TWD: Tropical Crumble

Another recipe that would have been on my top3-list for my very own, first pick, that will probably never come... the more I was pleased to see that after last week, another one of the remaining recipes that appeal most to me was chosen.
This week it was Gaye of Laws of the Kitchen who did opt for this week's TWD. Go to her page to find the recipe, or have a look in Dorie's book on pp. 418-419!

I really like crumbles a lot because I adore anything streusel! And crumbles are always a great dessert, because they have plenty of fruits. I like that they are so easily made and you have so many options to combine flavours and textures. Mangos are great, even though I dislike peeling an cutting them due to their slickiness.


However, I must have made something terribly wrong. I made it a bit in advance, because I just came back from an extended weekend trip to Hamburg and made it before I left. Still - although some days ellapsed, I have no idea what went wrong. I ended up with a whole mess of fatfatfat. The amount of butter for the filling was so much too much, you can't imagine. In Europe, we have other measures so I guess I made a wrong calculation. But something like that never ever happened to me. I am not speaking about a bit too much butter. The topping never got firm, not after 45mins, not after an hour, never. There was a soup of butter covering everything. I am baking along with the group since almost two years and I never did throw away anything. But this time I had to, because there was no way to save all the good mangos and bananas. What a pitty!

The pictures show a "test-piece" I made, where the butter-soup did not show up as much, but when I tried to taste it it was also so terribly much too much butter, you have no idea!
Sorry Gaye, I really don't know what went wrong - I tried my best. Maybe I will try this another time and just cut back the butter on my own.

TWD: Banana Coconut Ice Cream Pie

The second icecream-recipe this month!
I took the easy way and combined them. Instead of chocolate icecream, as in the original recipe, I used the Burnt Sugar Icecream (and some Dulche de Leche Icecream) - Bananas and Caramel go together well in my opinion, so I also decorated the pie with some caramel sauce (what is hard to see in the pictures due to the similar coclours).

I am the coconut-lover type, be it in savory dishes or sweets, shredded, toasted or as milk and juice.
But, to make it short: I liked this icecream pie, but it is not going to become an all-time-favourite. The crust was to buttery and fat, and there was not as much flavour on the whole as there should be. Maybe my bananas where not ripe enough. Or maybe the caramel icecream was not such a good idea in the end. Who knows.

Additionally, I always, always, always tend to make the "crust" too thick, be it for a tart or as here the pie. The relation between crust and filling was not appropriate, even though I really love the "crust" and can imagine to also use it with other recipes.

On the plus-side: It is easy to be made (especially with store-bought icecream), and can be assembled way ahead and stored for a longer time. I even re-fridged a part of it with the banana-topping on it and have the feeling it was alright.

For the recipe, go to Spike's homepage, who selected the Banana Coconut Ice Cream Pie, or have a look on page 350 in Dorie's book.

P.S.: One of my friends said: "Uh, yummy, this muesli is not all too bad!" - but for some people everything that involves anything slightly healthy (as nuts - and coconutflakes do count in this book) is muesli....

TWD: Coco-nana bread

This week's TWD pick, the Cocoa-nana bread, came from Steph of Obsessed with baking.
I was pretty excited when I saw her choice, because banana-bread seems to be kind of a "soul-food" in the States, in the sense, that in almost every second TV-series or book, it is used when someone needs a treat to overcome a love-dissapointment, any "the world is mean"-moment, or just to feel comfortable. Characters refer to it is giving them some reminders on parental warmth and childhood memories of a world where everything is perfect, because your world is small and you don't even know that "imperfect" is an option for life...
I never ate, saw, or made it, so I was happy to have an opportunity to try something I have heard a lot of, but wouldn't ever have made without TWD!

Already last week, I was tempted to head to the supermarket in the last minute. Well, more in the last minute -10, as I was already mixing the ingredienst when I recognized that I had no salted peanuts at home.
I am a lazy person, so I took the peanuts I had at home, and roasted them in a pan, and when they were all greasy, I rolled them in salt. And I did add a bit additional salt to the mixture. I didn't miss anything, so I guess it was ok like that.

This week, when I was already ready to go and mix the ingredients, I found out that I have (a) no eggs at home, (b) no buttermilk at home. So, the already fluffy creamy butter had to wait, because these ingredients I really can't substitute - this time I really had to rush to the supermarket at the corner.

My laziness reading the recipe thoroughly is combined with another problem - again my problem with converting the measures... When it was time to put in the cocoa powder, I found out that I had almost only half as much as needed. As I just came back from the store I really wasn't in the mood to go there again. (I have to mention that I am living on the fourth floor of an "Altbau", which means in american counting, the fifth floor. And "Altbau" means an old building with very high ceilings. And no, there is no elevator. What means 105 steps. You understand I had no interest in leaving the house again? So I tried to use more chocolate and cut some of it very very finely. (Now I know, it wasn't enough to offset for the missing cocoa. I should have used more chocolate. And chocolate chips, which I didn't have neither as they are not so commonly available at our stores. Next time I will have to cut bigger chunks.)

(This may give you a little impression of what I have to climb) 

But the real problem was the following: When I converted the amount of buttermilk, I really, really miscalculated. I used 0,25l. Well, when I poured it in, I was already wondering a little bit if this can be right. But I was so sure... I have to tell that, additionally to converting cups into liters, I halved the recipe. So, maybe that added some more confusion.

Big. Problem.
Really big.

My oven usually needs less time than announced in the recipe. So you can imagine my confusion, when the bread didn't get firm in the middle.

The usual, little "master-piece" to taste (the round "cake" you see left and right) was no problem - maybe because I used only a small amount of dough and it was low enough to thicken.

But the "real" bread didn't. Not after 40 min after covering it with foil. Not after 50 mins. Not after an hour. Then I removed the foil, gave it another 10 mins., and finally took it out, because it started to get very dark on the outside.

That was the moment when I started recalculating the amount of buttermilk. What would have been necessary was... 0.09l. Instead my 0.25l. It's like I used 1 cup. Instead of 3/8 cup. Argh!

So, no wonder it didn't work out as announced in the recipe!

Nevertheless - what I got (whatever you may call it...) might not be a cocoa-nana bread, but a cocoa-nana-whatever, with a good taste, just a slight touch of banana flavour, and a very humid center. I like humid centers. It looks like a bar of humid-in-the-middle brownie or muffin, but is not as sweet, and with red jam on it it was pretty good.

I can live with that. :o]