Now that I have made my own caramel candy and caramel sauce, I will never buy any from the store again. It was too easy and incredibly tasty. My husband and I had a blast making it too!
Next adventure will be to make our own ice cream! My husband loves bananas and ice cream! I saw this Banana Spitsville on the Food Network. Alton Brown made it, and it looked so tasty. I decided I had to make it the next day. I have made banana fosters before, and absolutely loved it. So I thought why not combine them. I used the banana Foster recipe from bloggers acouplecooks.
The banana fosters recipe serves two people. The caramel is enough 10-15 people. It can stay in the fridge after its made and be used on many different desserts.
Ingredients for Caramel:
1 cup of water
2 cups of sugar
1 tbsp of light corn syrup or a splash of lemon juice. ( I prefer lemon juice, but either works)
2 cups of heavy cream.
Ingredients for Bananas Foster:
Ice cream of your choice
2 bananas
1 tbsp Meyers dark rum
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp of unsalted butter
Butane torch and sugar (optional)
To make caramel candy:
Use all ingredients except the heavy cream.
Having a candy thermometer comes in handy when making caramel. If you don’t have one, it just requires watching it closely. I don’t use a candy thermometer, at least not yet! I am sure in the future I will buy one:). Add all of the ingredients into a 4 or 5 quart sauce pan. Turn the heat on high and wait for the sugar to dissolve. Then turn heat on medium for 15-20 minutes. It should still be boiling. Do not stir the mixture. If you are using a candy thermometer, once the mixture hits 300 degrees you can swirl it around in the pan to make sure it’s cooling evenly. Once the temperature hits 340 degrees it’s done.
If you are not using the thermometer, the caramel will start to turn an amber color (close to 300 degrees). When you notice the color change, swirl the caramel on the pan. This ensures it is even and cooks consistently. The caramel will turn a deep amber when it is done (close to 340 degrees). Take the caramel off the heat, and stir with a spoon until it cools. You will be able to lift the spoon and the caramel will fall from it in a solid stream. You can then make your own fun designs and or lollipops if you want to.
Here I made a fun design for the top of the dessert.
Drizzle the caramel on a piece of parchment or wax paper. Let it harden and then peel the paper from the caramel. It will come off in one in piece. If you try to pull the caramel off of the paper it will break.
To finish making the caramel sauce place the caramel back on the pan and heat up. The saucepan will start to smoke. At the first signs of smoke remove pan from heat and add the cream. It will boil fast and hard and is like a volcano erupting. When I made my sauce I didn’t use a big enough pan and it erupted everywhere. We had a huge sticky mess lol. That is why I recommend using a 4 or 5 quart sauce pan to give you plenty of room for this. Once cream and caramel are fully mixed and it has calmed down from the rapid boil, place saucepan back on the heat. Let boil for 3-4 minutes. Your caramel sauce is done. Scoop/pour the sauce into a plastic squeeze bottle and put in freezer for a few minutes so it cools. Once it has cooled completely it can go in the fridge.
While the caramel is cooling, the banana fosters can be made! Cut the bananas in half and in half again. You should have 8 slices of banana.
Melt the rum, butter, cinnamon, brown sugar, in a sauce pan and stir. It will get start to get bubbly, and when it does you can add your bananas. Sauté the bananas for a 2-3 minutes. You don’t want them to get mushy but you want them to be fully covered in the sauce. Take the bananas off the pan and set on a plate to let cool for 3-5 minutes.
Take your caramel sauce and decorate the bottom of a plate, that you will be serving the dessert on. You can also take the leftover sauce from the banana and add that to the bottom of the plate as well. A spoon works well just to drizzle it.
If you have a butane torch, you can use it now on the bananas. Sprinkle sugar on the top of the bananas and then use the butane torch. It will create a hard caramel layer on top of the banana!
Take your bananas and lay two vertically with a little space in-between. Lay the other two horizontally so it makes a square. Add a scoop of ice cream or two 🙂 on top of the bananas. Last step is to add your decorated hard caramel candy made at the beginning of the recipe.
Wholah!!! Now you have Banana Fosters Splitsville 🙂
Enjoy and let me know when you make it!
Lisa Annie
Xoxox
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