Courage is all this recipe really requires. I will say ample overhead clearance helps a great deal as well though.
Banana’s Foster is ready in an instant and easily altered to individual liking’s.
Not a banana fan? Trade the banana for cherries, apples, or even orange slices. Let your local liquor store fuel your inspiration by visiting the wide variety of miniature bottles they carry. They make for a large selection for guests to choose from AND won’t break the bank when experimenting with new flavors. Leftover cranberries from Thanksgiving? Flambéing them in this cinnamon and sugar mixture and topping with powdered sugar makes for a perfect holiday treat; resembling snowy, winter holly berries.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Slice banana into halves, length-wise. Save for plating.
- Melt butter over medium high heat.
- Add sugar and cinnamon, stirring to blend.
- Add banana liqueur, cook for 1 minute.
- Add banana slices, allow to soak in sauce to soften.
- Turn heat up to high. Quickly add brandy and rum to pan and ignite. Move sauce vigorously to remove alcohol and extinguish flame.
- Remove from heat. Plate bananas with sauce over vanilla ice cream.
Notes
-Igniting the alcohol can be done in a few different ways. On a gas burner, try tipping your pan away from you after adding the alcohol. Keeping in mind you are lighting the fumes rather than the liquid will help when figuring out how much (or more specifically, how little) to tip your pan in order ignite (it takes very little contact I found).
-If you are not using a gas burner or if you are wanting to take a bit more caution, you can also remove the pan from the burner tipping away from yourself again, and light the fumes with a bar-b-que lighter. Return to heat once ignited and continue moving to extinguish.
-I tried this with both a smaller pan (both a 8 inch and a 12 inch pan were used) and with half the amount of alcohol needed for the normal recipe. Better flavor is rendered when allowing the alcohol to burn off slower but this does mean your flame will have to be managed slightly longer as well. A smaller pan will result in a taller flame regardless of the amount of alcohol used, so if overhead space is a concern you may want to reach for a larger pan. More surface area means more room for the flame to disperse.
-Keep a heavy duty lid nearby in case you are needing to abort quickly. If needed, remove from heat and smother completely.
-Avoid using frozen fruit as water content is inevitable and will result in a much mushier consistency. The firmer the fruit, the better hold it will have when flambéed.