Island Mousse

During the holidays, my sister, Lina makes a special dessert. It doesn't really have a name, but I call it cranberry mousse. She mixes pureed cranberries with cool whip and crushed pineapple. It's very low sugar and super yummy. However, the season for cranberries has passed, so I made a little alteration and made it with coconut instead. I think you'll like it!

Island Mousse
Makes: 4 servings

8 oz can of crushed pineapple, drained
8 oz (small) tub of cool whip
3/4 cup unsweetened coconut

• With a rubber spatula, gently fold all three ingredients together.
• Serve in individual cups.
• Garnish with a gingersnap or a single graham cracker.

Baked Pineapple

I found a wonderful recipe for Gratineed Pineapple via Pinterest. I could immediately tell the recipe was going to be amazing. Pineapple, coconut, sweetened condensed milk, and ginger snaps. Yum! The presentation looks beautiful too, however I can tell just from looking at it that it would be a pain to eat. So I chopped up my pineapple instead. My brother-in-law and nephew were over here the night that I made this. Between those two and my little family of three, we ate the entire pan in one night. It's that good!!

Baked Pineapple
Makes: 6 servings

1 whole pineapple
12 oz can sweetened condensed milk
3/4 cup crushed ginger snaps
1 cup coconut flakes

• Chop the pineapple into bite sized pieces. See my Tips & Tricks for instructions.
• Place the pineapple pieces into a lightly greased 13" x 9" glass baking dish.
• Top the pineapple with the ginger snaps and coconut. I ground the gingersnaps into a fine powder in the food processor. But if you prefer bigger chunks, you could place them in a plastic bag and smash them with a rolling pin, meat tenderizer, or other heavy instrument.
• Pour the can of sweetened condensed milk over the entire pan of pineapple.
• Bake at 350° F for 25 - 30 minutes.

Note: this recipe calls for fresh pineapple and I really recommend using fresh. If you use the canned variety, the flavor will be somewhat sour and the texture won't be quite right.

Coconut Lime Thumbprints

We've been getting some snow here in the Carolinas. We only got a little dusting today but it's supposed to start again overnight and give us about 3" - 5". Everybody run for your lives!!! haha

Anyhow, I thought these coconut lime cookies were a good way to put everyone in the mood for summer. I keep telling myself, "only one more month then spring starts!"

Coconut Lime Thumbprints
Yield: About 18 cookies

Cookies:
2 sticks butter, ice cold
2/3 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 egg yolks, whites reserved
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup sweetened coconut

Lime Curd:
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup lime juice

Make the cookie dough:

• Cut the butter into small cubes.
• Blend the sugar, flour, salt, and butter in a food processor until the mixture is the texture of cornmeal and it sticks together when you squeeze it in your hand.
• Whisk together the egg yolks and vanilla (reserve the whites for later). Mix into the flour mixture. The dough will be extremely dry and crumbly. That's what you want.
• Line a dinner plate with plastic wrap. Dump the dough out onto the plastic wrap then form into a disk. Cover the dough with the plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
• While the dough is refrigerating, make the lime curd.

Make the lime curd:

• Whisk the eggs, egg yolk, salt, and sugar until light and fluffy. Then add the lime juice.
• Transfer the mixture so a heavy bottomed sauce pan and cook over medium heat stirring constantly.
• After about 7 -10 minutes, the lime curd should thicken so that it coats the back of a spoon - about the same texture as pudding. You want to make sure that you're stirring constantly, otherwise the curd will turn out lumpy.
• Once the curd is thickened, remove from heat and transfer to a glass bowl. Immediately top the curd with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming on top.
• Cool the lime curd in the refrigerator for at least one hour.
• While the lime curd is cooling, bake the cookies.

Bake the cookies:

• Using a spoon, "cut out" about 2 tablespoons of dough from your disk. Squeeze it between your hand to form it into a ball. It should be about the size of a golf ball.
• Roll the ball in the reserved egg whites. I found it was easier for me to just place the ball in the bowl of egg whites then brush it with a pastry brush.
• Then roll the dough ball in the coconut flakes.
• Place the ball on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

 

• Press your thumb into the ball of dough so that it flattens slightly and you leave an indentation in the cookie (that's your well for the lime curd!). I found that the dough crumbled a little bit when I pressed it with my thumb, so I had to kind of work with it to reshape it into a circle. Don't be afraid if they're not perfect circles, it gives them character!
• Bake at 350° F for 20 - 25 minutes.

Assemble:

• Allow the cookies to cool.
• Top with a small spoonful of lime curd. This gets a little messy so you want to wait until you're ready to serve the cookies before completing this step.