Maine meets Ireland on this day before St.Patrick’s Day. Whoopies Pies (of Maine fame) with Irish Cream / Bailey’s in the middle frosting. What’s not to love from this mid-week treat?
Desserts
I seem to be the queen of finding random ingredients, and this week is no different. Have you ever heard of Banana JAM? I had no idea that you could make jam out of bananas, but you can and it’s pretty darn good. I had to buy a jar when I saw it in the shops and decided to make these here Monkey Pie Bars — Banana Coconut Crumble Bars. Amazingly rich banana flavor and toasted coconut. Perfect “tropical” flavors to warm up this cold March morning.
It’s Valentine’s Day and while I do think that it is a commercial “holiday”, it is a good excuse to bake something so I went for this super-raspberry, super-red, super-delicious Raspberry Curd Tart. It’s really delicious and actually quite easy to make. It can be done all in one day, or you can make the filling up to 3 days in advance and the crust a day in advance, in case you don’t want to be pressed for time.
Today is the 10th Anniversary of this here website. It was 10 years ago a few weeks ago, that I finally decided that I should put some of my recipes and photos online and Ben was nice enough to help me set up the initial iteration of the site. Ten years later, over 1500 recipes, I am still going strong. Who knew that I could keep a hobby going with such gusto!
I think Pears are woefully underrated. Apple Pies, peach cobbler, but less often do you find pears in the dessert spectrum. Well, the other day, I came across some Caramel Cardamom Honey Spread and thought it matched well with pears, so I decided to make some of my usual crumble bars. Success! These are great and I will definitely make them again.