Five-Minute Fancy Bananas

This was kind of like a tiny-apartment-kitchen, no-torch-or-rum-available version of Bananas Foster. No comparison - but similar idea. And dang, it was good.

For two people (you can scroll down to the bottom to see one servine - it's on a dessert plate), I used:
-2 bananas
-3 tablespoons butter
-1/4 cup water
-3 tablespoons brown sugar
-pinch salt
-optional: Frangelico, or some sort of booze that would taste good in caramel sauce

1. Move the oven rack up close to the broiler. Preheat broiler.
2. Slice bananas into a bowl with enough room to stir a bit.
3. Heat butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat, watching carefully. As soon as it's melted, pour a little bit of it onto the bananas. Remove the saucepan from heat, but leave the burner on.
4. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of brown sugar into bananas, stir to coat (doesn't have to be perfect). If you have spray cooking oil, grease the broiler pan so the bananas won't stick (I didn't do this, but should have). Spread out banana slices on a broiler pan. Put bananas in broiler.
To make the caramel sauce:
5. Put melted butter back on heat. Lower heat to medium or a little above. Pour in water, sprinkle in remaining 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and pinch of salt. Stir constantly for 2-3 minutes or until caramel sauce is very bubbly (keep stirring, lifting and scraping occasionally) and light golden, but not burned. Pour in a splash of Frangelico or other liquor (if you want), and keep stirring. If caramel sauce, once removed from heat and calmed down, looks like the picture below before the bananas are nicely browned on the edges, remove the caramel sauce.




Once the bananas are golden-brown (they will be very soft), distribute them onto plates and pour caramel sauce over.

Ta-daa!

Coconut Lime Sorbet

I know, I know. The weather in Portland and the Puget Sound has gone to pot, so this tasty little confection won't sound nearly as refreshing as it did when I made it last week. But, you know - file it away for later or something.

This recipe was easy-peasy with an ice cream maker. But even if you don't have an ice cream maker, you could still make a granité by (carefully) pouring the mixture onto a cookie sheet or baking sheet, sticking it in the freezer, and scraping the mixture around every 10/15 minutes or so to prevent it from freezing in a solid sheet. It won't be smooth - but SnoCones aren't smooth, and they're still pretty dang refreshing. Mmm, SnoCones...

So, here's the recipe for the coconut lime sorbet. Mind you, it packs a pretty high-calorie punch because of the cream of coconut (yes, that's right - cream of coconut, not milk - it's the stuff they put in piña coladas). But you only need a little of this stuff, because it punches you in the mouth with sweet and tangy at the same time.

I found the recipe on Epicurious. If I actually persuade anyone reading this post into giving this recipe a shot, and you go to the original link on Epicurious, you'll notice that the reviews are mixed. Most people rave about it, but a few complained that it was horrible and bitter. All I can say is: Read the directions, people (not you - the Epicurious reviewers). It says "Cream of coconut" and even gives you a brand suggestion - Coco Lopez. A quick Google search of Coco Lopez tells you it's the stuff they put in piña coladas - which means you can find it in the mixer aisle. It is not the same as coconut milk - especially not unsweetened coconut milk.

Sorry for the tangent - people just amaze me sometimes. If there are three ingredients - and the first two are water and limes - you'd better make sure you get the third ingredient right. And if you don't, maybe you should take a brief moment to view your methodology with a critical eye, before slamming the recipe.

So, here we go.

Ingredients

• a 15-ounce can cream of coconut (preferably Coco Lopez)
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup fresh lime juice [Carrina's note: I needed four limes for this (unfortunately, I purchased 7). They weren't large, but they weren't tiny. Definitely larger than key limes, and with thin skin, which always makes me think they've been allowed to sit and get ripe, creating more juice. I don't know if science backs up that assumption or not, though]

In a bowl whisk together ingredients. Freeze mixture in an ice-cream maker. Transfer sorbet to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden.

Done and done! So easy. And awfully creamy for a product that doesn't contain dairy.

Spumoni! (from Staccato Gelato)

Now granted, the only spumoni experience I have for comparison is that sweet spumoni that comes in the metal mini-goblet thing at the Old Spaghetti Factory. I even found a picture through Google Images confirming that my fond childhood memories of the "metal mini-goblet thing" are accurate. Behold:

"Old Spaghetti Factory: We treat you like mafia royalty."

Photo from blogtown.portlandmercury.com, 3/2008 review of the Old Spaghetti Factory's lunch menu - direct link to the review was taking five minutes to pull up, so I have given up on it. I will try back later to see if I can cite my source properly.

Anyway, I always loved the Spaghetti Factory's spumoni, and I still do. I'm so glad that my parents never told me (or that I never listened when they told me) that the three members of that alluring tri-color swirl were chocolate, cherry, and pistachios. Pistachios - most definitely a member of the nut family, and I declared war on that family around age 12 (Mom?) Pistachios got a brief early childhood exemption from this war because my cool aunt and uncle always had them hanging around, but eventually I lumped them in with all the other nuts I hated. Even now, I won't seek them out although I have no problem with them. But in spumoni, they're another story...

We used our Staccato Gelato 2-for-1 Chinook Book coupon yesterday. I can think of many sweets that I prefer to ice cream/gelato/sorbet, simply because ice cream is cold and hurts my teeth unless I eat it sideways. Staccato Gelato, however, has different flavors every time we go there, which means that while Mike goes to get his ice cream fix, I go to try out new flavors (past winners: Honey Lavender, Mojito, Rose Petal, Thai Iced Tea - yes, I am partial to the girlie foodie flavors. Check out their full list of flavors here, although you'll notice Spumoni isn't even listed, which implies that there may be other sleeper flavors that don't make it onto the official list).

We each got the second-smallest size, which still gets you up to three flavors if you so choose. Mike got Cherry Chocolate Chip, Creamsicle (tasted exactly like an Orange Julius if you ask me - not that I'm complaining), and something else. I got Spumoni, Spumoni, and Spumoni. And since I am writing this post about it, you already know that I loved it. The chocolate - oh so chocolatey - and not too sweet. The cherry - sweet and light, with little candied cherries mixed in every so often. And the pistachio - meaty and delicious.

The picture below is all melty, since we drove home with our gelato. Next time, I'll try to bring the camera along.

YUM! That is all.

Cupcake Rickroll

I'm only posting this because I really, really wanted to put up a link to Becca's recipe for Guinness cupcakes with Bailey's Irish Cream frosting way back in the day (as in, St. Patrick's Day), but Blogspot was flipping out and wouldn't let me do it for some reason. So I'm doing it now. Make. These. Cupcakes. (And then give them to me!!)

Here's a picture I snatched of one of the cupcakes Becca brought over for us. Soooooo good. So good, that I can't even remember which MST3K episode was on at the time.

Birthday Cupcakes For My Sister!

My sister Megan's birthday was last week, and we celebrated it yesterday (Valentine's Day). So, I made some cupcakes! Another recipe from Cooks Illustrated - I have to make sure I get my money's worth for my online membership fee, I guess! These were pretty fun to make - I don't usually enjoy baking, but these had very few of the annoying parts of baking, and all of the fun (melting chocolate over the stove! stirring white sour cream into dark, dark, chocolate! oooohhhh...)

Here's the recipe (originally published 3/1/05):

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes.
"This recipe does not double very well. Cupcakes made from a doubled batch and baked side by side in the oven yield a slightly compromised rise. It's best to make two separate batches and bake each separately. Store leftover cupcakes (frosted or unfrosted) in the refirgerator, but let them come to room temperature before serving."

-8 tablespoons unsalted butter , cut into 4 pieces
-2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped [Carrina's note: most chocolate bars seem to come in 3.5 ounces, which means that you will need to use 4/7 of the chocolate bar - a very unhappy fraction since most of the bars also come in eight pre-scored rectangles. I eyeballed it and it turned out fine. It's all chocolate!)
-1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa (1 1/2 ounces)
-3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (3 3/4 ounces)
-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
-3/4 teaspoon baking powder
-2 large eggs
-3/4 cup sugar (5 1/4 ounces)
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-1/2 teaspoon table salt
-1/2 cup sour cream (4 ounces)

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard-sized muffin pan (cups have 1/2-cup capacity) with baking-cup liners.

2. Combine butter, chocolate, and cocoa in medium heatproof bowl. Set bowl over saucepan containing barely simmering water; heat mixture until butter and chocolate are melted and whisk until smooth and combined. Set aside to cool until just warm to the touch.

3. Whisk flour, baking soda, and baking powder in small bowl to combine.

4. Whisk eggs in second medium bowl to combine; add sugar, vanilla, and salt and whisk until fully incorporated. Add cooled chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Sift about one-third of flour mixture over chocolate mixture and whisk until combined; whisk in sour cream until combined, then sift remaining flour mixture over and whisk until batter is homogenous and thick.

5. Divide batter evenly among muffin pan cups. Bake until skewer inserted into center of cupcakes comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes.

6. Cool cupcakes in muffin pan on wire rack until cool enough to handle, about 15 minutes. Carefully lift each cupcake from muffin pan and set on wire rack. Cool to room temperature before icing, about 30 minutes. (To frost: Mound about 2 tablespoons icing on center of each cupcake. Using small icing spatula or butter knife, spread icing to edge of cupcake, leaving slight mound in center.)

Safeway was out of powdered sugar, so for the frosting, I turned to my friends Duncan and Betty.

...and my first Cakewrecks tribute cake!

My friend rocked the GRE yesterday, so my husband and I got invited over for some celebratory drinks. I also used the occasion to make... my first Cakewrecks tribute cake! I should clarify that I did not actually make the cake, or even the frosting. I'd like to think that I would have if time had allowed (despite my apathy toward baking), but given the time constraint, this was definitely a supermarket job. Since we were taking it over to someone's house as a stand-alone dessert, I wanted it to actually taste good, so I chose New Seasons over Safeway, despite the latter's undoubtedly deep tradition of creating Cakewrecks-worthy creations.

Unfortunately, New Seasons was fresh out of stereotypical supermarket cakes. Everything behind the glass case was prohibitively expensive (sorry Becca, but those cakes are designed to be sold by the slice - paying $42.95 for a whole cake and then doing what I did to it would be like someone in the Pearl District letting her puppy do its business while wearing a Nordstrom decorative one-piece knitted jumpsuit). That left me with the pre-packaged baked goods, which were attractively priced but all a little too - flourished. I didn't particularly want a key lime or lemon cake, but nothing else had a flat writing surface big enough for my dark purpose. Finally, I settled on a chocolate truffle cake that was big enough to write on, if only my frosting-writing-thingum could bridge the crackly parts.

And... tra-la-laaaaaa...

This particular inscription job pays tribute to Cakewrecks in at least four ways:

1. The word "Congratulations" is inexplicably mangled

2. "And Under Neat That" - blatant reference to Cakewrecks' "Cake That Started It All"

3. Inappropriate use of quotation marks around the word "test"

4. Color instructions carelessly transcribed onto cake

One could also draw attention to the haphazard pink blobs, and the cake's sunken topography. If you don't get it, go to cakewrecks.blogspot.com and click on some of the old reader favorites on the right-hand side.