Name: Bananas Foster
Total time: PLACEHOLDER
Cuisine: SouthernAmericanUS & Canada
Ingredients: 4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/2 stick); 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar (3 1/2 ounces/99 grams); 1 cinnamon stick; 1 strip lemon zest (1 to 2 inches long by about 1 1/2 inch wide); 1/4 cup dark rum; 2 large, firm, ripe bananas , peeled and halved lengthwise and then halved crosswise; 1 pint vanilla ice cream

Why This Recipe Works

Although the New Orleans dessert bananas Foster is quick and simple, with few ingredients (butter, brown sugar, rum, and bananas), things can go wrong. Sometimes the bananas are overcooked and mushy. Or the sauce can be too thin, overly sweet, or taste too strongly of alcohol. We wanted to fix these issues and come up with a quick, reliable dessert with tender bananas and a flavorful but not boozy sauce.

First we kept the amounts of butter and brown sugar in check—most recipes use a high ratio of butter to brown sugar, which makes for a thin, greasy sauce. For the rum, we found that a small amount was just enough to impart a definite rum flavor without turning the dessert into a cocktail. We decided to add some rum to the sauce and use the rest to flambé the bananas. We also enhanced the sauce with a little cinnamon and lemon zest, which added some complexity. As for the bananas, we cooked them in the sauce until soft, flipping them over halfway through cooking so they turned out tender, not mushy.

Before You Begin

While the bananas cook, scoop the ice cream into individual bowls so they are ready to go once the sauce has been flambéed. Before flambéing, make sure to roll up long shirt sleeves, tie back long hair, turn off the exhaust fan (otherwise the fan may pull the flames up) and turn off any lit burners (this is critical if you have a gas stove).

Instructions

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Add the brown sugar, cinnamon stick, lemon zest, and 1 tablespoon rum; stir to dissolve the sugar, about 1 minute. (If the heat is too high, the butter and sugar will separate instead of combining to form a sauce.)

Add the bananas and spoon some sauce over each piece. Cook until the bananas are glossy and golden on the bottom, about 1 1/2 minutes. Turn the bananas and continue cooking until very soft but not mushy or falling apart, about 1 1/2 minutes longer.

Remove the skillet from the heat. Add the remaining 3 tablespoons rum and wait until the rum has warmed slightly, about 5 seconds. Wave a lit match over the pan until the rum ignites, shaking the pan to distribute the flame over the entire pan. When the flames subside (this will take 15 to 30 seconds), divide the bananas and sauce among the four bowls of ice cream, discarding the cinnamon stick and lemon zest, and serve.