Peanut Butter and Banana Cream Pie

BAKED Sunday Morning

After making the double chocolate and banana tart for French Fridays with Dorie, I was a little hesitant about making another banana dessert that uses citrus to keep the bananas from turning black. This recipe uses orange juice instead of lemon juice and the flavor all but disappeared. 

What I had to do for this recipe was find a substitution for my favorite Nabisco Vanilla wafers because after reading the label on the box I saw that they have high fructose corn syrup. Have they always had it and I just didn't pay attention? Somehow I don't think so. Anyway, I have to read labels these days because the instant I eat anything with HFS I break out across the bridge of my nose. It's annoying and not very attractive, plus it makes me wonder that if I have an instant reaction to something that I am eating then it most likely is not good for me. My family now jokes that I am a human barometer for high fructose corn syrup. It took me awhile to find these 'natural' vanilla wafers in the cookie aisle. I was amazed at how many cookies have high fructose corn syrup in them.

These wafers taste really good with the vanilla bean and I thought they would complement the pudding part of this dessert because it also has vanilla bean. When I make this again, however, I will cut down on the amount of sugar for the crust because these cookies are much sweeter than the Nabisco wafers and much crispier. If you break this recipe down into steps and do the crust, it doesn't really take that long to make because you can make the pudding while your crust is cooling and then take off and do errands or clean the house while the pudding and crust are chilling in the fridge. The pudding is so creamy and delicious with the vanilla bean! I also really, really like the peanut butter topping and licked the mixer bowl clean afterwards. So very tasty. The top of the pie needed something and bananas were optional so I decided to skip those and decided to drizzle the top with some chocolate. Thank you for the inspiration, Kris!

What you end up with is a delicious dessert that has a layer of cookie, vanilla bean pudding, bananas, and peanut butter cream with a little bit of chocolate. This is a perfect dessert, especially for the summer because you eat it when the pie is nice and chilled. This photo was taken after 3 hours in the fridge, but I put it back in and we had some more later and it was firmer and just as good. It's like eating a childhood favorite of banana pudding with cookies and peanut butter. Check out the rest of the group's pies over at BAKED Sunday Mornings and get the recipe.

Double Chocolate and Banana Tart

French Friday with Dorie

This recipe has all the ingredients for a perfect dessert. Chocolate and bananas and more chocolate...and more bananas. So I am still left wondering why this wasn't a hit with us. It started out well with Dorie's wonderful sweet tart dough made with some unsweetened cocoa powder. So far, so good. Next, I made the caramelized bananas which turned out pretty well. 

Some were more caramelized than others, but they tasted good. I spread a thin layer of nutella on the bottom of the tart shell that was Dorie's Bonne Idée. The caramelized bananas were then spread over the nutella followed by a layer of chocolate ganache. The next step was where I think the recipe went wrong for me. Sprinkling lemon juice over the sliced bananas to keep them from turning black and then spreading an apricot glaze over the bananas once they were arranged on the top of the tart probably was what kept our taste buds guessing what the strong flavor was that none of us could put our finger on.

We never did figure out what it was, but perhaps I put too much lemon juice on the bananas and mixed with the apricot glaze created a really strong flavor. The components of this tart eaten separately was delicious. The sum of the parts of this tart just fell short of a good dessert. I really wanted to like this, but even after having a second piece the following day, it just tasted okay to me - not bad, not great - just okay. Was it the bananas we didn't like with it? Who knows? But I think I would have preferred it just as a double chocolate tart.

I am guessing that I am in the minority this week and that the rest of the group fared much better with this tart than I did and hopefully got better reviews with their families. Check out their links over at French Friday with Dorie.

Provençal Olive Fougasse

French Friday with Dorie

When I read the intro to this week's recipe, I was intrigued when Dorie said that the fougasse is not a solid loaf of bread because holes are made into it and the bread is often oddly shaped, called pains fantaisies or fantasy bread. This alone made me want to make it. I have never made this kind of bread before and really looked to the photo in the book as a guide.

Having looked for olives packed in oil for another Dorie recipe, I knew they weren't going to be easy to find. I live in California where olives are abundant, but are packed in water. I found another jar of oil cured olives, however, at World Market, but this time they were from Provençal. Perfect!

I decided to make only one loaf and halved the recipe. I had another moment like last week where I forgot completely what I just read and didn't add the extra cup of water and olive oil until after I had already started mixing the flour and yeast mixtures. Sheesh! It turned out that this dough was forgiving though because it came together fairly well.

Since it had been a warm day (90 degrees!) I let it rise covered on the counter for about 2-1/2 hours before stirring it and putting it in the refrigerator to rest. When I got off work the next day I took it out and rolled it out a little on a floured surface and used my pizza cutter to make some cuts in the dough and gently pulled the slashes apart to make holes. I brushed the water and olive oil mixture on the top and sprinkled liberally with kosher salt.

I baked the bread on a silicone-lined baking sheet for 10 minutes and rotated the pan and baked for another 10 minutes. While this was baking you could smell the fragrant rosemary and I couldn't wait to try a piece. I let it cool on a rack for about 10 minutes before taking it outside where my husband and daughter were working out in the yard.

For me, it was like eating a very flavorful pretzel. All it needed was some mustard. I really liked it and so did my daughter, but John, the one who will eat an entire jar of olives at one sitting was on the fence about this and all he would say was, "I'm not sure..." Later he said that he didn't like the flavor combination - something was a little too much, but he wasn't sure what it was. The dough has a little bit of lemon zest and minced rosemary, in addition to the olives. I looked at the jar of olives and they were packed with thyme, so I am wondering if the rosemary, thyme, and lemon combination was what he didn't like.  I liked it so much that I took a large chunk to work the next day to eat as a snack.

I will totally make this again and experiment with the shapes and flavor combinations. This was one of the most enjoyable breads to make. Check out French Fridays with Dorie to see what the rest of the group thought about their bread.

Malted Waffles

BAKED Sunday Morning

I don't own a waffle maker, so I thought I would have to skip this recipe or make malted pancakes instead, but I checked with my daughter and she had one. These are so easy to make. The only change I made was with mine - I used peanut butter instead of butter on top because that is how I always fix my pancakes (or I should say my once a year pancake). I added some mini chocolate morsels and some syrup and had the most delicious breakfast. I mean, how could it not be good with all that sweetness on top, right?

John was able to give me a more honest opinion about the flavor of the waffle because he had his waffle with just a little bit of maple syrup. He said that it was delicious and really didn't even need the syrup and had a second waffle plain. One of the reasons why I don't make pancakes very often is because they seem too heavy to me, especially in the morning. The malted milk powder and the buttermilk really gives the waffle a lovely flavor without the heaviness that you find in restaurant waffles. 

I'm glad there is batter leftover to make some more later. Head on over to BAKED Sunday Mornings to see what the other's thought about their waffles and you can also get the recipe while you are there.

Almond Sole Meunière

French Friday with Dorie

This week's recipe is supposed to be Almond Flounder Meunière, but we can't get flounder on the West Coast. I looked for an alternative fish on my Seafood Watch app from Monterey Bay Aquarium and it suggested wild caught Pacific Sole. And by sheer coincidence, John and I stopped by Costco on the way home from work Monday night and lo and behold they had some wild caught Pacific Dover Sole! 

Dorie states in her intro that this dish is a blend of sole amandine because of the almonds in the recipe and sole meunière because it is cooked in brown butter and garnished with parsley. She made this with flounder because on the East Coast that is easier to find. I remember when I was a teenager in South Carolina going out to lunch with my best friend and she ordered fish almondine every time we went out. EVERY TIME. I liked it and ordered it occasionally, but she was obsessed with it. I don't know if it was because I was thinking back to those teenage years, when I started cooking the fish, or if I was distracted thinking about work, but whatever the reason I found myself dipping the fish into the beaten egg and then rolling it into the ground almonds before slipping them into the hot skillet with the browned butter. As soon as I did that I woke up from my reverie and knew that I made a mistake. The sole is so delicate that it fell apart from the weight of the egg and almonds. It was not a complete disaster because I just finished cooking the pieces of sole and set them aside for tacos because I knew that's how we would end up eating them anyway.

With the three remaining sole filets I followed the recipe exactly and they didn't fall apart. I garnished them with toasted sliced almonds and a little bit of parsley and some lemon wedges on the side. We thought this was a nice change - the sole was light, and tasty with the brown butter and ground almonds, and the crunch and taste of the almond slices made it extra special.

See what kind of fish the rest of the group used in this recipe over at French Fridays with Dorie.

Hungarian Shortbread

Tuesday with Dorie

I have only made shortbread a few times, but this week's Hungarian Shortbread by contributing baker, Gale Gand, is more like a bar cookie to me. A very delicious bar cookie. Thank you to Cher from the not so exciting adventures of a dabbler... and Lynette of 1smallkitchen for hosting this week's recipe. You can also find the recipe on their posts.

What makes this shortbread more like a bar cookie is that there is a layer of jam between two buttery cookie layers. Included in the recipe is a recipe for homemade rhubarb jam that was simple to make. I decided to make half the shortbread recipe, so I also made half the jam. The half vanilla bean and sugar takes away the tartness of the rhubarb. The dough was also easy to make, but what was interesting is that you separate the dough into two balls and freeze it, then grate it. My arm really got a workout grating the dough, but it was worth the extra effort. I read that some of the bakers used a food processor which I think is a great idea, but I must confess that I was too lazy to get it out and I also didn't want to wash another appliance.

I wasn't sure how you could spread the jam on the bottom layer of grated dough, so when I read the Ps and Qs for this recipe some of the other bakers pre-baked the bottom layer and I thought this would also make it easier to spread the jam. I baked the bottom layer for 15 minutes and let it cool before spreading the jam in a thin layer and then grating the second ball of dough for the top layer. I reserved some of the jam and piped it on top because I knew that my husband wouldn't care for the confectioner's sugar coating that the recipe suggests.

Since I had pre-baked the bottom layer, I put the pyrex dish on a baking sheet so that the bottom layer would not get over-baked and I baked the shortbread for another 35 minutes until the top was golden.

The end result was a delicious, buttery layered cookie with a delicate jam filling. This was a hit at our house and another keeper recipe. Follow the links over at Tuesdays with Dorie to see what the rest of the baker's thought about this shortbread.