Easy Bananas Foster

Easy Bananas Foster

I admit it.  I am absolutely in love with this dessert.  My kids would say, “then why don’t you marry it?!”  I would if I could; we’d be madly in love forever, licking our fingers together while enjoying the fragrant smell of spices wafting through the kitchen, tasting fresh warm bananas swimming in a syrupy sauce topped with cold sweet vanilla frozen yogurt.  Yep, that would be a good life.

Bananas Foster came into my life many, many years ago when dining out with my husband in a fancy restaurant in Southern California for a business dinner.  I’d never tried them but was assured I’d love it.  Indeed I did.  Our waiter made the dish right at our tableside, heating the sauce and bananas, then tossing in a dash of rum and poof, the whole thing was aflame.  I thought that was exciting, but then we ate it and my taste buds were changed forever.

Of course I wanted to come home and recreate this magical dessert, but I wanted to do it without the rum, since I’m not an alcohol drinker and even with the brief flame, the alcohol does not burn off sufficiently.  Enter rum extract.  It is a wonderful substitute, along with the vanilla extract, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and allspice, this dish comes alive.  The bananas save it nutritionally with all their mighty potassium.  And it is relatively low in fat especially since I use a vanilla frozen yogurt instead of ice cream, but the sugar content is pretty high.  Nonetheless, I’m excited for you to try one of my dessert loves for your next special occasion or maybe just because you have extra bananas laying around that are waiting to be drenched in a sweet thick sauce of spicy goodness.  Enjoy!

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