Banana Cream Pie w/ Coconut Crust

My dad is an old fashion kind of guy when it comes to food. He will eat literally anything, but he loves the simple retro stuff like meatloaf and potatoes, grilled cheese and tomato soup, beans and hot dogs, and ketchup is acceptable on just about anything. He's easy to please, lets just put it that way, but I always have a lot of fun coming up with a dinner and dessert combo for his birthday. One of his favorite desserts is banana cream pie, which is seemingly outdated but ended up shocking me as one of my favorite desserts I've had in a long time. I avoided any pudding mix and made it the old fashion way from scratch, with a couple twists on it that made it totally outstanding. My entire family was head over heels in love. My brother said it was "f*&%ing amazing."

I made the crust out of Nilla Wafers and coconut, filled it with fresh cut bananas, and poured a homemade custard on top with a hint of vanilla. I served the pie with whipped cream and a drizzle of (you guessed it!) Stonewall Kitchen Bourbon Pecan Caramel Sauce and honestly it exceeded my expectations by a long shot.

I am in LOVE with this pie, and my dad was actually speechless. He had two pieces of pie, after he had two meatball subs I made him for dinner. Super healthy birthday dinner, if I do say so myself. You only turn 62 once!







Banana Cream Pie w/ Coconut Crust

Ingredients:
For crust:
40-45 Nilla wafers (or other brand vanilla wafers)
1 cup shredded coconut
2 tbsp sugar
6 tbsp melted unsalted butter
1/4 tsp salt
For filling:
3 bananas, cut into small slices
3 cups whole milk
1/3 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp melted butter
For serving:
Whipped cream
Caramel sauce (my recommendation: Stonewall Kitchen Bourbon Pecan Caramel Sauce)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Pulse vanilla wafers, coconut and sugar in food processor until fine and stir in melted butter until evenly distributed. Press the mixture firmly and evenly into uncreased pie pan and bake 16 minutes or until golden. Let cool slightly then place in fridge to cool completely before filling.
• Scald the milk in large saucepan (heat over medium low in saucepan until it is steaming and has small bubbles around the outside but is NOT boiling). 
• While milk is scalding, mix together the flour, sugar and salt in another saucepan. Slowly stir in the scalded milk and place this saucepan over the heated stove and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until it has thickened. Cover, stirring once or twice, for another two minutes. 
• Temper the eggs by adding a small amount of the heated milk mixture to the egg yolks and stir to bring them up to temperature, then add the yolks to the milk mixture. Cook for another minute or so, stirring constantly.
• Remove from heat and stir in the butter and vanilla and let sit until lukewarm. You can place in bath in the sink with cool water to help speed this process. 
• Place the sliced bananas evenly on the cooked pie crust and pour the custard mixture over bananas. Let it set in the fridge until ready to serve, and top with whipped cream and caramel. 

My family celebrating my dad's birthday at Shauna's new house! (We didn't have the pie here, Shauna cooked up this dinner and we had the subs and pie at my parents house after the Sunday Pat's game)

Buttery Soft Pretzels

This blog is very much on the back burner, where it will likely stay forever, and that’s kind of where I want it. I don’t like to cook with the intention of blogging – I cook with the intention of eating. I never measure anything and I always adjust to taste, so it is hard for me to take my time and write an exact recipe that works perfectly for anyone other than myself. With that being said, sometimes you nail a recipe and you do measure and you need to save that recipe because next time you make it you want it to be EXACTLY the same. So here are these soft pretzels….

I’ve made soft pretzels a number of times and these are by far the best ones and the only recipe I ever want to make again. They are buttery and pillowy soft and tender and salty and are just like the ones you’d get at the mall when you were a miserably reckless 12 year old. Good times. I’m very confident that these actually could not be any better.

I served these with spicy honey mustard, but any mustard or cheese dip would do.

These pretzels are great with coarse salt, but they would be fantastic as a sweet treat with cinnamon sugar as well. Or you could even go savory with Italian herbs and garlic. Or maybe even mix shredded cheddar in the dough. Yup, this recipe is a definite keeper. I like mine thick and chunky but you could stretch them out a bit more for thinner and larger pretzels. 








Buttery Soft Pretzels

Ingredients: 

1 cup milk (I used almond milk)

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

3 tbsp brown sugar

2 1/4 cups flour

2 tbsp melted unsalted butter + more for brushing on finished pretzels

1 tsp salt

1/3 cup baking soda

3 cups warm water

coarse salt 

Directions:

• Microwave the milk to warm it and stir in the yeast. Let it sit for a couple of minutes or until it begins to froth, then gently stir in the sugar and 1 cup of the flour, then the melted butter.  Slowly add the remaining flour until it is a combined sticky dough. Add more flour if needed to create a ball.
• Lightly grease a large clean bowl, place the dough inside, cover and let sit to rise for about an hour or until the dough has doubled in size.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, lightly spray and preheat the oven to 450.  
• Dust a work surface with flour and punch down the dough to deflate it. Flour your hands for easy handling and put dough on work surface. Cut into six pieces, and roll each piece into a rope. Stretch it by swinging it like a jump rope slapping it on the counter. Form each pretzel into shape. Dissolve baking soda in warm water. Dip each pretzel in water then place on baking sheet. Top with a generous sprinkle of sea salt and bake 10-12 minutes or until golden. Brush with melted butter.