Thanks for the pick spike! Check out the Leave your link post on the TWD site to see who else baked along this week.

TWD...just the wrong week

I had all the intentions of making the lovely Quick Classic Berry Tart chosen for this week's TWD challenge by Cristine of Cooking with Cristine...but sadly, once again, I was sidelined by illness.  I don't know what is going on, but it seems like right about every 3 weeks I get sick with a fever.  It is probably just related to my CFS/fibro/broken body, but it is annoying.  My house was crying out to be cleaned but I accomplished NOTHING all weekend.  Didn't even get to cook or make dessert for mothers day!  I did pry myself out of bed to go see my mom, and thankfully had some leftover casserole that I was able to scoop into a smaller dish and reheat... And I had the leftover ice cream from last week's TWD which I never posted about!  So here is my ice cream post...a week late. 

When I saw the Burnt Sugar Ice Cream (chosen by Becky of Project Domestication) I was SO excited because it was going to be my first time making ice cream...and with my new kitchenaid ice cream attachment!  Woohoo!  (and it was my birthday, which is also fun (; )  Being the ice cream virgin that I am, on Monday night I got all my ingredients out and ready and then grabbed the ice cream attachment..still in the box...out of my cabinet.  I started reading the instructions...Ohhh...the ice cream attachment has to be frozen for...15 hours!!!...before you can use it...hmmm....looks like there will not be any ice cream tonight.  So into the freezer my ice cream bowl went, and back into the refrigerator went all the ingredients.

Now, I had wanted to make it the night before so I would have time to post on Tuesday because, of course, Tuesday was my birthday and I had dinner plans with my parents (stupid hubs had a game to film.  boo.) But obviously that didn't work and I decided that I would make and post the ice cream on Tuesday night.  (you see how I don't understand ice cream?  it needs time)

So after my wonderful Mexican birthday dinner where I stuffed my face with chimichangas and mexican mush (and talked about some super exciting things that I will be able to reveal in about 3 weeks) I came home, spent a bit more time with my mom and then started on the ice cream.  Again. 

Just like Dorie says, the caramel mixture seized up like crazy and it actually took me a while to get it to smooth out--probably because I was using a pan that was way too small.  When I would stir the "custard" things would slosh and slur and then fizzle on my burners.  bah.  I also had my trusty instant-read thermometer out but the mixture really did not thicken like I think it should have.  It reached the required temperature, and in my impatience I decided to go ahead and pull it off the stove. 

Now I was ready to churn some ice cream! 

Oh wait...

The mixture has to cool?!?!?  After I've just spent all that time getting it up to 170 but not over 180 degrees?  BOO!!

So I stick the mixture into the fridge, and my ice cream bowl back into the freezer.  and wait.

30 minutes...still warm to the touch.

45 minutes...still slightly warm...

60 minutes.  Forget it.  I'm making ice cream!!

Well.  That didn't really work.  I poured it into the ice cream container and churned for at least 30 minutes but all it did was get cold and maybe a tiny tiny bit thick.  But hey, anything liquid will freeze right?  So I stuck it in a container in the freezer anyway hoping that magic would happen overnight.  

But it wasn't magic.  The next day I basically had sweetened frozen cream.  Very icy texture.  It still tasted good though.  

I spent a few days scraping bits of ice milk out of the container before I had the genius idea to put it in the fridge to let it melt and then (since it would be cold, right?) try to churn it and make ice cream.  

And guess what?  

It worked!!!!   

I made real, honest-to-goodness, Ice Cream!!!   I could tell that it was going better since it really thickened up as it was churning and I was so excited!

So even though I was too sick to make anything for Mother's Day, I had for real homemade ice cream that we ate over toasted croissants with sliced strawberries.  And it was quite lovely if I do say so myself :)

(oh...with the whole impatience thing...I didn't let my caramel cook long enough so I didn't get quite the depth of flavor that some of the TWD-ers got, but I think this suited the people I was feeding quite well.)

little kitty friend was very interested in the ice cream...

I don't know why I was such an impatient person with this challenge because I am normally very patient and don't mind waiting for things, but ice cream brings it out in me I guess!  Well, thanks so much to Betty for choosing this recipe, and sorry to Cristine that I didn't get to the berry tart--hope to do that soon!