Bananas Foster

I can remember to this day the first time I made Bananas Foster. Tom and I were newly married and had invited friends over. The meal was great, company lively and then... I flamed the sauté of bananas, butter and brown sugar with brandy and all hell broke loose. I had a fire on my stove. Thankfully all turned out fine and the recipe has endured 40 years of “flaming.” Moral of the story—turn down the heat and have a lid to cover the pan just in case!

Ingredients for 4 Servings

2 ripe, but firm, bananas

½ cup brown sugar

½ stick salted butter

2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

¼ cup rum

Favorite ice cream, pre-scooped and covered in the freezer

Preparation

Cut bananas on the bias.

Melt butter and brown sugar in a skillet over medium heat,

stirring until sugar is melted and mixture is of syrup consistency.

Swirl in cream.

Add bananas and heat until warm.

Remove skillet from heat and carefully add rum. Flame if desired.

If flaming, have a lid handy to put over the flame if it gets too high.

Be careful!

Serve immediately over ice cream.

NOTE

Peaches, cherries and pears also work well with this recipe, as does the pineapple from the Dark Rum Marinated with Pineapple and Vanilla Bean recipe on page 128.