TWD: Apple-Coconut Family Cake

Amber of Cobbler du Monde chose Apple-Coconut Family Cake for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe.

I almost didn't make this since I've been busy lately. But, with the snow piling up outside and a chilly kitchen, I thought it would be a nice way to warm up my kitchen. Yep, I baked this because I was cold.


I'm glad I did.

This was a moist, appley cake with a nice touch of coconut. Not overwhelmingly so, but enough to notice. Since some of the TWD folks commented that they didn't like the stringiness of the coconut, I gave my pile of coconut a thorough chopping with a knife before adding it to the cake batter.

I baked half of a recipe in one 7" pan, and finished it up with a light drizzle of powdered sugar icing. Oh, and I skipped the apple jelly glaze on top... too lazy!

OK, just want to say thanks to Amber for a great pick! If you'd like to see the recipe, please stop by Amber's blog, or find a copy of Dorie Greenspan's book "Baking, From my Home to Yours".

TWD: Coconut Tea Cake

Carmen of Carmen Cooks chose Coconut Tea Cake for this week's Tuesday's with Dorie recipe.

When it comes to desserts that are predominantly coconut flavored, there aren't too many takers in this house. My husband sums it up by saying that coconut reminds him of toenail clippings. Not exactly an image that sets the mouth to watering, huh?

Coincidentally, the other night hubs called me into the room where he was watching "Zombieland", all excited, telling me to watch. There was a scene where the zombie hunters come across a Hostess truck in the ditch. Woody Harrelson's character is excited, saying he could sure use a Twinkie. They open the truck door only to find it overflowing with Snowballs (you know, those pink coconut covered chocolate cakes). Woody is *not* happy, stomping on the snowballs saying "I hate coconut! ... not the taste, the consistency". Then my husband says "see?!", like that was the positive affirmation he's been waiting for his whole life.

So I reduced the tea cake recipe and made two little mini-bundts. They were just slightly coconutty tasting, light, and moist. I'll bet they would have been even better with a light coconut flavored glaze.

OK, signing off for now! If you'd like to find the recipe, please check out Carmen's blog or find a copy of Dorie Greenspan's book, "Baking, From my Home to Yours".

TWD: Toasted-Coconut Custard Tart

For this week's Tuesday's with Dorie recipe, Beryl of Cinemon Girl picked Toasted-Coconut Custard Tart.

You know, I'm not a huge coconut fan, but I can handle it in controlled quantities.

Mounds candy bar = blech!

Toasted Coconut Custard Tart = mmmm, very nice!


Dorie mentioned that the topping to filling ratio was higher for this tart than for a standard coconut cream pie. That was a plus for folks like me, but I'm guessing the coconut lovers might have been left wanting for more coconut. Especially since the filling was not intensely coconut flavored.


I must say I was happy to make a tart, my new favorite thing to bake (along with it's cousin, the pie.) I think the last tart or pie we've made for TWD was back in December.


FYI, I made 1/3 of a recipe, which was perfect for two 4-inch tarts. My crust was made from Dorie's sweet tart dough with nuts, almonds in this case (which is the bomb, by the way).

Well folks, that about wraps it up for this week. Please check out Beryl's blog for the recipe. Or as always, you can (and should!) get yourself a copy of Dorie Greenspan's book "Baking, From my Home to Yours".

P.S. I'm going to try to get a darn-near-perfect pumpkin pie posted this week so we'll see you in a few days.

Cookie Carnival: Black Bottom Coconut Bars

This month, the Cookie Carnival bakers took their inspiration from Martha & Co. and made the Black Bottom Coconut Bars that were featured in the December 2005 edition of Everyday Food magazine.


They were a thin but very chocolatey brownie with a coconut topping.

The brownie layer is baked first and then the coconut layer is added. Here you can see the coconut layer before I smoothed it out and baked.



I thought these were pretty darned good, but that they would have been better if the coconut layer were a wee bit sweeter. If I were to make these again, I would add more sugar to the coconut layer... then they would probably be perfect.

They would make a great addition to a holiday cookie tray. You can find the recipe HERE.

OK, over and out until next month... I can't wait to see what Kate at The Clean Plate Club has up her sleeve for next month. If you'd like to join in the cookie fun, you can click on the "Cookie Carnival" link above :)

TWD: Coconut-Roasted Pineapple Dacquoise

Andrea of Andrea In The Kitchen chose Coconut-Roasted Pineapple Dacquoise for this week's Tuesday's with Dorie recipe.

Oooh, fancy!!

This was not your "whip it up in no time with minimal fuss" dessert. Oh, no. There was serious time and labor involved, people, and sink-fulls of dirty dishes to prove it.

With this type of dessert, one has to question whether it was ultimately worth it. Well, let me lead you through the process and then I'll tell...

First we made dacquoise, a meringue with ground nuts and coconut folded in. The meringue was spread into three thin layers and baked for 3 hours in a low oven.


(I quartered the recipe and ended up with 3" by 6" pieces.)

Next, fresh pineapple is quartered, sprinkled with confectioners sugar, and broiled in the oven.




Finally, cream is heated to a boil and poured over white chocolate to form a thin ganache.


This is whisked, chilled thoroughly, and whipped to a soft peak. I have a lot of Guittard "white ribbons" hanging around and so used them, the white chocolate wannabees that they are.

Next came the fun part... layering. First meringue, then ganache, then pineapple. Times three. Rinse, lather, repeat.






Next, refrigerate for 4 to 6 hours. (I skipped the sprinkling of toasted coconut around the sides out of respect for my coconut-hating hubby.)

And after all that you get... the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters? in dessert form?


Is that funny or what? But no matter... this dessert was...

Darned GOOD!! if you're a pineapple and coconut fan that is. I loved it, my hubby did not. (My one tiny criticism was that it was messy to serve and eat.)



Yep, I'll go ahead and say that was worth it.

Thanks Andrea! I would have never tried this if you hadn't picked it.

TWD: Coconut Butter Thins

Awesome cookie Alert! Awesome cookie Alert!

This week's installment of Tuesday's with Dorie brings us Coconut Butter Thins, chosen by Jayne of The Barefoot Kitchen Witch . I also made the Brown Sugar-Pecan Shortbread which was the very first recipe chosen for Tuesday's with Dorie by the TWD founder, Laurie, from Quirky Cupcake.

I didn't realize until I started measuring out ingredients that these are very close to the same recipe, with the exceptions being the sugar, nuts, and flavoring. Cool! I didn't have to think as hard. The shortbread contained ground pecans and cloves, while the butter thins contained ground macadamias, lime zest, coconut, and coriander. (I know, it's an unusual combination, but somehow it worked.)

There's the butter thins dough on the left and the shortbread dough on the right. I forgot to roll them out before refrigerating. So I let them set at room temperature for maybe 10 minutes and proceeded to roll them out. (I did refrigerate the cut cookies before baking.)


Not surprisingly, they both looked basically the same when finished... kind of flat, a little bumpy (not like the pretty shortbread squares in the book). And they were both really tasty.

The coconut butter thins...


... and the brown-sugar pecan shortbread.



Really, it's a disservice to call the Coconut Butter Thins tasty. "Tasty" is an understatement. They were flipping AWESOME!! I would put them squarely in my Top 5 Dorie Greenspan recipes. Maybe even Top 3.

I'm glad I only made 1/4 recipe. No, let me rephrase that... my thighs are glad I only made 1/4 recipe.

Thanks so much to Jayne for a terrific pick this week. If you'd like to see the recipe, check out Dorie Greenspan's book "Baking: From my Home to Yours", or take a peek at Jayne's blog.

See you next week when the gang rolls out Banana Cream Pie (can't wait!).

Cake Slice: Southern Coconut Cake

This week, the Cake Slice Bakers tackled Southern Coconut Cake, from the cookbook Sky High, by Alisa Huntsman and Peter Wynne.

I told myself all month long that I was not making this cake. And I had a truck-load of excuses too... I'm not crazy about coconut, I don't have time, my waistline doesn't need it, I don't have my old neighbors to unload the extra on, etc., etc..

My husband really dislikes coconut. He'll make faces and tell me that shredded coconut reminds him of toenail clippings (ewwww!). (He can be so grown-up sometimes.)

But then, at the last minute, I got the excuse I needed to get me into the kitchen and channelling my inner coconut lover. You see, the last few nights, we've had two guys over doing some work in the house and they've run into every problem under the sun. What should have taken three or four hours has taken eight, and they're still not done. That's when I told myself, "cake will make it better!"


Turns out, I am SO glad I made this cake. The icing, a cream cheese Italian Meringue buttercream, is to DIE for!! I wish I could fill a swimming pool and swim in it. It's quite rich, though, so a small piece of cake was plenty.

I'm thinking the icing would also work as a "cream cheese mousse"... maybe as part of a fancy plated dessert. (You know, those fancy plated desserts that we all serve after a long day of work, homework checking, running kids, and cooking dinner?)

The cake is good too, moist and soft. I really couldn't detect the coconut milk in it, though.

If you're feeling a little coco-nutty, I highly recommend trying this cake. Coconut lovers might want to up the coconut factor by adding some coconut extract. (You can find the recipe ---> here.)

One last word on this cake. It's versatile... it goes with the tropical theme...


... and the winter wonderland theme.


Seriously, doesn't it just remind you of fluffy, white snow?

Baking Notes:
I halved the recipe and baked it in 6 inch pans. Also, and this is just me... whenever a cake recipe calls for egg whites only, I usually break the rules and use whole eggs, replacing two whites with one whole egg. I'm not all hung up on having pure white cake and having a bowl of egg yolks to find a home for is just one more task in my already busy day. So, that's why my cake is a nice creamy white instead of snow white.

OK, that's all for this month!