Banana Foster Brownie
As Valentine's Day comes around the corner, chocolate becomes the king of sweets. Many stores sells chocolates in fancy
decorated box or cute heart shaped containers.. Sometimes, the chocolate package comes with cute stuffed animals. How not to love.
I would imagine chocolate will be the best seller of this month, but I prefer to make the special day as personal as possible and, I always make something special for my dear husband.
Anyone can buy a box of chocolates, but if you make something for your loved ones, even if you make something simple, it has lots of feeling in there and becomes quite personal and has a lot more meaning to it.I am sure you can put a huge smile on your loved one with something special made by you.
This year, I have made "Banana Foster Brownie" and it came out quite good, and I thought I would share the recipe here. It is very easy to make..
I made it a little earlier than actual Valentine's Day this year so that I can post the recipe a little earlier for you to make ones for your loved one. My husband enjoyed the Banana Foster Brownie to his heart content and said it was yummy with big smile on his face.
<Banana Foster>
If you were not familiar with Banana Foster, it is quick and easy gourmet desert often made at table side in the restaurant to entertain the customers with Flambe.
Basic Banana Foster is made by melting the butter with brown sugar,which later becomes caramel sauce. Then, Banana is added and cooked a little and depending on personal preference, banana liquor is added and banana is cooked a little more. Then, skillet is removed from the heat source and shot of rum is added.
Then, skillet is tipped to ignite the rum in the skillet. This technique is called Flambe. Fire in the skillet would simmer down in a couple of seconds and, after fire is gone, banana slice is plated over ice cream and later,caramel sauce is added.
I personally have not done Flambe Banana Foster at home but,you can certainly enjoy the same flavor without flambe. If you do not do flambe at home,when you add Rum to the hot skillet,add only a little (1/4C or so) in the skillet and evaporate the alcohol.It tastes great over ice cream, over pan cakes... It is easy, and it has simple ingredients yet, it can make the plate gourmet look.
You can watch how restaurant serve this simple gourmet desert "Banana Foster" on table side with youtube video bellow.
Banana Foster
If you are a blog subscriber or reading from facebook,please click here to watch the video
So, this year's Valentine's Day desert I made was inspired by this French gourmet desert "Banana Foster".
Banana Foster Brownie..
Here is how you make it.
1.Preheat oven at 350F
2.In the bowl, mash one ripe banana with potato masher
3. In the bottom pan of double boiler,add water and bring to boil first with second pan on top.
4. After water is boiled, lower the heat to simmer
5. To the double boiler top pan, add 2 oz of bitter sweet baking chocolate chip 60% cacao and 2 tbs of butter,and stir constantly over the bottom double boiler pan
** If the heat was too hot, chocolate will burn,or it does not melt to silky look to it. So,make sure the heat is at gentle simmer,not boiling heat.
*** What is double boiler? ***
Double boiler is a pan that is used to cook/melt delicate ingredients such as chocolate. The pan comes with two kinds of pans with one lid.
In the bottom, water is added and bring to boil first without second pan on top. Then, after water is boiled, lower the heat to simmer and second pan is placed on top of the lower pan to cook/melt delicate ingredients such as chocolate.
*************************************************
6. To a small container, add 1 tsp of instant coffee and add 1 tbs of hot water and stir to dissolve and add this to the chocolate in the double boiler and stir.
7. To a bowl that has mashed bananas, add 2.5 oz of dark brown sugar, pour chocolate-butter-coffee mix and stir well
8. Add 1 tsp Kahlua (Coffee liquor), 1 tsp V.S.O.P Brandy, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract to banana chocolate brown sugar mix and stir
** Traditional Banana Foster has Rum, instead of Brandy. Since I tend to make quite a bit of desert with Rum,I have decided to add Brandy instead
9. To the second bowl, keep 3 oz of unbleached all purpose flour mixed and by using the kitchen sieve over the chocolate mix, shift the flour a little and stir gently and try not to over-mix the batter
10. Add 1.5 oz of chopped walnuts to the batter, add 1/4 tsp baking soda, and mix gently. Make sure no white bits of flour is present in the batter
11. Line the 8"x 8" baking dish with parchment paper so that you can easily remove the brownie, and pour the butter and spread it nicely
12. Over the folded kitchen towel, drop the baking dish from 4" or 5" or so of height about 10 times to remove the air bubbles in the batter
13. Bake it in the oven for 30 minutes or until you see no wet batter comes with toothpicks when you place it in the center of the brownie, and pull out
14. Let the brownie cool down in the cooling rack and cut to your preferred shape
** If you like to make it a little fancy, you can cut the edge off on 4 sides first so that you have clean edge on brownie. Then, cut to square and plate them up and, by using kitchen sieve over the plate, shift the confectioner sugar a bit like a little snow over the brownie. If you had ice cream on hand,you can plate the ice cream right next to the brownie and possibly add a color with mint.
** Or, after plating the brownie up, you can melt the chocolate in the double boiler again and let it cool down a bit and pour it in the small zip bag and cut the tip off (only a bit,not big cut) with scissor, and twist the top so you get the chocolate sauce is not going to pour it over. and hold the zip bag as if you are holding the piping bag and you can decorate the plate. Even if you just do side to side motion over the plate, it looks fancy on the plate.
** Also, you can use the cookie cutter and plate up the heart shaped brownie. When you use the cookie cutter, make sure you will give equal pressure on both sides of the cutter and push it fast, not slow. Slow cutting would break the brownie shape.
I tried mine with heart shape fit for the season
Heart shaped Banana Foster Brownie..
Enjoy!
I would imagine chocolate will be the best seller of this month, but I prefer to make the special day as personal as possible and, I always make something special for my dear husband.
Anyone can buy a box of chocolates, but if you make something for your loved ones, even if you make something simple, it has lots of feeling in there and becomes quite personal and has a lot more meaning to it.I am sure you can put a huge smile on your loved one with something special made by you.
This year, I have made "Banana Foster Brownie" and it came out quite good, and I thought I would share the recipe here. It is very easy to make..
I made it a little earlier than actual Valentine's Day this year so that I can post the recipe a little earlier for you to make ones for your loved one. My husband enjoyed the Banana Foster Brownie to his heart content and said it was yummy with big smile on his face.
<Banana Foster>
If you were not familiar with Banana Foster, it is quick and easy gourmet desert often made at table side in the restaurant to entertain the customers with Flambe.
Basic Banana Foster is made by melting the butter with brown sugar,which later becomes caramel sauce. Then, Banana is added and cooked a little and depending on personal preference, banana liquor is added and banana is cooked a little more. Then, skillet is removed from the heat source and shot of rum is added.
Then, skillet is tipped to ignite the rum in the skillet. This technique is called Flambe. Fire in the skillet would simmer down in a couple of seconds and, after fire is gone, banana slice is plated over ice cream and later,caramel sauce is added.
I personally have not done Flambe Banana Foster at home but,you can certainly enjoy the same flavor without flambe. If you do not do flambe at home,when you add Rum to the hot skillet,add only a little (1/4C or so) in the skillet and evaporate the alcohol.It tastes great over ice cream, over pan cakes... It is easy, and it has simple ingredients yet, it can make the plate gourmet look.
You can watch how restaurant serve this simple gourmet desert "Banana Foster" on table side with youtube video bellow.
Banana Foster
If you are a blog subscriber or reading from facebook,please click here to watch the video
So, this year's Valentine's Day desert I made was inspired by this French gourmet desert "Banana Foster".
Banana Foster Brownie..
Here is how you make it.
1.Preheat oven at 350F
2.In the bowl, mash one ripe banana with potato masher
3. In the bottom pan of double boiler,add water and bring to boil first with second pan on top.
4. After water is boiled, lower the heat to simmer
5. To the double boiler top pan, add 2 oz of bitter sweet baking chocolate chip 60% cacao and 2 tbs of butter,and stir constantly over the bottom double boiler pan
** If the heat was too hot, chocolate will burn,or it does not melt to silky look to it. So,make sure the heat is at gentle simmer,not boiling heat.
*** What is double boiler? ***
Double boiler is a pan that is used to cook/melt delicate ingredients such as chocolate. The pan comes with two kinds of pans with one lid.
In the bottom, water is added and bring to boil first without second pan on top. Then, after water is boiled, lower the heat to simmer and second pan is placed on top of the lower pan to cook/melt delicate ingredients such as chocolate.
*************************************************
6. To a small container, add 1 tsp of instant coffee and add 1 tbs of hot water and stir to dissolve and add this to the chocolate in the double boiler and stir.
7. To a bowl that has mashed bananas, add 2.5 oz of dark brown sugar, pour chocolate-butter-coffee mix and stir well
8. Add 1 tsp Kahlua (Coffee liquor), 1 tsp V.S.O.P Brandy, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract to banana chocolate brown sugar mix and stir
** Traditional Banana Foster has Rum, instead of Brandy. Since I tend to make quite a bit of desert with Rum,I have decided to add Brandy instead
9. To the second bowl, keep 3 oz of unbleached all purpose flour mixed and by using the kitchen sieve over the chocolate mix, shift the flour a little and stir gently and try not to over-mix the batter
10. Add 1.5 oz of chopped walnuts to the batter, add 1/4 tsp baking soda, and mix gently. Make sure no white bits of flour is present in the batter
11. Line the 8"x 8" baking dish with parchment paper so that you can easily remove the brownie, and pour the butter and spread it nicely
12. Over the folded kitchen towel, drop the baking dish from 4" or 5" or so of height about 10 times to remove the air bubbles in the batter
13. Bake it in the oven for 30 minutes or until you see no wet batter comes with toothpicks when you place it in the center of the brownie, and pull out
14. Let the brownie cool down in the cooling rack and cut to your preferred shape
** If you like to make it a little fancy, you can cut the edge off on 4 sides first so that you have clean edge on brownie. Then, cut to square and plate them up and, by using kitchen sieve over the plate, shift the confectioner sugar a bit like a little snow over the brownie. If you had ice cream on hand,you can plate the ice cream right next to the brownie and possibly add a color with mint.
** Or, after plating the brownie up, you can melt the chocolate in the double boiler again and let it cool down a bit and pour it in the small zip bag and cut the tip off (only a bit,not big cut) with scissor, and twist the top so you get the chocolate sauce is not going to pour it over. and hold the zip bag as if you are holding the piping bag and you can decorate the plate. Even if you just do side to side motion over the plate, it looks fancy on the plate.
** Also, you can use the cookie cutter and plate up the heart shaped brownie. When you use the cookie cutter, make sure you will give equal pressure on both sides of the cutter and push it fast, not slow. Slow cutting would break the brownie shape.
I tried mine with heart shape fit for the season
Heart shaped Banana Foster Brownie..
Enjoy!
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