I used to see this on dessert menus and in cookbooks and wonder why someone would eat that. I mean, really, bananas? For dessert? Come on, bananas are breakfast, they’re a mid-afternoon energy boost, they are so not dessert material. Then I was pregnant, and craving anything sweet like you wouldn’t believe. Gosh, I really ate poorly when pregnant with Zander, all I wanted to eat was sugar-laden things and cereal. No wonder it took me four years to lose all that weight! Anyway, I was sitting in the living room, watching Food Network by myself, as Andy was working out of town. Abigail was in bed for the night when Rachael Ray came on and made her version of Bananas Foster. Oh. My. Goodness. I had to have it immediately. I needed those carmalized bananas more than I needed anything else the entire pregnancy. I made my way into the kitchen and created my own version of carmalized bananas, and soon found myself in heaven. And then I made it the next night, and the night after that, and then when Andy came home, I made it for him too, worried that he wouldn’t love it as much as I did. I had no reason to worry. It has since become one of our absolute favorite desserts. Fortunately, since I am not pregnant, and haven’t been for some time now, I am at least more sensible and we don’t have it every night.
This is really more of a method than a recipe, and I have no idea how traditional bananas foster is made, although I can tell you it uses rum- which I don’t use. I have tried this with other fruits, but I have to tell you, the bananas are where it’s at. Ripe, juicy pears come close, as does a perfectly ripe pineapple, but really, the banana works best.
Start with a saucepan set to medium-high heat. Drop in about 3 tablespoons butter, followed by a scant 3 tablespoons of brown sugar. Let the butter melt, and the sugar and butter start to combine- give it a stir or a whisk or something. Then, take your banana and slice it in half the long way. Place your banana, cut sides down, into your bubbly sugar-butter mixture, and give the pan a few shakes to really get that banana going. In about two minutes, your banana is going to be browning beautifully and getting crispy at the edges. Time to flip it over. Shake the pan a few times again to keep the sugar mixture moving. This side will take less time to brown up for you. Remove the banana from the pan.
Now you need to add a drizzle of something. This is where you would add rum if you were into cooking with alcohol. Not me, I’ve added orange juice, apple juice, and pineapple juice in the past. They all worked well, but the best, is a drizzle of cream. Add a splash of cream, stir it in, and let it get bubbly and wonderful.
It’s time for assembly. Put two scoops of vanilla ice cream (or frozen yogurt) in a dish, and top with the carmalized bananas. Finally, you’re going to drizzle all that luscious caramel syrup over the top. Add a shake of cinnamon if you’d like, but it’s really fine the way it is. And there you have my version of bananas foster. So good, so luscious, and well worth indulging in from time to time. And I so didn’t make this for myself this week while Andy was away…can’t prove anything. Well, except for the part where I’m about to tell you that the picture above shows what happens when you cook the bananas over too low of hear- notice the absence of golden brown bits- make sure you use medium high heat to get a good sear on those bananas.