Carefree Cooking

Caramelized Banana

Have you ever thought about kicking up your plain boring banana? You can slice it in half and serve it with ice cream, or perhaps just cut it into small chunks and serve it with your favourite breakfast cereal. But as a standalone dessert, it's hard to imagine how a banana can be the star of the show.

I was watching Iron Chef America a few weeks ago and I saw Mario Batali cut some figs in half, sprinkle some brown sugar, and torch the top to caramelized the sugar. I thought this was a great idea. He also said that this technique works well with banana so that immediately made me want to try it. First thing first, I need to get a torch. It doesn't seem like the average cooking stores sell torches. I had to look at hardware stores for these. The price ranges quite a bit depending on how portable and stylish it is. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to purchase one since there was a big roadblock...my wife. I had to resort to plan B: my trusty toaster oven.

Preparing the dessert is very easy. Cut the banana in half (length-wise) and place it on a plate or baking tray. Liberally sprinkle some brown sugar on top so that the banana is fully coated. If you are lucky enough to have a torch (or be allowed to purchase one), you can use it to melt the brown sugar. Since I haven't tried it myself, I can't really say how long it takes. But based on watching Mario Batali on TV, it doesn't seem to take that long. Since I used the oven method, melting the sugar will take longer. I used the highest temperature setting, and also used a raised pan to lift the banana closer to the heating element of the toaster oven (set to broil mode). I believe it took around a minute for most of the brown sugar to melt. Make sure you don't have clumps on the brown sugar, otherwise it will be hard to melt (if you're using the oven method)

After the sugar is melted, wait for a while until the sugar solidifies. It might be worth putting the banana inside the fridge to speed up this process (or if it's relatively hot in your area).

To plate the caramelized banana, you can put a pool of melted chocolate at the center of the plate and place the caramelized banana on top. If you don't have melted chocolate handy, you can sprinkle/dust some confectionary sugar on top. I didn't have neither in my pantry (have to include that in my shopping list), so I just grab whatever I could find in my fridge. We had some leftover cake so I used that as a "garnish".

Stay tune for an update on this as I plan on doing this "right". But first, need to figure out how I can pass the "roadblock" :)

posted by carefreecooking @ 8:39 AM