Recipe: Banana Split

Recipe

Banana Split

Serving Size: 2

1 Tablespoon Raspberry Purée
1 Tablespoon Mango Purée
4 Tablespoons tempered bittersweet chocolate
4 Tablespoons melted white chocolate
1 each Banana, unblemished and arched
3 quenelles Dessert Ices or Ice creams (or 1 each of all four flavors: Coconut Almond Ice milk, 5 Spice Pear, Espresso, Maple)

Preparation

Take the lid from a plastic take-out container and drizzle a tablespoon of the dark chocolate onto it. Pour the melted white chocolate on top. Run a toothpick around in it to marbleize it and set it in the refrigerator.

Decorate the center of a dinner plate with the Purées.

Split the banana. Dip the ends in the chocolate. Use the chocolate to affix the banana to the plate, so it arches across the purée design. Let the two halves lean against one another at the top of the arch and use a little more chocolate as glue here. Once the chocolate has set up, put a touch more at the peak, pop your disk out of the plastic lid, and set it on the banana arch. Place your iced quenelles here, and rush it to the table before they start to drip.

Notes: This dessert is really enough for two to share.

Raspberry Purée (Sauce)

Recipe By: AMYCAKES aka Amy Handler
Serving Size: 8

1-12oz. bag frozen raspberries—thawed
sugar—to taste
1/2 teaspoon granulated gelatin

Preparation

Put the thawed raspberries in a blender, food processor or food mill to pulverize. Strain out and discard the seeds.

I find about 2 tablespoons of sugar in the raspberries tastes right. Add what suits you at this time.

Put it in a microwavable vessel and stir in the gelatin. Let it swell for a few minutes.

Microwave on high for a minute and a half, stir and let it cool to luke warm.

It should set up on a plate, but not too firm to be a liquid still. It is what we use to make fancy sauce designs on dessert plates.

Mango Purée (Sauce)

Serving Size: 4

1 each mango, very ripe—peeled and seeded
pinch cream of tartar—to preserve color
1/4 teaspoon granulated gelatin

Preparation

In a processor, blender, mixer, or food mill, purée the fruit, strain it and stir in the gelatin.

Let it sit so the gelatin can absorb moisture for five minutes or so. Microwave on high for 90 seconds to melt it.

As it cools it will thicken to a nicely manageable consistency.

Almond Coconut Ice Milk

Recipe By: AMYCAKES aka Amy Handler
Serving Size: 8

1 cup milk
1 whole coconut
2 ounces almond paste
3 Tablespoons sugar

Shell the coconut and peel the skin. Put the flesh and the fluid from it in a sauce pan with the milk. Add the sugar and almond paste. Heat the mix, occasionally stirring, to a simmer and then let it cool to room temperature. Strain. Pour into the ice cream machine. Shred two tablespoons of coconut and stir it in when the mix starts to thicken.

Notes: Because this is not as sweet as the other ices, it will become too hard to make quenelles if left very long in the still freezer. I freeze it for an hour or two, make the quenelles, and freeze them.

5 Spice Pear Ice

Recipe By: AMYCAKES aka Amy Handler
Serving Size: 20

1 quart Pear juice
1/8 teaspoon Chinese 5 Spices ( cinnamon, fennel, anise seed, clove, pepper)

Simmer and reduce the juice to 3/4 of the original volume. Cool and then freeze in the ice cream freezer.

Espresso Ice

Recipe By: AMYCAKES aka Amy Handler
Serving Size: 12

8 ounces double-strength espresso
8 ounces sugar

Make the espresso and while still hot, add the sugar to dissolve. Freeze according to directions given with the ice cream making apparatus.

Serve a quenelle of this sorbet with other flavors, as it is too strong by itself. To make a quenelle, dip a coffee spoon in hot water. Using the side of the spoon as the cutting edge, scrape the frozen mix, letting it roll into an egg shape as you do.