Banana Caramel Swirl Ice Cream

I love desserts that look ultra-fancy but are deceptively easy to pull off.   This Banana Caramel Swirl Ice Cream was no harder to pull off than most ice creams, and even the caramel sauce was simple to make.  You just spoon some ice cream straight from the machine into a container, drizzle caramel over it, drag a skewer through the caramel to create the marbled design, then repeat in layers.  There's no technique to wielding the skewer either -- moving the skewer any which way creates gorgeous swirls.

The hot caramel sputters up when cream is added.  Be careful!

The caramel sauce is as simple as cooking sugar, water, and corn syrup together; then adding cream, and stirring in cold butter.  To help avoid crystal formation, which can ruin your whole batch, I cook the caramel with the lid on for the first few minutes -- the steam will build up and run down the sides, washing away any potential crystals.

The ice cream is smooth and creamy, with no iciness.  The flavor is reminiscent of banana bread, and the caramel sauce adds a more complex sweetness.  The chocolate lover in me wants to swirl this with chocolate sauce next time.

Banana Cream Pie

I have yet to meet someone who does not like banana cream pie.  Slices of banana are stirred into a pastry cream, spooned into a pie crust, and topped with lightly sweetened whipped cream ... what's not to like?  And this mini-pie is adorable.

If only its bigger brother were so successful. When I cut into the big one, the filling was not quite soupy, but not as firm as it should have been.  I initially thought the recipe was at fault and was going to direct readers to this earlier recipe, but the fault lay with me.  In the rush of Labor Day, I refrigerated the big one for only half the recommended time, thinking the filling had set enough, and tended to other things.  But later at home when I cut into the mini-pie, which had been refrigerated all day, the consistency was perfect.  So don't follow my example, but follow the recipe!

This post was linked to:
Sweet Treats Thursday
Sweet Tooth Friday
Tea Party Tuesday
Sweets for a Saturday

Blizzard Chocolate-Banana Bread Pudding

Just what does everyone make with the milk, bread, and eggs they buy before a big storm hits?  One possibility when you're all holed up is bread pudding!  OK, so this one is a little richer with half-and-half instead of milk, and you've got to have some chocolate and bananas on hand.  But when you need a break from shoveling a foot of snow and shaking your fist at the plowmen who piled a snow wall at your driveway, there will be bread pudding waiting for you.

Not my house, in case you had stalking intentions.  But the scene is pretty.  My honest thoughts about the bread pudding?  Definitely better cold, and not warm from the oven.  And it was good, but I think I had built up my expectations too high.  I'd rather have chocolate cake, or a banana split.  Even better, cinnamon raisin bread pudding.

The bread was soaked in the chocolate custard overnight.  I almost forgot to add the bananas the next morning before they went in the oven!  You can see that I switched the square pan up to a larger size.  Both the ramekins and the 10-by-7-inch pan were done in 45 minutes, in case you're interested in making smaller batches.  I also halved the recipe, since it makes a lot of bread pudding!

Banana-Walnut Chocolate-Chunk Cookies

Banana-nut bread and the chocolate chip cookie make a good couple.  These Banana-Walnut Chocolate-Chunk Cookies have the flavor and lightness of banana bread, with the taste and chocolate hit of chocolate chip cookies.  They're fun and easy to make, and just what I was looking for after slightly fussier apple crostatas and bar cookies.

I've been doing more, but my baking and cooking projects don't always end up on the blog.  Some I consider too ordinary or ubiquitous.  Sometimes I neglected to take photos.  Sometimes, as in this case, the recipe just didn't work out.  I had been looking for a pumpkin biscotti recipe but they're so few.  This recipe was halfway to a disaster.  The flavor was good, but they didn't get to the correct, hard biscotti consistency and had chewy middles despite repeat stints in the oven.  I finally decided that pumpkin puree must be too wet for proper biscotti, and that the storebought variety I'd tried before probably uses some industrial powdered pumpkin flavoring.

My pumpkin-carving didn't go so great either, since I cleaned it the week before and let it sit, and it grew moldy.  In the end, I carved a simple face in a very thick gourd since stores were sold out of pumpkins.  I had to envy Joe's pumpkin (bottom right), since he did a better job and his pumpkin is still mold-free.

These cookies went waaay easier.  Surprisingly, the recipe called for oats and some whole wheat flour, and I used some white whole wheat flour I had on hand.  Everybody's favorite start to cookie dough is that mixture of butter, white sugar, and brown sugar.  The remaining ingredients are added, and then scooped onto a cookie sheet.  The cookies bake up small, but I had a big yield of over 40.  The recipe calls for cutting up your own chocolate chunks, but I didn't realize and had bought 60% cacao chocolate chips.  But they were perfect, nice and big with a deeper, grown-up flavor.

Birthday Banana Cream Pie

What do you make for someone who doesn't like chocolate?  I could drown happily in a bowl of pure chocolate ice cream, no toppings needed.  I know several of my (crazy) friends dislike chocolate in favor of flavorings like vanilla and caramel.  I don't get it, but my friend Charmie is one of them.  But I know she loves whipped cream, and who doesn't like bananas?  So banana cream pie it was.  Sliced bananas are folded into a pastry cream and spooned into a flaky pie crust, then topped with whipped cream.  This pie is simple but delicious, not too sweet, and has great mouthfeel with clouds of airy cream.  Charmie loved it, and it was her first-ever birthday pie.  Will it be cake or pie on your next birthday?

Rose's Banana Refrigerator Cake

A quickie post on Rose Levy Beranbaum's Banana Refrigerator Cake, since I'm playing catch-up.  This one is a lot like banana bread, but less dense and with a tender crumb, and topped with Rose's Dreamy Creamy White Chocolate Frosting (silly name).  I normally dislike white chocolate, but the thin layer was a nice and not-too-sweet accompaniment.

Rose writes that the cake stays soft even in the refrigerator because oil is used instead of butter, hence the name.  The cake is simple enough to make, although you may not have the white chocolate and turbinado sugar on hand, but it's nice for an occasional Sunday.  Think of it as a fancier banana bread.  If you want the recipe, shoot me a message or leave a comment!