Banana Split, Goddess Style

Over the weekend, Matthew and I had some friends over for dinner. I love to bake, but I also love to cook. When I cook, I always accidentally make a ton of food, so dinner guests are especially appreciated in this house.

For dessert, I wanted to do something on the lighter side, as the cuisine of the evening was Mexican. But, chocolate was requested. Traditional chocolate, aka brownies, cake, aren’t so light. So I thought outside of the box, just a bit. Mexican Hot Chocolate…chocolate and cinnamon… bananas and chocolate… bananas and cinnamon. Ooo, cinnamon bruleed bananas with little ice cream quenelles and a chocolate drizzle!

Yes, that was my actual thought process.

So, I made them. And it was so easy, and so fast. I made a homemade chocolate sauce with 60% Cacao Ghirardelli chocolate, a little cream, a little butter, and a little water to thin it out. Usually, the chocolate would clump up once the water was added, but fate wasn’t that cruel to me on Saturday (I had already destroyed three martini glasses that I was planning on using for serving…don’t ask).

Then, I made the bananas. Oh, yummy bananas. I cut them into spears (or eighths if you prefer) and covered them in cinnamon and sugar. Then, I torched ‘em!

 

Just a side note- I love my culinary torch! Thank you Matthew!

 

Now, a banana split needs ice cream of course. But I didn’t want big clumpy scoops. Because I watch way too much Iron Chef America, I had seen quenelles being made a few times and I thought I might try my hand at them. Basically, you take two spoons and shift the ice cream (or sorbet, cream, mousse, etc.) between the two until it creates a football shape. You can apparently do it with one spoon too, but I am a visual learner (dancer by day). So, I went with two spoons.

The dessert turned out to be pretty much delicious, or at least my guests were kind enough to lie about it if they were bad. But I liked them, and had more as a late night snack.