Banana Caramel Crescents

For those of you that know me, know that my family and I have a serious love of bananas so we usually have some ripening on the counter.  While I went with bananas this quick and easy dessert doesn't require them or even caramel.  Just some crescent roll dough and whatever you fancy.  My one suggestion is to keep the ingredients cold.  It makes everything easier to handle.  You don't have to but giving the stuffed and rolled dough a quick stint in the freezer to firm up will give you neater and prettier crescents.  I topped some with the last of the caramel, others with powdered sugars, and one plain.  You could also whip up a glaze of powdered sugar and heavy cream.  Enjoy!

Bananas Foster Bread, Better Late Than Never

Have you guys met Maranda from Jolts & Jollies?  A month or so ago she blogged about making apple butter and in her post she mentioned having more jars of it that she knew what to do with.  In my comment to her I might have begged mentioned that I would happily take a jar off her hands.  Lucky me;  she immediately emailed asking for my address and not too long after I received a package from her with TWO jars of homemade apple butter and a Cooking Light magazine loaded with banana bread recipes.   Now if you know me at all, you know I love me some bananas so, that was a welcomed surprise.  :)  I immediately called Maranda to thank her for the package and during the course of our conversation she mentioned wanting to make this bread.  I quickly flipped and found the recipe for myself and concurred that it did look and sound good. 

Jumping ahead a couple of weeks…during an exchange of texts Maranda said that she had made the bananas foster bread and that it was really good.  Not to be left banana breadless I quickly resolved to make the bread myself and we agreed to blog about it together this Friday (today!).  Sorry, I’m so late Maranda!

This isn’t your mama’s banana bread.  It has ground oatmeal,  allspice, and dark RUM in it. Definitely stuff not found in your everyday banana bread and to top it off it has a dark rum glaze that’s poured over it while still warm from the oven. 

I made several changes to the recipe but Maranda on the other hand stuck to it so hop over and see what she thought of her bananas foster bread.

Bananas Foster Bread,adapted from Cooking Light

Ingredients

• 1 1/2  cups  mashed ripe banana
• 1  cup  packed brown sugar, divided
• 6  tablespoons  butter, melted and divided
• 1/4  cup  cognac or dark rum, divided (I used Meyer’’s Dark Rum) 
• 1/3  cup  plain fat-free yogurt (I used sour cream)
• 2  large eggs
• 6.75  ounces  all-purpose flour (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 1/4  cup  ground flaxseed (I used old fashion oatmeal that I ground in my mini food processor)
• 3/4  teaspoon  baking soda
• 1/2  teaspoon salt
• 1/2  teaspoon  ground cinnamon
• 1/8  teaspoon  ground allspice
• Cooking spray
• 1/3  cup  powdered sugar
• splash of heavy cream, optional

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Combine banana, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 5 tablespoons butter, and 3 tablespoons cognac in a nonstick skillet. Cook over medium heat until mixture begins to bubble. Remove from heat; cool. Place banana mixture in a large bowl. Add yogurt, remaining 1/2 cup brown sugar, and eggs. Beat with a mixer at medium speed.

3. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (through allspice) in a small bowl. Add flour mixture to banana mixture; beat just until blended. Pour batter into a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan  (I baked mine in 3 mini loaf pans.) coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour (my minis took 28 minutes) or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven; cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack. Remove bread from pan; place on wire rack.

4. Combine remaining 1 tablespoon melted butter, remaining 1 tablespoon cognac, and powdered sugar; (I found my glaze too thick and added a splash of heavy cream to thin it out.) stir until well blended. Drizzle over the warm bread.

Truth…all the adults that tried the bread said it was very good but my three were not impressed.  More for me then!  :)

Click here for a printable recipe.

If You Know Me…

you know that I love bread pudding, which means you won’t be surprised to learn that I turned my brioche into an amazing bread pudding. 

Pretty much since the moment I chose brioche as March’s baking challenge I knew I’d be turning that baby into bread pudding.  Banana brioche bread pudding to be exact and it turned out even better than I had hoped.  The recipe I used comes from The Craft of Baking, which I purchased on Megan’s recommendation.  (Thanks, Megan! So far so good!)  I adapted the recipe quite a bit  and to really push this breading pudding over the edge I  topped it with Emeril’s whiskey sauce, which I also adapted. 

Banana Brioche Bread Pudding, adapted from The Craft of Baking’s Berry Brioche Bread Pudding

Ingredients

1. Unsalted butter, for greasing the dish (I used Pam)
2. 2 TB turbinado sugar
3. 1 cup heavy cream
4. 1 cup whole milk (I used 2%)
5. 1/2 cup granulated sugar
6. 1/2 tsp kosher salt
7. 2 large eggs
8. 2 large egg yolks
9. 3/4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
10. 2 bananas, cut into 1/4 in slices (I just mushed mine with a fork leaving them a little chunky)
11. 6 cups of brioche, cut into 1 1/2-inch dice

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375°.  Butter an 8 inch square baking dish and coat the dish with the 1 TB of turbinado sugar.
2. In a large bowl place the diced brioche.
3. In a heat proof bowl, whisk together the whole eggs, yokes, and salt.  (I added the vanilla here.)
4. Combine the cream, milk, granulated sugar, and vanilla in a large saucepan.  Heat over medium, stirring to dissolve the sugar, just to a bare simmer.  Remove the pan from the heat and pour one third of the cream mixture into the egg mixture. Whisk to combine well.  Return egg mixture to the remaining cream mixture and whisk to combine.  Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve placed over the bowl of brioche. Gently stir to coat all of the brioche with the custard.  Fold in banana slices.  (I stirred vigorously as I wanted some of the bread to breakdown.)
5. (The recipe doesn’t say but let your bread soak for a bit to absorb all the yummy custard.  I check it after about 30 minutes to see how much custard the bread has sucked up.  You don’t need to do this step but I don’t like chunks of dried tasteless bread in my pudding.)
6. Pour bread/banana/custard mixture into your prepared baking dish.  Sprinkle with the remaining 1TB of turbinado sugar and cover with aluminum foil.  Bake, rotating the dish (I didn’t do this) and removing the foil halfway through, until the top is crisp and toasted and the custard is set, about 45 minutes.  Serve warm from the oven. 

Whiskey Sauce, adapted from Emeril’s Whiskey Sauce

1 cups heavy cream

1/4 cup whole milk

1/4 cup granulated white sugar

1 TB cornstarch

1/4 cup bourbon or other whiskey

Pinch salt

1 tablespoons unsalted butter

In a 1-quart saucepan set over medium heat, combine the cream, milk, and sugar. Place the cornstarch and 1/4 cup of the bourbon in a small mixing bowl and whisk to blend and make a slurry. Pour the slurry into the cream mixture and bring to a boil. Once the sauce begins to boil, reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Remove the sauce from the heat, add the salt, and stir in the butter. Serve warm.  (I think the bourbon/whisky could have been reduced but that’s just me.  I don’t drink and thought it was a little strong.  Rum would probably also work.)

***The lovely photos you see in this post were taken by my children’s sitter, the wonderful Miss Karolyn.  Thanks, Karolyn!

Bananas + Biscuits = Yum!

For those of you who have read my blog a few times know this post has several elements that are fairly standard to my blog.  Bananas.  We’re fond of bananas and you can find quite a few recipes here where bananas are key.  Another two are caramel and cinnamon which for me pretty much go hand in hand with bananas. Wait, who am I kidding?  There isn’t much those two don’t go with. (Am I right, Grace? Monica?) But the last two are quick and easy.  I love pretzels and cinnamon rolls but I really, really love quick and easy especially when it’s full of flavor! These upside down banana pecan biscuits, that I found on Monica’s blog  deliver on quick, easy, AND flavor. 

Wait! It gets better.  There’s no wrong way to make these and customize them to your tastes.  You don’t like bananas?  Want  walnuts instead?  Play with it…make the recipe yours!  My two suggestions for maximizing the flavors are to lightly toast your nuts especially if you’re adding them straight from the freezer (They’re not in the oven long enough to get nice a toasty.) and to use the canned (Make your own if you’re so inclined but did you catch the key words, quick and easy?) biscuits that are your favorite.  Don’t go with ones you hate but they’re on sale and you think you won’t mind them in this recipe.  You will.  (I made that mistake with this pie and bought the cheapy crust. Learn from my mistakes.  :))

I think I’ve made these once a week since I first saw them on Monica’s.  Needless to say my crew loves them.  The Twins top theirs with vanilla ice cream but Babygirl likes her plain with no nuts.  (Click here for a printable recipe!)

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Banana Bread

I’m sure that most of you have a “go to” banana bread recipe but I hadn’t been  fortunate to find one until now.  As a matter of fact I’ve made many an unsuccessful recipe before this one.  Sadly all of my recipe attempts have been over browned and undercooked but not this one.  This one was perfection. 

For months now every time I mentioned banana bread Monica told me about this terrific recipe she had  (She got the recipe from Dawn at Vanilla Sugar.)  and even when Monica told me this recipe converted her from being a banana bread hater I just nodded yeah, yeah and never made a move.  I’m kicking myself now for waiting so long to give it a try.  Learn from my mistakes.  :)

I followed the recipe but baked four mini loaves instead of one large one.  Although I didn’t alter the recipe I did kick things up a notch with two of the mini loaves.  You ready?  I swirled in some left over caramel  from this caramel corn recipe and topped one of the caramel loaves with walnuts!  While the caramel ones were beyond good, the plain ones were also very good so don’t think you have to “supe” this up.  Three out of four loaves were gobbled up before the end of day and the fourth went to our football commissioner as “just because”.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread 

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup mashed very ripe bananas
• 3 tbsp. sour cream
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice
• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (optional) I left these out!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl with an electric mixer or a spoon, cream shortening and sugar together. Beat in eggs one at a time; then mashed bananas, sour cream, and lemon juice.

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Slowly add dry ingredients to the wet mixture, then fold in chocolate chips. Pour into greased and floured 9x5x3 loaf pan. Bake for 60 minutes.

NOTE: If your bread is getting too dark, loosely cover bread with foil. I did this for the last 15 minutes of baking time.

I did have one tiny issue with my bread though it wasn’t due to the recipe.  It was with  my addition of caramel.   My caramel sunk to the bottom and some of it stuck to the pan. (Check out my bottom photo.  I scrapped out the caramel bits and hid them from the kids.  They were THAT good!) My first mistake was swirling it in which gave it a head start to the bottom.  The next time I’ll try layering in the caramel and see if that keeps it from diving straight to the bottom.  I’m not sure I could have kept the caramel from sticking but next time I’ll remove the bread after its cooled 10 minutes and allow it to finish cooling on a rack. My last change……more walnuts.  I added what I thought was plenty but once the bread started baking up I realized it really wasn’t. 

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Those of you who have read my blog a few times know that the Twins are super active and play various sports and you may also remember that Babygirl was cheerleading this year. WELLLLL, Devon’s Jr. Midget football team went 8-0 in the regular season!  They were the first team in the FOURTEEN years of our league’s history to go undefeated! As a matter of fact they won their conference in back to back years, another first!  One of the things I may not have mentioned was that Babygirl was cheering for her brother’s team.  WELLLLL, Babygirl’s squad won first place in the Mid-Florida cheerleading competition this weekend!  Not only were they competing against girls a couple of years older than them, half their squad has never cheered before, Babygirl included.  Both Winter Springs Jr. Midgets football team and cheerleaders were winners this season!  Unfortunately, the boys lost their first playoff game but they did have a good run.

Here are photos of my two in their uniforms!

Technorati Tags: banana,bread,caramel,walnuts

Mini Triple Layer Banana Cake & Finding the Yummiest Cream Cheese Frosting

I made this cake four or five weeks ago when I promised my sitter, Miss Karolyn that I’d make cream cheese frosting (this was the fave) for her mom who was baking 100 banana cupcakes for a baby shower.  Her mom, Beth wasn’t sure what cream cheese frosting tasted like so, I decided to use my brown speckled bananas to bake a  few cupcakes and top them cream cheese frosting for her to try.  I only baked 6 cupcakes and  used the rest of the batter to make a mini three layer cake and three mini bundt cakes (My bundt cakes stuck to the pan, so no photos.).   I also used this opportunity  to try out two new recipes.  I used this lovely layered banana cake recipe and its cream cheese frosting recipe which I found on the blog, Evil Shenanigans.

The cake was great the first day and even better I thought the second.  The frosting on the other hand was good but not great.  Miss Karolyn’s mom who I passed along all the cupcakes to liked both the cupcake and the frosting but I thought I could do better with frosting. 

When Miss Karolyn had first asked about the frosting I called my blogging buddy Monica to ask her opinion about how many cups of frosting I would need and to see if she had a recipe to recommend.  She did and I should have listened up and made it from the get go.  I didn’t but luckily I talked to her again and she convinced my I needed her recipe a try.  Oh, my goodness!  It is hands down the yummiest cream cheese frosting I have ever had.  My only issue with it and every cream cheese frosting I’ve ever made is that it doesn’t hold it’s shape or at least mine doesn’t.  It  gets so soft.  Yes, I added powered sugar, as much as I could without over doing it.   Is there some secret I’m missing?  Help! 

Vanilla Bean Frosting from Cupcake Bakeshop

• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I only added a splash as I used  vanilla bean paste)
• 1/2 vanilla bean, seeds scraped out (I used 1Tbs vanilla bean paste)
• 4-5 cups powdered sugar (I used 5 cups)

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter at medium speed until creamy. Add the cream cheese and beat until combined. Then add the vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, and 3 cups of powdered sugar and beat at low speed, occasionally stopping to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, until light and fluffy. Add more powdered sugar to arrive at the consistency and sweetness you like.

Makes enough to frost 24 cupcakes.

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Thanks everyone for all your get well wishes.

If you like fun kitchen gadgets check out this post for a chance to win your own Microplane nutmeg grater.

Technorati Tags: banana,cake,cream cheese,frosting,giveaway

Caramelized Banana Crisp with Brown Sugar Vanilla Ice Cream

Yes!  This is as good as it sounds especially if you are a fan of bananas and we are!  My three loved it!

I saw the crisp on Teanna’s blog, Spork or Foon and took Jaime of Good Eats ‘n Sweet Treats’ advice and made Brown Sugar Vanilla Ice Cream.  The ice cream was made in the beginning of July by the baking group Sweet Melissa Sundays.  Only the weekly hostess posts the recipe.  Everyone else links back to her.  I’m following their tradition and just giving you the link to the recipe.  I will though provide you with Teanna’s Caramelized Banana Crisp recipe. ‘Cause I’m nice like that. Other than doubling the recipe I didn’t change anything.  Teanna  topped hers with ice cream and Hot Buttered Rum Sauce. I forgot about the sauce and by the time I remembered we had already scrapped our “bowls” clean!  :) 

Caramelized Banana Crisp

For the Bananas:

2 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 medium bananas

Melt butter in large sauce pan over medium heat. Add brown sugar and lower heat to a simmer.  Let simmer for 2 min. Slice bananas in a diagonal into 1/3" inch slices. Arrange in a single layer in sauce pan, turning after 2 minutes, until golden brown on each side.

For the Crisp:

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour

1/4 cup oats

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons butter

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter or spray two individual ramekins.Combine bananas, sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon in a ramekin.Mix sugar, flour, oats and salt. Cut in butter until it forms crumbs. Scatter mixture over batter and bake 40 minutes or until browned.

Okay, so you checked out the recipe?  Would I make this again?  Yes!  BUT here’s what I would do differently……skip caramelizing the banana.  It’s unnecessary.  With the crisp baked for 40 minutes the bananas will caramelize inside the oven. I followed the recipe and mine were actually past caramelized and extremely mushy.  Instead place the banana slices in the ramekins and top with the brown sugar and butter.  While I baked my crisps for the 40 minutes and I think I should have checked and pulled them earlier.  Maybe 5 minutes earlier.  Watch yours.  Last change, I’d add some nuts to the crisp.  

I did make some changes to the ice cream recipe. I didn’t have any vanilla beans so I used some vanilla bean paste instead.  I also didn’t have any dry skim milk and just omitted it.

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In an earlier post I mentioned being busy with football and cheerleading practices after work everyday. Devon, one of the twins is playing football again and  Babygirl is now a cheerleader. She’ll be cheering for his team!  She’s very excited, especially with her uniform and all the other girlie accessories that go along with it.  Here’s a photo of her.  (Monica, think Ingrid with glasses and curly, darker hair, LOL!)

Technorati Tags: bananas,brown sugar,crisps,ice cream,vanilla

Banana Caramel Cake

Yes! It tastes as good as it sounds!  Better really!  This is another one of those recipes that was so good I made it twice within a two week period.  As a matter of fact I bought bananas that were past their prime so I could make this again.  As I’m typing this the photos are taunting me.  I had no intentions of baking tonight but find myself  eyeing up the the bananas on the counter and checking out the clock. 

I have to tell you. This is my favorite banana cake.  All of the ones I’ve made (except this one) to date I have been very good but for me, this is it.  While I won’t stop trying other recipe this is the one I’ll turn to when there’s bananas that need using up and no new recipe to try.

I found the recipe on Technicolor Kitchen after seeing a photo of it on Tastespotting.  The cake on its own is moist but the homemade caramel that is soaked in makes it even more so.  And, I just love the warmth of the cloves, cinnamon, and fresh grated nutmeg that are added to the batter.

Banana Caramel Cake

Cake:
2 cups (280g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg (freshly grated)
¼ teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 large eggs
1 ¼ cups (300ml) vegetable oil (or canola oil as in the original recipe)
1 ¾ cups (350g) sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
¾ cup (75g) coarsely chopped walnuts (omitted)
85g (3oz) dark chocolate, broken into small pieces (size of chips)(omitted)
3 ripe bananas, diced (I pureed them in my mini food processor & mine were small)

Caramel:
½ cup (88g) firmly packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons whole milk
4 tablespoons (56g) unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Butter and flour a tube pan or a bundt pan that can hold 12 cups*; preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF. (I used a tube easier for me to get out)
Sift together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, salt and baking soda.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the eggs, oil and sugar. With the paddle attachment, mix on medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes.
Scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure that the sugar has been incorporated. Add the vanilla extract and mix for another 30 seconds. (I added in the pureed bananas)
With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients a bit at a time. Scrape down the sides of the bowl every now and then to ensure everything is incorporated.
Once the dry ingredients have been added, remove the bowl from the stand mixer and add the walnuts, chocolate and bananas. Gently fold them in with a spatula or a wooden spoon. Don’t over mix.
Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 50 minutes and then test the cake to see if it’s done by poking a toothpick or cake tester into the centre of the cake. If it comes out clean, it’s done. If not, bake the cake for another 5 to 10 minutes. In Ivonne’s oven, this cake took 55 minutes; in mine, 1 hour. (Mine was done in 45 minutes, I find more often than not everything is done sooner rather than later in my oven.  Adjust accordingly for yours.)
About 5 to 10 minutes before the cake is done, make the caramel by combining all the ingredients in a small pan. Bring to the boil and stir occasionally to ensure that it doesn’t burn. Let it boil for about 5 minutes and then turn off the heat.
Once the cake is out of the oven, poke holes all over the cake with a skewer. Immediately pour the caramel over the cake, stopping every now and then to let the caramel sink in. If the caramel pools in spots, poke more holes to allow it to sink in.
Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack. Once it’s cool, loosen the cake from the sides of the pan and then unmold it onto a plate.

The Twins have been out of town playing baseball in Cooperstown, NY since last Saturday which is why you haven’t seen me around.  I thought I would have a break but except for Sunday’s games all of their other games have been broadcast over the internet on the Cooperstown site! Of course that meant instead of having a baseball free week and blogging (& commenting) I’ve been watching and cheering on the boys and their team. 

They just lost making it their last game of the tournament. It was also their third game of the day.  A day which started off with warm ups at the field at 7:30am (after winning and finishing up last night at 9:30pm) in cold rainy weather.  Though they lost they have a lot to be proud of.  Out of a 102 teams they made it to the final four and were seeded third!  Not too shabby.  It’s back to work next week as they have the Elite 24 at Disney in July!  Go Fire!

Technorati Tags: bananas,caramel,cake,cinnamon,news

Ice Cream!

I love ice cream!  I mean, l-o-v-e it! BUT I don't love writing about it or even photographing it.  (It may be harder to do than savory foods.)  For the past several months I've been making ice cream along with the other desserts I've blogged about but have been unmotivated to share my experiences.  I couldn’t tell you how many times I tried writing this post, starting and stopping, starting and stopping.  So, instead of telling about and giving you one recipe I’ve decided to make this a three for one.  :)

I’m pretty sure you won’t be shocked to read that the first ice cream of the season I made was snickerdoodle ice cream.  I found recipe over at Our Best Bites.  My only changes were to cut back on the cinnamon and use ready made snickerdoodle cookie dough from the store.  A bit of  advice? Make your own cookies or better yet make your own snickerdoodle bars.  :)

 

Snickerdoodle Ice Cream

1 1/2 c. 2% milk

1 c. sugar

2 eggs

1 c. heavy cream

1 tsp. vanilla

2 tsp. cinnamon (1 1/2 tsp.)

About 1 1/2-2 c. chopped high-quality sugar cookies, *snickerdoodles, or shortbread cookies

Combine milk and sugar in a medium saucepan.  Heat over medium until bubbles form around the edges.  Remove from heat.

In a small mixing bowl (or really big cereal bowl), whisk eggs thoroughly.  Very slowly, add 1/2 of the hot milk mixture, whisking the eggs constantly.  Return pan with remaining milk mixture to stovetop and then whisk the egg and milk mixture back into the saucepan, whisking constantly.  Add whipping cream.  Over medium-low heat and stirring constantly, continue heating the custard mixture to 160 degrees.  It will start to thicken quickly; remove from heat when your finger leaves a track on a spoon coated in the custard mixture. 

Add in cinnamon and vanilla.  Place the custard in an airtight container and chill in the refrigerator several hours. 

When ready to make ice cream, pour chilled custard into ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.  When the ice cream is almost done (like maybe the ice cream maker's struggling a little...it looks like really firm soft-serve...), add chopped cookies.  Remove from ice cream freezer and place in another air-tight container and freeze an hour or two (at least...but not longer than a couple of days) to allow it to firm up.

*I used the grocery store’s ready made snickerdoodle cookie dough but would suggest that you make your own.  They really weren’t that good.

 

This next one isn't going to be much of a surprise either.  I made banana fosters ice cream which I found on Cafe Johnsonia. The texture of this ice cream wasn’t as smooth or creamy as others and I think it may be due to the homemade caramel that is mixed with the custard but we loved it. 

Bananas Foster Ice Cream
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup heavy cream (not ice cold)
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 tsp. sea salt
2 cups whole or 2% milk (I used 2%)
2 whole eggs or 4 egg yolks (I used 4 egg yokes)
1-2 ripe bananas (depending on how big they are) (I used 2.)
2-4 tablespoons dark rum (optional--can use 1 tsp. rum extract, too.) (I used 1/2 tsp. of rum extract.)

In a 2-quart pan, combine sugar and water. Bring to a boil and cook without stirring until the sugar becomes a deep amber color. Add the heavy cream and stir well. Add the lemon juice, vanilla extract, butter, and salt. (It may clump up, just keep stirring and it will smooth out.)

Transfer caramel to a heat proof bowl to cool.**
Once caramel is cool, whisk in the eggs (or egg yolks).
Prepare an ice bath. (You will need it to quickly cool the hot custard.)

In another pan, heat milk until very hot.** Gradually add the hot milk to the caramel/egg mixture. Whisk well and pour it back into the pan. Cook over medium heat until the custard reaches a temperature of 160 degrees F on an instant read thermometer. Strain the custard through a fine mesh sieve into a clean bowl. Place the bowl in an ice bath to cool.

Peel the bananas, break them into chunks and put them into a blender. Add some of the custard and puree until smooth. (I didn’t puree the bananas.  I just smushed them with the potato masher.) Add the puree back to the bowl with remaining custard. Stir well. Add the rum, if using.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill until very cold. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer directions.
Makes 1 quart.

**Alternatively, you could add the milk to the caramel while it's still hot and then add it to the eggs that have been whisked in a separate bowl. It just depends on how you want to do it. It will work just as well either way. My caramel just happened to be cold, so I added the eggs to the caramel.**

Lindsey has this post on making custard base ice cream which I found very helpful. Per Whitney at Rookie Cookie, Lindsey is Utah’s very own ice cream whisperer.  If you’d like to see another recipe of Lindsey’s I’ve made please visit here.

 

This last recipe is for banana ice cream which I found at Spork or Foon.  (On a side note Teanna is attempting to recreate Top Chef recipes at home which I think is quite impressive!) I really, really liked this recipe which put to good use the overage of ripened bananas that I had on hand at the time.  Best thing?  No cooking!

Banana Ice Cream Recipe:

makes 1 quart

You will need:

2 cups of half and half (I used 1 cup 2%milk & 1 cup of heavy cream)

1 can of sweetened condensed milk

1 cup of heavy cream

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 very ripe bananas

2 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice

Mix together the first four ingredients until combined, making sure the condensed milk is well blended with the other liquids.* Chill until cold.

Pour mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze accordingly.

Mash the bananas with the lemon juice and add to the ice cream maker 2 minutes before it's finished. Transfer ice cream to a freezer safe container, cover and freeze for at least 3 hours.

*I didn’t wait to add the mashed bananas.  I added it into the milk mixture and chilled it as well.

Technorati Tags: ice cream,snickerdoodle,banana fosters,banana,caramel

Banana and Cream Cake with Browned Butter Glaze

This cake is excellent especially if you're looking to use up some over ripe bananas and don't want to make the standard banana bread.  What makes this so outstanding is the browned butter glaze!  It was finger lickin', spatula lickin', bowl lickin'  GOOD!  (Donna behave!  :)) In that first photo you can kinda see the browned bits of butter, yum! Even my non-glaze or frosting loving son tried getting the slices that had the most glaze on them!

I saw this yummilicious banana cream bundt cake over on the blog, Bunny's Warm Oven.  Bunny and Carol make lots delish dishes, both savory and sweet!  They've also welcomed a new contributor, Cyndy.  If you haven't been by yet be sure to hop over.

Bananas and Cream Bundt Cake with Brown Butter Glaze
Taste Of Home

Ingredients:
1/3 cup shortening
1-1/4 cups Domino® or C&H® Granulated Pure Cane Sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/4 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 medium)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (I left these out)
Domino® or C&H® Pure Cane Powdered Sugar

Directions: In a large bowl, cream the shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Add bananas and mix well. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to the creamed mixture alternately with sour cream, stirring just until combined. Stir in walnuts. Pour into a greased and floured 10-in. fluted tube pan. Bake at 350° for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with confectioners' sugar. Yield: 12-16 servings.

Brown Butter Glaze
RecipeZaar
For Glaze
1/2 cup butter
3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 tablespoons milk
For glaze:
In a medium bowl, add powdered sugar.
Place butter in a small saucepan. Melt butter over medium heat until bubbly. Cook, stirring occasionally until golden brown.
Remove from heat and pour butter into the bowl of powdered sugar. Add milk and vanilla, stir until smooth.

Technorati Tags: bananas,browned butter,bundt cake,glaze

Bananas Foster Bread Pudding

A few weeks ago I while I was visiting the blog, Annie's Eats I saw that she had made Bananas Foster Bread Pudding and that the recipe had won her over.  She says in her post that she hadn't been a fan of bread pudding prior to that recipe.  Already a fan of it I was excited to give the recipe a try. 

I was not disappointed.  The bread pudding was excellent  and the Foster's sauce was even better.  The sauce is one that could be made over and over again to serve with other desserts.  I had some  left over and  topped some vanilla ice cream with it.    The kids loved it as well as the bread pudding.  I would make this again especially the Foster's sauce!  Speaking of making again a few of you asked it I would make again the "sugar cookie" cake from my previous post.  YES, I would!  Sorry I didn't make that clear.  Hope those of you with a love for sugar cookies or just of cake give it a try.

I did have one issue with the recipe.  The amount of "custard" to bread was off.  I had more custard than I needed for the amount of bread used. Unfortunately I didn't realize it until I had added all of the bread (6 cups).  I let my bread soak longer,  in hopes that  it soak up more of the excess custard.  I would have added more bread but I used up all I had.  Not being overly bothered by the extra custard I went ahead and spooned it all into my ramekins and souffle dish and baked for the 50 minute.  While the taste of the extra custard was fine the texture was not really smooth.  It was kind of curdly due I'm certain to the mashed bananas (It might help the texture to puree the bananas  in a blender or food processor) but again it didn't effect the taste as the scrapped clean dish can attest!

I baked my bread pudding in six small ramekins and one medium sized souffle dish.  Thinking and looking back at the photos I should have whipped up some heavy cream to top it all with, duh!  Not only would it have added to the overall photo it would have tasted great along with the bread pudding.  I just never think of those "touches" at the time. :(

Baseball update:  We had a double header this past Saturday and won both games.  The exciting part was I had, on the spur of the moment planned a BBQ for the team.  Thankfully everything went well.  Seems everyone was pleased how it turned out and we have decided to do it again this Saturday during another double header.  I did bake for it but didn't get any photos. Maybe next time and to be quite frank while they were tasy they were  not anything special.

Books:  I'm starting to read Bliss by O.Z. Livaneli.  I am actually reading with my friend Wendy and we started to day.  While I was a B&N with Wendy I also picked up a copy of the Food Lover's Companion.  It's a great reference book.  Yes, you can go on the Internet and get the same info but I'm old school and like looking it up in the book.  I also like the convenience of having it by my side. :-)  Okay, you listening?  I'm having my first giveaway!  One of the items I'm giving away is the book Food Lover's Companion and the other is Martha Stewart's Cupcakes.  I'll be pre-ordering you a copy.  It is due to be released on June 2nd. Details soon to follow!

Technorati Tags: bananas,bread pudding,foster sauce,giveaway

Banana cake w/praline filling and white chocolate ganache frosting

You may have recognized the title as the cake that the group The Cake Slice  made and revealed at the end of January.  After  drooling over the photos, reading the name of it, and hearing how wonderful it was I was convinced I need to take the plunge and try my hand at the cake.  Except for the Snickerdoodle cake it would be my most  from scratch cake. 

I followed the recipe as this was not the time to try modifying anything . Overall everything went smoothly.  My one and only mishap was over beating the whip cream after I added in the white chocolate.  

This is another one of those desserts I have mixed emotions on.  On Tuesday when I tried it, well, lets just say if it wasn't because it would have killed me to toss out a whole cake I wouldn't even have mixed emotions.  That first night it was flat out NOT good.  I couldn't have been more disappointed.  I had made the cake layers on Sunday, on Monday I candied the nuts, and on Tuesday made the frosting and put it all together.  I think  I should have made the nuts first then the layers, and while the layers were cooling the frosting & filling.  Oh, well.  Anyway the following day the kids and sitter tried the cake and liked enough to finish most of it up.  On the third day remembering my experience with Ina's Lemon Yogurt Cake I decided to give it another go.  It was edible.  It was okay and I could tell that it had potential but it still wasn't something the impressive cake delish cake I was hoping for.  I actually have the third layer that I froze right away instead of using.  I'm going to give the frosting and filling another go but with a few changes.  Lindsey at Cafe Johnsonia wrote me a great email detailing how I might have gone wrong and what I could do the next time.  I had left her a comment on her post of this cake telling her of my dilemma.  Maybe at a later date I might try the cake itself again.

Btw, notice the improved photography?  Nice, right?!  The children's sitter and my official taste tester, Karolyn took the photos.  I took some too but deleted them after she sent me hers.   She rocks!

**Thanks for all the get well wishes.  I'm not 100% but I am feeling A LOT better!!!!!

LiveJournal Tags: bananas,cake balls,ganache,pralines,white chocolate,frosting