chocolate-peanut butter bread

When grocery shopping I'm amazed at how many food things consisting of the wonderful combo chocolate & peanut butter I go for. Sports bars, ice cream, muffins, cookies, etc... Seriously. I am also still floored everytime I go to Whole Foods and look at the energy bar section and see how many bars NEW bars there are with chocolate & pb combo. The latest find was a chocolate and spirilina bar! Yeah, pretty wild. I thought oh ick, this has to taste horrible. And with that said, I went ahead and bought one! LOL. To be honest it wasn't that bad. Granted it did not taste like a candy bar, but it did not taste like chocolate covered lawn clippings. It wasn't bad, really, and it was good for me. It had an ingredient list I could relate to (no chemical degree necessary to read it).
Well with all these constant cravings of things relating to the "chocolate and peanut butter family" I've always wanted to do a bread. Hence, my latest creation. This bread came out great. It's not that moist like a banana bread would be, but it truly did taste amazing when it was sliced, toasted with butter on top.

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Bread
(inspiration from Dinners for a Year)
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¾ cup dark brown sugar
¾ cup peanut butter (I used chunky)
1 TB vanilla
2 eggs, beaten
1 ½ cups buttermilk
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 cup whole wheat flour, sifted
4 ts baking powder
1/2 ts salt

¾ cup of milk choco chunks (I wanted chunks of choco in here)
3 TB of melted butter +/-
Raw sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a loaf pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Set aside.
In a small bowl mix the buttermilk and eggs together. In another bowl sift the flours, baking powder, and salt.
In a large bowl, cream sugar, peanut butter, and vanilla; add in the buttermilk & egg mixture. Then beat in the flour mixture; beat well until just combined.
By hand add in the milk chocolate chunks.
Pour batter into greased loaf pan and bake for 50 - 55 minutes until golden brown and a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan 10 minutes before unmolding.
**note: on the last 30 minutes of baking I put a bit of melted butter on the top, then sprinkled some raw sugar chunks on the top of the bread, optional, but wonderful**

This recipe and photographs are copyrighted and the property of Dawn Finicane

toasted coconut, blueberry-strawberry pie

Would you believe I have another coconut recipe? This one isn't so fancy or crazy, just a simple strawberry and blueberry pie with toasted coconut on top.
All of the flavors really did meld well very together.
This pie did not go to hubbys' work (sorry guys), it was devoured at home.
I must share with you that when this was baking there was the smell of blueberry pie throughout the house as well as toasted coconut; it was really a 3D-unique'ish smell. I loved it.





blueberry-strawberry pie w/ toasted coconut
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(basic blueberry pie sort of adapted from Gourmet )

For the dough:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
1 large egg yolk, beaten lightly with 1 1/2 tablespoons ice water

For the filling:
3 TB cornstarch
3 TB rum
2 TB fresh lemon juice
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 - 3 cups fresh blueberries (depending how thick you want your pie)
1 & 1/2 cup fresh strawberries, chopped into 1 inch pieces
about 1 cup +/- of sweetened coconut

some heavy cream as a pie wash for the top then sprinkle on about 1 1/2 TB coarse sugar

Make the dough: In a bowl stir together the flour, the sugar, and the salt. Add the butter, and blend the mixture until it resembles coarse meal. Add the yolk mixture, toss the mixture until the liquid is incorporated, and form the dough into a ball. Dust the dough with flour and chill it, wrapped in plastic wrap, for 1 hour.

Make the filling: In a large bowl stir together the cornstarch, the rum, the lemon juice, the sugar, and the cinnamon. Add the blueberries, and combine the mixture well.

Pour the filling into a 6- to 7-cup deep gratin dish or other shallow baking dish. (I used a deep dish/gratin). Roll out the dough slightly larger than the dish. Roll out the dough slightly larger than the dish on a floured surface and drape it over the filling. Fold the overhang under, pressing the dough to the edge of the dish, and crimp the edge decoratively. Make slits and holes in the crust for air vents, brush the crust with the heavy cream, and sprinkle it with the coarse sugar.
Bake the pie on a baking sheet in the middle of a preheated 375 degree F oven for 1 hour to 1 1/4 hours, or until the filling is bubbly and the crust is golden.
**Now, if you want a toasted coconut topping, during the last 15 to 20 minutes of cooking remove pie from over, gently brush the top of the pie with a beaten egg and then sprinkle on the sweetened coconut. (using an egg wash not heavy cream, this time around helps the coconut adhere). Make the coconut topping as thin or as thick as you like.**
When done baking, transfer the pie to a rack and let it cool.

chocolate-coconut covered Cheez Its

Another crazy craving of sweet and salty then sweet. The salty Cheez It's mixed with the sweet milk chocolate and then the coconutty coconut. Man, I'm telling you, a wonderful little flavor blast happening in the mouth.
I loved these little gems. Easy to make too.
All I did was use the large size Cheez It's, dipped them in good quality milk chocolate (I used ghirardelli), placed on wax or parchment paper and sprinkled with dried coconut (not sweetened coconut too wet, but dried coconut). Pop them in the freezer to harden up. Easy!



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cheeseburger pizza w/ bbq sauce

Friday right?
Pizza night?
Time to kick back, chill and sloooow the heck down from a hectic week. How do I like to spend my Friday nights? Well, since I'm an old fartknocker I like going to bed early, yeah I know totally boring. But there are some nights when I want to totally chill and have a couple glasses of ice cold Prosecco with pizza and maybe sit outside and look at the water.
Here on cape cod it's hard to find a good pizza joint.  We have a whole foods which does a really good job, but they haven't done a BBQ pizza....yet.
So you just need to make your own.
At least when you make your own you can put BBQ sauce on it and extra cheese, plus whatever else you fancy/crave.


For the easy recipe:
all I did was use the multi-grain pizza dough from Whole Foods, smeared a bit of spicy bbq sauce on it, then some mozzarella cheese, then some cooked bacon, then some thinly sliced sweet onions, then some cooked hamburger (don't put raw hamburg on as it might not cook all the way through).
Take a little bit of olive oil and rub the edges of the pizza crust with it.
Bake in 450-500 degree oven till nice and crispy (about 15 minutes +/-).


If you like this then you're going to love my hamburg & cheddar pizza with fig jam.
Yes fig jam--It goes so well with this pizza, you must try it.

Tasty looking right?

You need to try the fig jam on your next pizza.

tropical chicken salad

I am still on my coconut kick, err...addiction. I made a few other wonderful creations, but here's one of my favorites: chicken salad. Oh yes, my friend this is tasty. Not only is there coconut in here, but there is pineapple, walnuts, and raisins. I know there are a ton of you foodies out there that will love this. Best part? Tastes crazy-good the next day. Why? The flavors all intensify....oh food of love people, food of love!

I didn't write out the recipe, but here's what's in here:
roasted chicken breast, cut into chunks
handful of raisins
handful of toasted walnuts
about 2 TB dried coconut (not the sweetened kind but just dried)
3 - 4 TB dried pineapple chunks, cut up (I love pineapple so I added a lot)
a little bit of red onions, chopped,
Hellmans Mayo with a bit of salt & pepper.
served on a brioche roll w/ fresh spinach salad

Feel free to use whatever additions you crave. I bet this would be good on rye bread.