TWD—Banana-Coconut Ice Cream Pie with Gianduja Gelato

I didn’t follow the recipe that was chosen this week for TWD for Banana-Coconut Ice Cream Pie.  Why?  I love bananas and anything with them in it.  Therefore, I would have eaten MOST of the pie.  That’s just how things are around here.  But I did so some good things.

I made Dorie’s Coconut Butter Thins (page 145 in her book).  We made these last March for TWD.  GREAT cookies.  I made half a batch using all coconut (organic, unsweetened) with no coriander or lime added. 

I decided to make ice cream sandwiches with the coconut cookies, bananas and some killer ice cream I recently made from David Lebovitz’ book, The Perfect Scoop.  It’s his Gianduja Gelato on page 47 of this wonderful ice cream cook book.  I have no idea how to pronounce gianduja or what it even means, but this is really a Chocolate Hazelnut Ice Cream.  I happened to have some egg yolks multiplying in the fridge, so this was perfect to use them up.

Here’s what I came up with.

And I made these smaller cup size portions, too.  (They have a coconut ice cream that I also made last week and can’t find the recipe—I used a combination of a bunch of recipe with coconut milk.  Maybe I’ll find it sometime.  Sigh.

The boys ate these Sunday night.  The big ice cream sandwich is still in the freezer.  So is this one.

I tasted parts of each (more cookie than I should!).  But I can’t just sit down and have me this much of a dessert.  I wish.  Kevin doesn’t like crispy cookies.  And he doesn’t care much for bananas.  I’ll get these out for the boys after their last day of school tomorrow (Today, Tuesday)!

Sorry to Spike of Spike Bakes for not following along with the exact recipe.  I’m my dream skinny-girl life, I totally would!  She’ll have the recipe on her blog.  I think the coconut crust sounds great!

If you like ice cream (Is there someone/anyone who doesn’t???), you must have The Perfect Scoop.  This hazelnut recipe was actually quite involved, but having found the exact amount needed for this recipe in my freezer, and having egg yolks to use up, I made it and actually followed the directions to a tee.  You can leave the ice cream smooth or drizzle in melted chocolate as it just finishes churning, which is called stracciatella, otherwise known as slivers of chocolate throughout the ice cream.  First the hazelnuts are soaked in some warmed whole milk with the sugar.  Then the hazelnuts are strained from the milk, squeezing them in the strainer to get all the flavor you can out of them.  Then the ice cream is made with some milk chocolate, making an egg custard as many ice creams are made.  After cooling the ice cream custard mixture in an ice bath, it chills in the fridge for a few hours.  Then it’s churned in an ice cream maker and turned in to a fantastic ice cream.

I found the recipe online for you, here.  But you really should just have the book.

When I made it last Thursday, I took most of the ice cream to my friend, Julie’s house, for our girl’s Survivor night where everyone loved it and I allowed myself a small scoop.  The ice cream is rich, so just a small amount will do (especially paired with all the other goodies we had with it!)

Love my Reality Sistas!  Kathleen, Mindy, Julie, Shayna.  (A couple of our “regulars” weren’t there :( )  And now Survivor is over for the season and we’re moving soon.  Sigh.  Whatever will I do?

Maybe the boys WON’T get those ice cream sammies so I can go wallow in my sorrow. hehe

Sam wearing his “helmet”/flat rubber ball.

Trying to get some serious work done on the computer.

This is his new favorite past time—playing games on Dad’s “keyuner”, his favorite being www.pbskids.org.

Go check out some of the other real Banana-Coconut Ice Cream Pies over at TWD.