Another Flaming Dessert: Bananas Foster

Yesterday we showed you reader Catherine's impressive Baked Alaska, and it reminded us of bananas foster, another famous flaming dish that we made quite a bit when we were kids...

OK, I didn't make it alone. My dad made it for dinner parties, but he always allowed me to ignite the rum in the pan, using a (very) long fireplace match.

Bananas Foster is a simple dish with a spectacular ending- perfect for a Valentine's Day menu. You caramelize some banana slices in brown sugar and butter, then pour on some rum, light it, and simmer down the flame. It was created at Brennan's restaurant in New Orleans in the 1950s and it's still a staple dessert on menus across the city. Usually the server flambes the bananas tableside before scooping them over vanilla ice cream.

The Brennan's recipe (below) calls for banana liqueur, which I don't think is essential. Rum is plenty to get the flame going and add flavor.

• Get the recipe: Brennan's Bananas Foster

(Images: Flickr members Zeetz Jones and allegri, licensed under Creative Commons)

Comments (11)

Don't you just love "firing" something up in the kitchen (besides the stove). I find this method of cooking enhances the flavor dramatically, especially when making sauce.

http://www.sweatyguineapig.com/?p=1340 my first time burning banana slices on the stove with rum...what a brilliant dish!

posted by reggiesoang on February 10th 2009 at 11:01am
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Recently Kathleen Flinn of Eat.Write.Now wrote about a Banana's Foster dessert variation that contains bacon (!) in her blog. You can get to her post from one I recently wrote about the overall bacon in dessert trend:

http://danamccauley.wordpress.com/2009/02/03/topline-trends-tuesdays-bacon-in-the-sweet-kitchen/

posted by Dana McCauley on February 10th 2009 at 11:12am
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wow reggiesoang, that is the most interesting name for a blog...

My wife, Chelsea, got crazy with the booze and fire this past Christmas and made a real figgy pudding! It was quite the hit with the Grandparents and relatives from England:

http://www.vimeo.com/2746685

http://www.flickr.com/photos/art_chel/3139701093/

posted by art on February 10th 2009 at 12:19pm
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Bananas Foster is killer, and I don't like bananas. I've tried it without flaming, and the flavors are there, and it's good, but it's just not as -- what? -- edgy as when it's been flamed. That said, I am the unqualified leader of wusses when it comes to flaming. Maybe it's because I once had a skillet's contents burst into flames from overheating, and it was all I could do to set it down somewhere and smother the flames. I'll eat it flamed, but don't ask me to flame it.

posted by 39520expat on February 10th 2009 at 1:32pm
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Is there anything I can use besides alcohol to achieve a similar dish? We just don't keep alcohol in the house - and can't, really. Ideas?

posted by TheGoodBiGirl on February 10th 2009 at 2:45pm
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TheGoodBiGirl, I make bannanas foster recipe for brennan's completely omiting the banana liqueur and then replacing the rum with orange juice. You can't flame it but the flavor is amazing.

posted by realserendipity on February 10th 2009 at 3:16pm
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I made bananas foster for bananas foster cupcakes. And I too recorded my first experience. I must say, mine was a little anti-climatic, though funny none the less. Here's the link: http://erinsfoodfiles.blogspot.com/2009/02/bananas-foster-cupcakes.html

posted by UptownGirl on February 10th 2009 at 5:17pm
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realserendipity - many thanks! I'll try it. The flame effect is cool but as long as its absence doesn't take away from the flavor, I won't be too disappointed (especially since although I CAN cook, I'm am slightly clumsy)...

posted by TheGoodBiGirl on February 10th 2009 at 8:25pm
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Having had Bananas Foster at Brennan's and Court of the Two Sisters (also in New Orleans) as well as various other, much less spectacular versions (none of which were served at breakfast...) I'll argue that no, it does not taste the same without the rum and the flames. I do not drink alcohol --period, just don't like the chemical nature of it-- but it is just missing the classic flavor if it isn't there.

That said, Alton Brown had the best idea ever: Bananas Foster on waffles!

posted by Kakugori on February 10th 2009 at 9:45pm
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Yes! I love Banana's Foster...but skip the rum...make it with good bourbon instead!!!

posted by barturtle on February 11th 2009 at 3:14am
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Wow, I've made this dish before and it was amazing, and I tried it tonight following this recipe. I found it extremely sweet, almost unbearably so. I think next time I would cut down on the sugar by about half. Or maybe using plain sugar instead of brown sugar would make it a less obvious sugar flavor. Did anyone else have this problem?

posted by neenam on February 14th 2009 at 9:56pm
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