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The weather is getting warmer and I am craving all the fresh, light, summery food! Fruit salad is one of those things that can be overlooked at a summer cookout, but since I am not a green-leafy-salad-eater (notice there’s no salad category around here??), I appreciate when fruit salad makes an appearance

Last Spring I shared this Creamy Fruit Salad with Homemade Vanilla Dressing, and I loaded it up with all my favorite fruit and a creamy custard fruit salad dressing.

If you’ve ever had a Mountain of Fruit Waffle at Cora’s, this is like that, minus the waffle They do make some pretty incredible waffles, and the combo is ridiculously good. If you ever have leftover fruit salad, I bet it would make an awesome waffle topping for brunch the next morning.

This time, I wanted to stick closer to a theme with my fruit (sometimes when you get too many different kinds all in one bowl flavors get a little muddled), and I love the fresh, tropical flavors in this Hawaiian Fruit Salad.

Because I love pineapple in everything, as I hope you do, too! If you’re looking for some savory pineapple recipes, check out these Hawaiian Chicken Burgers, Hawaiian Ham and Pineapple Skewers or this Hawaiian Chicken from my friend Holly.

It would be hard for me to choose a favorite!

How to make Hawaiian Fruit Salad with substitutions:

• This fruit salad recipe is naturally gluten-free, but double check all of your packages to be sure.
• This Hawaiian fruit salad recipe can easily be made dairy-free by swapping out the regular yogurt for your favorite variety of dairy-free yogurt.
• Feel free to mix up the fruit you use for this salad — almost any fruit will go well with this dressing! I chose fruit that I think is most “Hawaiian” (not that I am Hawaiian or know anything about Hawaiian culture).

This Hawaiian Fruit Salad Dressing:

For this fruit salad recipe, I used a Honey Lime Yogurt dressing with added coconut extract. You can definitely mix this up, and use flavored yogurt, or different extracts, or skip the yogurt altogether and make more of a glaze.

The important thing to note is that thick creamy fruit salad dressing recipes don’t sit well when combined with the fruit. The juices that are released from the fruit water down the dressing and make it thin and not very appealing.

How to make Fruit Salad ahead:

Fruit salad is best made just an hour or two before you’re going to serve it — there’s really no way around that!

If you need to prep this Hawaiian fruit salad ahead, here’s what you can do:

• Chop the pineapple, the mangoes, the kiwi, and drain your mandarin oranges. Store in separate, small containers in the refrigerator. Store up to 2 days in advance.
• Stir together your dressing ingredients, and refrigerate up to 2 days in advance.
• Slice your bananas, and stir everything together just before serving.

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Hawaiian Fruit Salad with Honey Lime Yogurt Dressing

This Hawaiian Fruit Salad recipe is full of tropical flavors and a honey lime yogurt dressing with hints of coconut! Loaded with pineapple, bananas, mango, oranges and kiwi, it’s the perfect side or dessert for any summer meal! 

Course Salad

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 15 minutes minutes

Servings 6 servings

Calories 128cal

Author Ashley Fehr

Ingredients

• 1 cup pineapple chopped
• 1 cup bananas thickly sliced
• 1 cup mango chopped
• 1 cup kiwi sliced
• 1 cup mandarin oranges canned, drained

Honey Lime Yogurt Dressing

• 1/4 cup plain low fat Greek yogurt
• 2 tablespoons liquid honey
• 2 tablespoons pineapple juice
• 1/4 teaspoon coconut extract to taste
• zest from ½ a lime (optional, to taste)

Instructions

• Add all fruit to a large bowl.
• In a small bowl, whisk together yogurt, honey, pineapple juice, coconut extract and lime zest if desired. Start small with the extract and lime zest, and add and adjust as needed to suit your tastes. 
• Drizzle over fruit in bowl, and stir gently to combine. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours or serve immediately (it will be best if the fruit and dressing is chilled).

Video

Nutrition

Calories: 128cal | Carbohydrates: 31g | Protein: 2g | Sodium: 5mg | Potassium: 374mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 23g | Vitamin A: 585IU | Vitamin C: 62.9mg | Calcium: 40mg | Iron: 0.4mg

The post Hawaiian Fruit Salad Recipe appeared first on The Recipe Rebel.

These Samoa Shortbread Bars come have a shortbread crust, easy caramel filling and are topped with chocolate and toasted coconut! A DIY Girl Scout cookie in bar form

*Post and photos updated from March 27, 2014

I’ll be the first to admit I don’t love shortbread.

Generally, I just don’t like food that is hard. And shortbread is hard.

I’d much rather be eating a gooey, slightly underbaked chocolate/peanut butter/butterscotch/white chocolate chip cookie. Or pretty much anything that is soft, gooey or chewy-in-a-good-way. And a hard, crunchy crust that’s topped with a gooey, caramel filling? That’s the way to my heart.

I guess I get that from my mom. She is one to always knock a couple minutes off the bake time and hold on to some of that gooey-chewy goodness. Growing up, her buns and her cookies were always, always perfectly baked. Think not a second past light golden brown.

I find that I now set the timer for a good 5-10 minutes shorter than what the recipe calls for and then anxiously watch the oven for that perfect second.

But as a mother of a toddler, and the queen (I wish) of multi-tasking, sometimes I wander a little too far or get a little too busy doing other things and time slips away from me.

And then I am bolting for the kitchen and pulling my pans out as quickly as I can, dramatically wailing, “it’s BURNT!” for my audience of two and putting on my biggest “I’m-just-a-big-failure” pout.

This is when my husband walks over and says, “it’s golden brown.”

And I reply, “it’s dark golden brown!”

*Sigh* Oh… the dramatic lives we live.

Anyway, back to these shortbread bars. Plain shortbread is a no for me. But a shortbread crust designed to be an edible plate for caramel, toasted coconut and chocolate? Divine.

My mom often made these when we were growing up, minus the toasted coconut. I was dreaming of these bars when I thought since the chocolate and caramel were already there, it was a shame not to have any toasted coconut. I am a bit of a samoa fanatic. These bars are samoa heaven.

To see instructions for toasting coconut, see my No-Bake Samoa Cookie recipe.

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Samoa Shortbread Bars

Gooey caramel, toasted coconut and semisweet chocolate sitting on a buttery shortbread crust.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 12 minutes minutes

Total Time 42 minutes minutes

Servings 24

Calories 384cal

Author Ashley Fehr

Ingredients

For the base

• 1 cup butter 2 sticks, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 cups flour

For the filling:

• 1 cup toasted sweetened, shredded coconut
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 4 tbsp corn syrup
• 1 cup butter or margarine
• 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 tsp coconut extract

For the topping:

• 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 tbsp butter

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Combine butter, sugar and flour for base in a stand mixer and mix until crumbly (you can also do this with a pastry cutter or your hands). Press into the bottom of a 10×15″ pan (you could use a 9×13″, but you will have thicker bars).
• Bake 12 minutes or until slightly golden. Remove from oven, sprinkle with ½ cup coconut, and let cool while you prepare the filling.
• Combine sugar, corn syrup, butter, and sweetened condensed milk in a large pot. Heat over medium heat until it comes to a boil, watching carefully and stirring often.
• Boil 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Add coconut extract. Pour over the coconut on the crust. Let cool completely before add the chocolate.
• In the same pot, melt the chocolate and butter slowly over low heat, stirring often. Spread over the caramel layer and sprinkle immediately with the rest of the toasted coconut, pressing it lightly into the chocolate.
• Cool completely before cutting into bars.

Nutrition

Calories: 384cal | Carbohydrates: 43g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 22g | Saturated Fat: 14g | Cholesterol: 45mg | Sodium: 176mg | Potassium: 107mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 30g | Vitamin A: 550IU | Calcium: 63mg | Iron: 1.4mg

The post Samoa Shortbread Bars appeared first on The Recipe Rebel.

I love me some toasted coconut. I have a small (BIG) obsession with this ice cream stand called The Velvet Dip here in the summer and they have a toasted coconut cone dip that is out of this world. Toasting coconut brings out this amazing sweetness unlike anything else. Mmm.

I  found this amazing white cake recipe a few weeks ago on Add a Pinch and it changed my life. I have nothing against cake mix when you’re in a pinch, but, man, nothing compares to homemade vanilla cake. This cake is not dry and crumbly like cake mixes tend to be, but super moist.

Ever since I found this recipe I’ve been wanting to make a poke cake completely from scratch. Who doesn’t love pudding poke cakes? Moist cake and moist pudding topped with fluffy whipped cream? Sign me up. And I’ve often made them using cake mix and pudding mix, as many poke cake recipes call for, but this cake recipe got me wondering….. How amazing could a poke cake be if you were to make a scratch cake and slather it with vanilla coconut homemade pudding? And then top it with whipped cream and toasted coconut? Let me tell you. Outstanding.

I am a huge coconut lover, but if you don’t like coconut you could leave it out and stick with vanilla, add some other extracts or fresh berries on top.

*Recipe and photos updated from the original. 

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Homemade Coconut Cream Poke Cake

This Homemade Coconut Cream Poke Cake is dense, moist and loaded with coconut flavour!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes minutes

Total Time 55 minutes minutes

Servings 12

Calories 433cal

Author Ashley Fehr

Ingredients

Cake:

• 3/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 5 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 tsp vanilla

Pudding:

• 2 cups milk
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 3 tsp corn starch
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp coconut extract

Assembly:

• Whipped cream
• Toasted coconut

Instructions

• Cake:Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9×13 pan with non-stick spray.
• In an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add in applesauce and eggs. Mix in buttermilk and vanilla.
• Add flour, baking powder and salt and mix until combined. Turn mixer to high for 5 seconds to make sure ingredients are incorporated.
• Pour into prepared pan and bake for 28-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Set aside to cool slightly while you prepare the pudding.
• Pudding:In a large pot, combine milk, egg, sugar, corn starch, and salt with a whisk until smooth. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until thickened (so that it coats the back of a spoon like a thin pudding — will thicken slightly as it cools). Stir in extracts.
• Assembly:Using a wooden spoon, poke holes 1″ apart in the slightly cooled cake. Pour warm pudding over.
• Let set in the fridge until cold, at least 2-3 hours.
• Top with whipped cream and toasted coconut.

Nutrition

Calories: 433cal | Carbohydrates: 65g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 16g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Cholesterol: 118mg | Sodium: 269mg | Potassium: 214mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 41g | Vitamin A: 570IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 101mg | Iron: 1.7mg

The post Homemade Coconut Cream Poke Cake appeared first on The Recipe Rebel.

I’m just going to say it: I don’t really like pie.

I mean, if my only dessert option is pie, and there are no cookies, or cakes, or cheesecakes, or brownies, or cupcakes, or puddings, or crisps, or cobblers, or sweet rolls, or doughnuts….. I’m probably going to take the pie.

It’s not that I completely dislike pie, it’s just that it’s kind of on the bottom of the list of fudgy, creamy, rich desserts that I love. If it’s a cream pie, or an Oreo-crusted pie, or a graham cracker crusted pie, it’s definitely higher on the list.

But I’m currently obsessed with all kinds of homemade ice cream, and when I found out we were going to throw a virtual baby shower for Zainab of Blahnik Baker and she loves coconut, I immediately wanted to make a coconut cream pie ice cream!

I was kind of going back and forth about putting pie crust in the ice cream. I wasn’t sure if it would get soggy and weird, or how it would taste, but my friend Danielle from Live Well Bake Often convinced me it was a good idea, and so I went for it.

The only problem was, I’d only made one miserable pie crust in my life. For obvious reasons, I just don’t make a lot of pie.

I went searching for an easy recipe I figured I could manage and I came across this one on Martha Stewart. I thought it was kind of strange that it didn’t have any baking instructions, but thankfully it’s pretty easy to see when a plain pie crust is ready! It turned out so well! And now this will be my crust recipe for all of my pie-making endeavors in the future.

I wasn’t sure how much I’d like the texture of the toasted coconut in the actual ice cream, so I sprinkled some on top just to get a taste – feel free to stir some extra in if you want!

I’m going to say though, that this Coconut Cream Pie Ice Cream has almost made me a pie lover. I think it might be because the creamy filling to pie crust ratio is so much higher than a normal pie – you get just enough pie crust taste and texture to remind you that it’s supposed to taste like pie! And if you’re a pie crust lover, you can always up a bunch more pie crust to the ice cream before freezing.

Anyway, on to the baby shower! Be sure to stop by Zainab’s blog The Blahnik Baker and check out her amazing treats and say congrats while you’re at it! I can’t wait to see pictures of the little sweetheart!

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Easy No-Churn Coconut Cream Pie Ice Cream

This Easy No Churn Coconut Cream Pie Ice Cream is  loaded with toasted coconut flavour and has a full crushed pie crust inside!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 25 minutes minutes

Cook Time 12 minutes minutes

Total Time 37 minutes minutes

Servings 10 servings

Calories 362cal

Author Ashley Fehr

Ingredients

Pie crust:

• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter cold, cubed
• 4 tbsp ice water

Ice cream:

• 1 1/4 cup whipping cream
• 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 tsp coconut extract
• Toasted coconut for garnish

Instructions

• For the pie crust: Combine flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Cut in cold butter with a pastry cutter (or use your hands!) until crumbly. Stir in 4 tbsp ice water and mix with your hands until dough comes together in a ball, adding in additional ice water if necessary.
• Form in a disc and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour or more.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Roll out dough to roughly fit a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown. Set aside to cool.
• Ice cream: Whip cream until stiff peaks form. Slowly fold in sweetened condensed milk and coconut extract until totally combined (being careful not to deflate the whipped cream). Crumble about ⅓-½ of the baked pie crust and stir into the ice cream mixture.
• Pour into a ⅕-2qt container or loaf pan and sprinkle with additional crumbled pie crust and toasted coconut. Freeze for 5-6 hours or until firm, then cover with plastic wrap and keep frozen until serving with remaining pie crust.

Nutrition

Calories: 362cal | Carbohydrates: 36g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 21g | Saturated Fat: 13g | Cholesterol: 70mg | Sodium: 169mg | Potassium: 39mg | Sugar: 23g | Vitamin A: 820IU | Vitamin C: 0.2mg | Calcium: 124mg | Iron: 0.7mg

The post Easy No-Churn Coconut Cream Pie Ice Cream appeared first on The Recipe Rebel.

And by “new” I mean, in the last 2 or 3 years. Pinterest has changed my life in so many ways.

And so I’ve become a little obsessed.

There’s just nothing I don’t love about toasted coconut, chocolate and caramel.

And I basically come up with new recipes but taking concepts I really like and doing my best to apply them to everything. I guess in that way, I get myself into a bit of a food rut.

But no one around here seems to mind.

I started out with one of my favourite banana bread recipes. I reduced the sugar a bit (because I was going to be adding plenty of it back in with the chocolate and butterscotch chips!), I swapped out some of the all-purpose flour for whole wheat, and I swapped out the liquids for coconut milk. I also added more samoa flavour with butterscotch pudding mix and coconut extract.

I added copious amounts of chocolate chips and coconut to the top of the bread, and the coconut gets nice and toasty all by itself in the oven (no need for the extra step of toasting it!). And if you want to get a little ridiculous, feel free to give it a good coating of chocolate and caramel syrup right before you serve it.

Usually, I like to think of banana bread as a healthy snack. And I’m going to go ahead and do that again (I used 50% whole wheat flour, so that counts, right?), but you could easily serve this warm with a scoop of ice cream, and no one would be complaining.

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Samoa Banana Bread

Toasted coconut, caramel and chocolate make this banana bread so good, it could even be dessert tonight!

Course Bread and Baked Goods

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Total Time 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

Servings 12 servings

Calories 244cal

Author Ashley Fehr

Ingredients

• 3 bananas mashed
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp coconut extract
• 3/4 cup coconut milk
• 1 nstant butterscotch pudding
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup butterscotch chips

Garnish:

• additional chocolate chips
• 1-2 tbsp sweetened shredded coconut
• caramel sauce
• chocolate sauce

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour an 8×5″ loaf pan.
• In a large bowl, mash bananas with a whisk. Whisk in brown sugar, eggs, vanilla and coconut extract.
• Stir in coconut milk with whisk.
• Add pudding mix, both flours and baking soda to the bowl and stir until just combined.
• Stir in chocolate and butterscotch chips. Be careful not to overmix.
• Spread into prepared pan and bake for 50-65 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean or with moist crumbs. *If your bread is browning too quickly, cover loosely with a piece of greased tin foil for the second half of baking time.
• Let cool at least 10 minutes before removing from loaf pan. If desired, drizzle with chocolate and caramel sauce of choice.

Nutrition

Calories: 244cal | Carbohydrates: 43g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 29mg | Sodium: 157mg | Potassium: 210mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 23g | Vitamin A: 80IU | Vitamin C: 2.7mg | Calcium: 29mg | Iron: 1.7mg

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