Banana Flambé Ice Cream

Does your family have any funny shared memories? The types that cause everyone to burst out laughing, even years later?

My family has a lot of funny memories. I'm not sure if that's because we're funny, or we can embarrass ourselves quite often... One of my favorite ones took place in Washington, DC before I started graduate school. My family helped me move, and we went out to dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant. We were stuffed after a delicious meal, but my Dad's prix fixe dinner included dessert. He almost passed on it, but we all offered to take "a bite" of the famous banana flambé. This dessert entails quite a show; our server rolled a cart and proceeded to cook the flambé right next to our table. She heated butter and brown sugar until it caramelized, then added two bananas and doused everything in flaming cognac. We all clapped as she tipped the bananas into a dish and added two massive scoops of vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. Something about the show made us forget how full we were, because the five of us attacked that flambé. That warm, sticky banana and rich ice cream didn't stand a chance. As we were scraping the last bits of brown sugar goop from the bowl, my sister Ava got up to use the restroom. And as the rest of us were finally putting down our spoons, a different server came to the table carrying another banana flambé! He explained that our server felt she had "messed the first one up" and redid the flambé. Say what? The first flambé was a masterpiece! But before we could argue, the man plopped down the second flambé and walked away. Well, letting this dessert go to waste would have been a travesty. So we picked up our spoons and dug in. When Ava returned from the bathroom, the shocked look on her face was priceless. She was obviously judging us, yet it did not stop her from picking up a spoon and joining! I'll admit, even I was surprised when we polished off that second enormous dessert. To this day, whenever someone brings up banana flambé, the five of us burst out laughing - both embarrassed and proud at the same time.

I've been wanting to incorporate banana flambé into ice cream for some time now. The opportunity arose last week, while I was working remotely from my parent's house. It was nearly 90 degrees out, the AC units haven't been installed yet, and I spied a bunch of ripe bananas in the kitchen. A quick internet search for "banana flambé ice cream" resulted in recipes for banana flambé with ice cream but none for banana flambé-flavored ice cream. Undeterred, I set about developing my own concoction.

My recipe ended up being pretty simple. First, I made a banana flambé puree by baking banana slices in a mixture of brown sugar, cinnamon, a smidge of butter, and a dash of dark rum. I could have used the stove top, but I personally prefer baking over sauteing (I burn myself way too often for someone in her late 20s). 

After pulling the bananas out of the oven, I added a squeeze of lemon (to prevent any gross-looking browning) and mashed everything lightly with a fork before covering the dish and popping it into the fridge. The next day, I scraped the cold banana flambé into the blender and added some milk, lemon juice, salt, and vanilla. After blending everything for less than a minute, I poured the base into my mother's Cuisinart ice-cream maker (identical to mine) and pressed "on." When I came back 20 minutes later, the ice cream was done!

Banana Flambé Ice Cream
{Makes 1 quart}

Ingredients

• 3 large bananas (the riper the better) 
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 2 tbsp. dark rum
• 2 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into little pieces
• 1/4 tsp. lemon juice (just a squeeze)
• 1.5 cups whole milk
• 2 tbsp. white sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp. salt

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Peel bananas and cut into 1/2-inch pieces. Arrange in shallow baking dish. Sprinkle with brown sugar, cinnamon, and rum. Distribute butter pieces evenly. Bake for 30 minutes, basting once or twice during cooking.
• Transfer baked banana mixture to a large bowl, add squeeze of lemon juice (to prevent browning), and mash everything lightly with a fork. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours (I chilled overnight).
• Scrape chilled banana mixture into blender and add milk, white sugar, vanilla, and salt. Blend until smooth.
• Pour mixture into ice cream maker and freeze per the manufacturer's directions. If you're using a Cuisinart, this means 1) turn on your machine, 2) slowly pour mixture in, and 3) leave the thing alone for 15 minutes or so.
• For best results, transfer to an airtight container and freeze until firm.

Ice cream for three.

The verdict? I figured banana flambé ice cream would be good, but I didn't anticipate just how amazing this recipe would be. Roasting the bananas helped to break them down, and the brown sugar and rum glaze resulted in a deep, caramelized flavor that I adored. The rum flavor wasn't strong, so if you love rum - you could add more. Opting to use whole milk instead of cream was risky, but the recipe turned out to be creamy and not at all icy. Perhaps that is due to the high banana-to-milk ratio? I enjoyed my serving in a gluten-free cone, while my parents opted for bowls. My mom raved about the intense flavor, but my banana-loving dad thought it was almost too intense (what a wimp!). He ended up "cutting" my ice cream with a scoop of plain ol' store-bought vanilla. But my ouce cream motto is "go big or go home!" I savored every bite of my cone, and I ended up polishing off the rest of the banana flambé ice cream within 24 hours. What can I say? It's a family thing ;)

Manly Wharf's Gelatissimo

Apologies on the lack of posting lately. Between the engagement, work, and travel, my ice-cream writing has taken a back seat. But don't you worry... I've still been eating my fair share of it!

Now, where were we? Oh yes... Australia.

As you know from the last post, the fiancé (K) and I traveled to Australia a few weeks ago. We spent most of our time in Melbourne, where my sister is studying abroad and my dad's side of the family lives. Melbourne is a gorgeous city - lots of greenery, beautiful architecture, and a peaceful river running through downtown. But if I were to ever move to Australia, I'd probably choose to live in Sydney. Not only is it the biggest city in the country, but Sydney is one of the nicest metropolises I've ever seen. It has the intense energy of New York City, the cleanliness of Singapore, and the urban beaches of Rio de Janeiro. Best of all, K shares my fascination with Sydney and is more than happy to visit whenever we're in Australia. So before we headed back to the States, K and I spent an action-packed 24 hours in Sydney.

While most of my family members live in Melbourne, a few have migrated to Sydney over the years. My dad's dearest cousin married a Sydney businessman and raised four awesome boys in the area. She and three of her sons now live in the town of Manly, a quaint beach town in Sydney's North Beaches. K and I made plans to meet her and one of her sons for dinner in Manly. Traveling to Manly Beach involves a 30-minute ferry ride from Sydney's main ferry terminal - and this has to be one of the coolest ferry rides ever! Sydney's ferry terminal is located right near the Sydney Opera House, and you get awesome views of the stunning building from the water!

After a fun (and choppy!) ride across the Harbor, the ferry arrives at Manly Wharf. We had an hour to kill before dinner, so K and I stopped at a great German beer garden before walking along Manly Beach. When dinnertime rolled around, we walked for ten minutes or so before spotting the Thai restaurant my cousin had chosen.

We had a great time catching up with family and sharing delicious Thai curries. But it was getting late, so K and I walked back to Manly Wharf to catch a ferry back to Sydney. The ferry terminal was pretty quiet on a Thursday evening after rush hour, but many of the food and magazine vendors were still open. I had spotted a gelato kiosk on our way in earlier, and I was happy to see it was still open at 9pm!

Gelatissimo in situated right in the center of the ferry terminal building. While surveying their extensive gelato offerings, I suddenly realized that I had an appetite for dessert ;). Italian-based Gelatissimo is an international chain, with locations in Italy, Malaysia, Kuwait, Singapore, the Philippines, and Australia. Gelatissimo serves all the quintessential flavors you'd find in an Italian gelateria, such as Pistachio, Amarena (dark cherry), Panna Cotta, Tiramisu, and Bacio (chocolate-hazelnut). But tonight, I was drawn to several unusual flavors. The Ricotta, Pear & Walnut sounded great... if you like ricotta cheese (which I don't). The colorful Passion-Fruit sorbet looked quite tempting. But in the end, I decided on two flavors I'd never seen before: Saffron Risotto and Carmelised Fig. While living abroad in Spain, I developed an appreciation for saffron's deep and slightly-bitter flavor. And figs are one of my favorite "grown-up" foods. I loathed Fig Newtons as a kid (too healthy-tasting for dessert), but now you'll catch find me eating Trader Joe's Fig Butter by the spoonful.

 I wasn't sure whether the two flavors would clash, but I took a chance and ordered a two-scoop cup.

The verdict? So disappointing. I had such high expectations for these flavors, but I was sadly unimpressed by both. Had you not told me what I was eating, I wouldn't have known there was any saffron or figs in this gelato. The Saffron Risotto was sweet but bland, and the texture was disappointing. Ever since that amazing tapioca gelato in Rio de Janeiro, I've been on the hunt for texture-intense flavors. Risotto gelato is a great idea, but it was poorly executed at Gelatissimo. There were a mere few grains of rice in my entire scoop. Likewise, the Carmelised Fig flavor was underwhelming and lacked the crunch of fig seeds. To top everything off, Gelatissimo is quite pricey (almost $7 for a pretty small cup). But don't worry; this ice-cream disappointment didn't ruin my night. The ferry ride back to Sydney with its stunning views was enough to put a smile back on my face :)

The Stats:
Gelatissimo
Manly Wharf Shopping Centre, Kiosk 2
Manly, New South Wales 2095
Australia
http://www.gelatissimo.com.au