Banana Parfait

I've noticed over the course of writing over the past few years about this, that and the other ingredient that there are a few things that folks have a particular love and devotion for.   One of those things is bananas.  We do love our bananas!  And what's not to love - they are the perfect, scrumptious, portable, non-sticky/drippy/messy fruit.  (Not that I don't sometimes love peach juice running down my chin.)

 

And one of the others is chocolate.  Duh.  So when I run into a recipe that has both chocolate and bananas, I know that soon I'm going to be digging into something good.  It happened to me with the Banana Bites that are still one of my most popular posts EVER, and here we go again...and this time with some angel food cake, a few almonds, some mascarpone cheese, all in a dessert that will take you, oh, about 15 minutes to assemble, and that's if you are going really slow.

Here's the scoop.  Find some pretty wine glasses, the rounder the better.  Now take some angel food cake (the kind you can buy in the bakery section of your supermarket is perfectly fine) and slice it up.  You want the initial slices to be about an inch high, and then trim those into whatever shape will fit nicely into your wine glasses. Don't worry too much about making them pretty and precise, because they are going to be drowned in this.

That's my mind-blowingly good favorite chocolate sauce from the mind-blowingly good Stonewall Kitchen, but you use whatever your favorite is.

Next you are going to whip up a mixture of mascarpone cheese (which is like a sweet cream cheese, and you can find it in the supermarket either in the cheese section or sometimes right near the cream cheese), some sugar, a little cream and if you are feeling frisky, a little amaretto.  And here we go!  Drop a piece of cake in the wineglass.  Add in some banana slices, a spoonful of the cheese mixture, some chocolate sauce and a few sliced almonds.  Repeat the layers, ending with the almonds.

The perfect, perfect ending to that special dinner party.  Or you can go ahead and have it on a regular Tuesday night.  Or both!

Banana Parfaits, adapted from Bon Appetit

• Your favorite chocolate sauce
• 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream, divided
• 3/4 cup mascarpone cheese
• 3 tablespoons amaretto
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 8 1/2-inch-thick angel food cake slices
• 24 1/3-inch-thick diagonal banana slices (from about 3 bananas)
• 1/3 cup (about) sliced almonds, toasted

1. Whisk mascarpone, amaretto, sugar, and 2 tablespoons cream in medium bowl until blended.
2. Using 2 1/2-inch-diameter cookie cutter, cut out round from each angel food cake slice, or just cut into irregular pieces - either is fine. Place 1 cake round in each of 4 wine goblets or old-fashioned glasses. 

3. Top each cake round with 3 banana slices, 1 heaping tablespoon mascarpone mixture, bittersweet chocolate sauce, and sprinkling of almonds. Repeat parfait layering 1 more time and serve.

Print this!

Quick Banana Sticky Buns

So, the teenager has a small army of friends, and periodically (and by periodically I mean at least once a week) she says, "Mom, can I have a few people over?"  And by that she means, can I have thousands of teenagers come over, eat everything in the fridge and all the cabinets, bring their sleeping bags, watch all the Harry Potter/Batman/etc DVDs until the wee hours of the morning, finally fall asleep (girls upstairs in actual beds, boys downstairs sleeping on the floor), and wake up the next morning ravenous and needing to be fed again?

To which I always say yes, because I secretly love all of that, and all of them.  Here's a small sample of what some of them look like...

I show you this picture because it is actually LESS scary than showing you a picture of all of them in their pajamas.  And by pajamas I mean their oldest, grubbiest sweatpants and tee-shirts, which is apparently what pajamas mean now-a-days.

Anyway.  In the mornings I turn into a short-order cook, and to make things even more exciting, they don't all get up at the same time.  They trail into the kitchen in dribs and drabs, starving - STARVING, I tell you!! - despite the fact that they ate 17 bags of sour cream and onion chips a mere 8 hours ago.  They need to eat immediately or they will keel over, and they all need something just a little bit different.  So while I am cooking up the french toast/scrambled eggs/two eggs over easy, I like to have a plate of something on hand that they can eat while they wait to eat.

Which brings me to the point of this post - these very quick, very easy banana sticky buns.  They are ready in about 15 minutes flat, and if I can get them going as soon as I hear the first teenager stirring, I can just about have them on the plate when they start stumbling into the kitchen.  Here's the drill: you get a can of 10 buttermilk biscuits - that's right, the ones in the tube that we all secretly love and adore.  Get the regular size ones, not the grands.  Take out your handy muffin tin and drop the following items into each of ten muffin openings: a little butter, a little brown sugar, a few slices of banana and some chopped pecans.  (I usually make half with pecans and half without, because of course they don't all like the same thing.)  Pop a biscuit on top of each, and bake the whole shebang for about 10 minutes.  When the biscuits are nice and golden, take the muffin pan out, run a knife around the outside of each muffin to make sure it is loose, and then invert the muffin pan onto a cookie sheet.  The sticky buns should fall right out, and if some don't just scoop them out with a spoon.  Sometimes a banana slice or two will stay in the muffin pan - scoop those up and stick 'em right back on.

That's it - delicious, warm, easy sticky buns.  Now all you have to do is figure out what you are going to feed them for lunch.

Quick Banana Sticky Buns, adapted from Real Simple

• 1 tube refrigerated buttermilk biscuits (tube of 10)
• 2 tablespoons butter,  cut into 10 slices
• 1 banana, sliced thin
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 375.

2. Drop one piece of butter into each muffin compartment.  Put a few banana slices on top of the butter, then sprinkle with a little brown sugar and some nuts (if using).  Place a biscuit on top of all and press down slightly.

3. Bake until golden, about  8-10 minutes.  Remove from oven and immediately run a knife around the edge of each sticky bun, and then put a cookie sheet on top of the muffin tin.  Flip the tin over and tap the bottom to release the buns.  If any nuts or bananas are left in the tins, just scoop them out and place them on the top of the buns.

4. Serve warm (and these reheat well in the microwave if they aren't gobbled up right away.)

Click here for printable recipe

Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

I do love baking with bananas. But somehow, I always seem to fall into a banana-baking rut by making the same old thing over and over. Banana bread, right? You see those, um, aging bananas on your counter and your mind goes blank except for the banana bread. Now, a few weeks ago I broke out of my banana rut and made these cute little banana bites, and I was just overwhelmed by all the banana love that came my way from all you banana-fans out there.

And so I was inspired, and I have been collecting banana recipes ever since. On my to-make list over the coming weeks are: Layered chocolate banana parfaits. Bisquick banana muffins. I even have a recipe on deck for Extreme Banana Bread, made with SIX bananas. Crazy, right? But in the midst of all this banana-rama I found a recipe for banana cupcakes with whipped peanut butter frosting. The cupcakes are like a light, airy banana bread, and the frosting....peanut butter heaven.

One last little observation -- that frosting job that I did on the cupcakes involved a pastry bag and one of those little star-shaped decorating tips, which all sounds very fancy and complicated, but it's as easy as easy can be. But feel free to slather that frosting on there however you want. It's going to taste AWESOME no matter what it looks like.

It's a banana summer!

Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting, from Bon Appetit

• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 very ripe large bananas, peeled
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 8-ounce package cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter (do not use old-fashioned or freshly ground)
• Chopped lightly salted roasted peanuts (optional)

1. Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Line 12 standard (1/3-cup) muffin cups with paper liners. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Mash bananas with fork in another medium bowl until smooth. Mix sour cream and vanilla into bananas.

2. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in large bowl until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg and egg yolk and beat until well blended. Add flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with banana-sour cream mixture in 2 additions, beginning and ending with flour mixture and beating just until blended after each addition. Divide batter among prepared muffin cups (generous 1/4 cup for each).

3. Bake cupcakes until tester inserted into center of each comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer cupcakes to rack and let cool completely. 

4. Sift powdered sugar into large bowl. Add cream cheese, butter, and peanut butter. Using electric mixer, beat mixture until smooth. Spread frosting over top of cupcakes, dividing equally.

 

Click here for printable recipe

Banana Bites!

Oh, I love these little guys. Not only are they DELICIOUS, and not only do they feature fruit, so you can tell yourself they are just a little bit healthy, but they are also awesome for using up those bits and pieces that accumulate in your cupboard (if you are me, anyway.) You know what I mean - the last quarter cup of shredded coconut in the bag, the end of that package of mini-chocolate chips, etc etc.

Anyway, start with a bunch of bananas. I love bananas.




And melt up your favorite kind of chocolate. Milk, dark, bittersweet, your call. You could even use white chocolate if you are a white chocolate kind of person.

Then lay out little separate dishes of whatever sweet crunchy odds and ends you have on hand. You cut up the bananas into bite size chunks, dip them in the melted chocolate and then roll them in the coatings. In my case I used coconut (which I toasted for a few minutes first...)



And chopped peanuts (sweet and salty, whoo-hoo!)



And the end of that bag of toffee bits that I was beginning to think I would have in my cupboard forever (can't even remember what I bought them for in the first place!)...



And my personal favorite, crushed Oreo cookies. This little banana bite isn't as handsome as the others, but man, did he taste good!



Pop them in the freezer for a few hours and that's it. Chocolate, bananas, and you cleaned up your cupboard. What could be better??

Banana Bites!, adapted from Bon Appetit

• 2 cups chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• Assorted toppings for coating bananas (such as crushed oreos, toffee bits, chopped Butterfinger candy bars, chopped salted peanuts, or toasted shredded coconut)
• 3 bananas, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices

1. Stir chocolate and oil in heavy small saucepan over low heat just until smooth. Let stand 15 minutes to cool.
2. Place each topping in separate shallow dish. Line baking sheet with foil. Arrange banana slices on foil. Using fingers, dip 1 banana slice in chocolate, coating completely. Shake off excess chocolate. Drop dipped banana in 1 topping. Using clean hand, sprinkle more topping over banana to coat; transfer to foil-lined sheet. Repeat with remaining bananas, chocolate, and toppings. Freeze until firm, about 3 hours, then serve.

Click here for printable recipe

Crepes!

As those of you who read yesterday's post on Creme Brulee already know, I recently got to attend and photograph my third "Meet the Chef" event at our local library. Not only did the wonderful Chef Rosemary Smith teach us how to make creme brulee, she also made us not one but TWO kinds of crepes...the spinach one you see above, and this delectable looking chocolate banana number.

Just as a quick reminder, Rosemary is from the new and lovely La Vie En Rose Bakery and Cafe. Doesn't that name just make you want to go there and order some tea and scones?

Anyway. After she finished up the creme brulee, we were on to the crepes. Crepes are one of those intimidating sounding things that seem like they should be handled by licensed professionals, but Rosemary promised us it would be fun, and after the creme brulee we were true believers.

We started with flour. So far, so good..

Add some eggs to it....

And mix that baby up good. Hey...crepes are easy!

Then add some milk, whisk whisk whisk...

I love how this looks. Creamy and comforting, and sitting on top of Rosemary's recipe, which is usually where my OWN recipes are when I need them. Under something.

Now comes the scary part. The cooking of the paper-thin, delicate, needs to be flipped over without tearing into pieces crepe.

Rose explained that one of the tricks was to actually do the lifting and flipping with your fingers. Really? Yes, really...she did it before our very eyes. Lift and flip.

After that, the rest is easy. The spinach crepes were spread with a mixture of spinach and mushroom filling...

And folded over into adorable crepe bundles.

The banana crepes were spread with chocolate (Nutella would be ideal for this) and sprinkled with bananas. Getting HUNGRY???

And that was it -- beautiful, perfect crepes, right before our very eyes!

All that was left was to spoon on a little sauce (cream sauce for the spinach crepes, whipped cream for the banana crepes)....and to EAT them!

So there you go. Now that Rosemary has shown us the secrets of crepe-making, we can let our imaginations run wild on the filling...the sky is the limit. I'm thinking vanilla pudding on the inside and strawberry sauce on the outside. What about you? In the meantime, here's the basic crepe recipe...and thanks, Rosemary! See you at La Vie En Rose!

CREPES

• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup flour
• 2 eggs
• pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon melted butter
• Fillings and toppings of your choice

1. Combine flour, salt and sugar in a bowl, whisk to combine.

2. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the eggs

3. Start whisking in the center of the bowl, combining a little more of the flour and the eggs in each pass.

4. When a thick paste has formed, start thinning it out with the milk, adding little by little so you don't get lumps.

5. When all the milk is added, let the batter rest for about an hour.

6. When ready to use, add the melted butter.

7. Heat a small skillet over medium high heat and add enough butter to coat it. Ladle in enough crepe batter to coat the bottom of the skillet. Cook until the bottom is set and slightly golden. Flip with spatula or your fingers, cook the other side until set.

8. Place on wax paper until ready to fill.

9. Fill with any of your choice of sweet or savory fillings. Rosemary's spinach filling is prepared as follows:

"Sautee one large shallot and one cup of mushrooms, roughly chopped, in 3 tablespoons of butter. When lightly cooked, not brown, add a package of raw spinach,. Looks like a lot, but it shrinks to almost nothing. Add salt, pepper, and fresh grated nutmeg to taste (I like a lot of nutmeg). Grate some Gruyere or Parmesan cheese into the mixture....about 1/4 cup. As the spinach cooks down remove it from heat so as not to overcook it. Remember to go light on the salt when adding cheese, which can bring too much salt to your dish. You can always add some later to taste.This mixture will be fine in your refridge for 2-3 days until you are ready. Happy Crepe-ing."

Click here for printable recipe

Banana Chocolate Chip Cake

I was going to give the blog a rest today, but my friend Ilene has a Situation with some over-ripe bananas, something that I absolutely relate to. It goes like this: "Mom, I really really want bananas. Can you get bananas when you go to the supermarket?" And so Mom purchases a lovely large bunch of bananas. One gets promptly eaten. The rest of them languish there on the banana hook. And as soon as they develop one infinitesimal speck of brown on them -- well, that's all she wrote. This recipe is a great one since it can be assembled from stuff I usually have on hand. I made it this afternoon out of three well-aged bananas, and believe me, this cake will NEVER languish for long. However, the bunch of bananas in our house was a large one, so I have three more to go. Send me your banana suggestions, please! In the meantime -- Ilene, this recipe is for you.

BANANA CHOCOLATE CHIP CAKE

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8x8 inch baking pan.

2. In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt

3. In a separate bowl, combine bananas, egg, melted butter and milk.

4. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture until just blended.

5. Stir in chocolate chips

6. Pour batter into pan and bake until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 30-35 minutes. (It may have some melted chocolate on it but no crumbs)

7. Vow not to listen to children who swear they will eat all the fruit you buy. Until the next time they ask.