I didn’t intend to post two dessert recipes in a row. Normally, I try to keep things balanced and fairly nutritious around here (especially now that I’m in full-blown wedding planning mode and realllly starting to think about how that strapless dress is going to look). But, sometimes my recipe inspiration is for things like homemade spinach wraps… and sometimes it’s for Banoffee Eton Mess.

If “Banoffee Eton Mess” is meaningless to you, let me explain. This dessert mashes up two classic British desserts – banoffee pie and eton mess. We’ve been intermittently watching The Great British Bake-Off and it has substantially increased my desire to bake all sorts of British things. And to call them “bakes,” of course. I have also begun to fantasize about living in that magical baking tent filled with pleasant people and cakes, surround by green fields and flowers.

I digress. Banoffee Pie is a sticky sweet dessert that consists of dulce de leche, bananas, whipped cream, and a shortbread crust. It’s kind of childish and simple and a very fun thing to say out loud. Banoffee. I think the name may be the primary reason that Trevor requested it as his birthday dessert, given that he doesn’t like bananas. Not to worry, I didn’t leave it that simple anyways. First, I turned the “offee” into peanut butter dulce de leche. Yum. Next, I made these as layered parfaits, adding a layer of crumbled meringue to the party. Which meant I could also call it Eton Mess – a mixture of broken-up meringues, whipped cream, and fruit. Tah dah! Peanut Butter Banoffee Eton Mess.

The beauty of this dessert is that you can make it all homemade or store-bought, depending on how ambitious or lazy you are feeling. Unsurprisingly, I made everything except the shortbread myself. I suppose I also did not grow the bananas. But if you’re in a hurry, everything – whipped cream, meringues, dulce de leche – can be bought at the store and simply assembled. But if you are making your components, a note on the meringues: meringues are both incredibly simple and a little bit tricky. I always seem to both under-whip and under-bake them. So a note to you – as well as to future Katie – whip your egg whites until they are really stiff! And really shiny! Then bake them for at least an hour and leave that oven door closed.

If you’re not into bananas or meringue or cream or British things, then I have one favor to ask. If you do nothing else, please make a jar of peanut butter dulce de leche and eat a spoonful every night when you get home from work. This will not be good for your wedding photos but it will be good for your soul. Dulce de Leche for the Soon-to-be-Bride’s Soul, or something like that. And with that, enjoy your weekend, friends!

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Peanut Butter Banoffee Eton Mess

A mash-up of two classic British desserts – Eton Mess and Banoffee Pie – made a little bit American with the addition of peanut butter. Layers of sticky-sweet peanut butter dulche de leche, shortbread cookies, whipped cream, banana, and meringue make a delicious dessert.

• Author: Katie at the Kitchen Door
• Yield: 6

Ingredients

• 1 cup of dulce de leche, store bought or homemade
• 1/2 cup of creamy peanut butter
• 8 oz. of shortbread cookies, crumbled
• 4 cups of whipped cream
• 3 ripe bananas
• 24 small vanilla meringues, store bought or homemade

Instructions

1. Heat the dulce de leche in a microwave for 30 seconds in a microwave-safe bowl, just to warm it up. Repeat with the peanut butter. Both the peanut butter and dulce de leche should be warm enough that they mix easily – if not, heat for a little longer. Stir together until evenly combined.
2. Take out 6 glasses – stemless wine glasses work well. Place a layer of crumbled shortbread cookie in the bottom of each one. Top with a large spoonful of whipped cream and a layer of sliced bananas. Drizzle a tablespoon of peanut butter dulce de leche on top. Gently crush a few of the meringues and sprinkle the crumbled bits over the top. Top with more cream, more dulce de leche, and another layer of crumbled shortbread. Finish with a final layer of cream, a few pieces of sliced banana, one whole meringue, and more dulce de leche. This is more of an art than a science, so layer the way you want to!

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I have been craving a really good slice of key lime pie since January. It’s clearly not a particularly intense craving, or I would have found a way to get some pie long ago, but it’s there, in the background, every time I think about dessert (which is relatively often). The craving started when we unexpectedly got stuck in Miami during the first blizzard of this epic winter. I had a really incredible slice of key lime pie at a whole in the wall BBQ place during a work trip to Miami about a year ago, and now when I think of Miami, I think of that pie. A two day layover in Miami should have meant that getting some good pie was pretty easy, but it just didn’t happen (I did have a great Medianoche, though, so there’s that).

So, what better time to make something just for yourself than your birthday? I originally meant to make this the day before my birthday, as I was taking the day off to pamper myself, but I ended up spending most of the day out with my mom, and after a late lunch, making pie didn’t feel like the right choice. Saturday, after spending the morning at our house inspection (if that doesn’t make you feel old, I’m not sure what will), Trevor threw me a great birthday party – he did a really delicious BBQ pulled pork in the smoker, accompanied by mac’n’cheese, grilled sweet potatoes, and a towering homemade angel food cake with blueberry jam. Greatest boyfriend in the world, end of story. Sunday, somewhere between recovering from the night before (primarily by eating leftover mac’n’cheese for every meal) and beginning to worry about my trip to Colombia the next day, I decided that it was time for my birthday pie. So I whipped it up, and it was everything I wanted it to be. In the end, it’s probably good that I only had the chance to eat two slices before leaving.

Key lime pie is incredibly simple to make. The only thing it requires is the patience to squeeze 2 dozen tiny key limes by hand (or access to good quality fresh key lime juice). After that, all you do is mix up sweetened condensed milk with a few egg yolks (conveniently left over from the 24 egg whites required for the angel food cake your boyfriend makes for your birthday), stir in the lime juice, pour into a basic graham cracker crust, and bake. The condensed milk does most of the work of making key lime pie, well, key lime pie. I made a slight twist to the recipe by reserving some of the filling and mixing it with Meyer lemon juice, then using a few drops of food coloring to color the lime mixture green and the lemon part yellow, then swirling the two together. The result is mostly aesthetic, but if you don’t mind the extra step, I think it gives the pie a fun ’50s look.

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Key Lime and Meyer Lemon Swirl Pie

Key lime pie recipe adapted from Epicurious. Serves 8-10.

• 9 graham crackers
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 5 TBS butter, melted
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1 (14 oz) can of sweetened condensed milk
• 5 egg yolks
• 9 TBS key lime juice, freshly squeezed (from about 20 key limes)
• 3 TBS Meyer lemon juice (from 1 lemon)
• yellow and green food coloring
• 1 c. heavy cream or whipping cream

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F, Place the graham crackers in a food processor or blender and process until finely crushed. Mix the crumbs with the sugar, melted butter, and sea salt, then press into a 9-inch round pie pan. Press the crust firmly into the bottom and up the sides using your fingertips. Bake the crust for 10 minutes, then remove from the oven and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, beat together the sweetened condensed milk and the egg yolks until fully combined. Scoop half a cup of the mixture into a separate bowl and set aside. Mix the lime juice with the batter in the first bowl (the larger amount) until evenly combined. Mix the lemon juice with the batter in the second bowl (the smaller amount) until evenly combined. Stir 2 drops of green food coloring into the lime batter and 4 drops of yellow food coloring into the lemon batter.
3. Pour the lime batter into the pre-baked pie crust. Carefully spoon the lemon batter into concentric circles on top of the lime batter. Use a knife to cut swirling patterns into the batter by running the knife from the center of the pie to the edge and back in again. Bake the pie for 15 minutes, then remove from the oven and let cool completely. Chill for at least 2 hours.
4. Before serving the pie, whip the cream into soft peaks. Decorate the pie with the whipped cream or spread a thick layer on top. Serve chilled.

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The Book: I have been having so much fun with Winter Cocktails, the new cocktail book from the extremely talented ladies behind Cookin’ and Shootin’. Too much fun, probably, given the fact that based on current trends it looks like I’m going to be drinking my way through the changing seasons. The drinks that Maria and Tara have included here are perfect for cooler weather and cozy evenings at home – some are served hot, others are rich and creamy, and festively-spiced punches and chilled drinks round out the mix. There’s lots of tea, chocolate, cider, and whiskey to be found in these pages. As someone who until recently considered making a drink to be pouring a shot of tequila into whatever I was already drinking, the flavor combinations that are incorporated into these drinks – like kumquat-and-thyme-infused gin, English breakfast tea with cherry bitters and whiskey, and lemongrass-spiked coconut milk with rum – are stepping up my cocktail game quite a bit. I also found the introduction, with info on types of glasses, basic bar-tending techniques, and the liquors that any well-stocked bar should have, to be very useful.

Beyond the drinks themselves, there are also serving tips, party notes, and recipes for accompanying party snacks like Cheese-Crusted Olives and “Pigs on Cushions.” Like other Quirk books, the book is in a nice, small format (I love smaller cookbooks, I read them on the subway like a total food dork), with high quality paper and integrated design. Drinks and glassware are really challenging to photograph, so I especially appreciate the quality and variety of images that Tara has created. One word of caution: some of the drinks are a bit more complicated than shaking and pouring, so expect to set aside 15-20 minutes to prepare most of the drinks in this book. Longer than it takes to open a beer, yes, but so worth it. 

P.S. Check out the cute book trailer Maria and Tara made

The Drinks: One nice thing about drink cookbooks – it’s easy to test a lot of recipes, which is exactly what we’ve been doing. The first thing we tried was the Red Riding Hood, a spiced mulled cider mixed with red wine. We actually found it a little too dry, so we added a shot of Grand Marnier to each glass and then it was pretty much perfect. One of our favorites so far is the Burnt-Sugar Hot Buttered Rum, which we served en-masse at our Halloween party last night. It’s syrupy sweet and boozy, a quick and decadent way to imbibe. And the recipe pictured here, also no stranger to decadence, is a Frangelico-spiked Nutella Melt, served with espresso-flavored whipped cream. It’s a lot like hot chocolate, but with more nuanced flavors and the added benefit of being able to lick the Nutella spoon after you make it. It would be the perfect thing to sip on by the fire after a day playing in the snow. I might secretly stock my parents liquor cabinet with the ingredients so that we can have it there this winter (no fireplace at my house…). Definitely don’t skip the espresso-whipped cream – it’s easy and it really ties the drink together!

Recipe Short-List: Applejack Hot Toddy (with maple syrup, applejack, and cinnamon tea); Liquid Gold (mulled pineapple juice and rum); Pumpkin Bourbon Eggnog; Cherry-Vanilla Hot Chocolate; Chocolate Stout Affogato; Orchard Fête (maple syrup, apple cider, applejack, and rosemary)

Disclaimer: I received a review copy of Winter Cocktails free of charge from Quirk, but was not otherwise compensated for writing this review.

Nutella Melt

Recipe from Winter Cocktails. Serves 4.

Note: to toast both the hazelnuts and coconut flakes, you can spread them (do one ingredient at a time) in a dry frying pan over medium heat, and toast, stirring frequently, until golden brown. Alternatively, you can top your drink with chocolate curls, like I did.

• 4 c. whole milk
• 1/4 c. Nutella, or other chocolate-hazelnut spread
• pinch salt
• 6 oz. Frangelico, or other hazelnut liqueur
• 1 c. heavy cream, chilled
• 1/4 c. confectioner’s sugar
• 2 tsp instant espresso powder
• 1/4 c. toasted hazelnuts, chopped, for garnish
• toasted coconut flakes, for garnish

1. Bring the milk, Nutella, and salt to a simmer in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring until Nutella is completely dissolved. Taste for chocolate flavor and body, and add more Nutella if desired. Stir in hazelnut liqueur, and remove from heat.
2. Whip the heavy cream together with the confectioner’s sugar and espresso powder until soft peaks have formed. Ladle the drink into warmed cups, and top with a big spoonful of whipped cream. Garnish with the chopped hazelnuts and toasted coconut flakes.

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