Bananas Foster Cookies

It's been a while... As it turns out, grad school is INTENSE! Fear not, I haven't stopped baking, rather just haven't found the time to properly document it since school started! With much catching up to do, and without the time or organization to start from the very beginning (though that is a very good place to start), I'll start with tonight: a twist on a classic, Bananas Foster Cookies!


Bananas Foster Cookies:

Chocolate chip cookie dough recipe from NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/dining/091crex.html?_r=1&ref=dining
(1c. cake flour can be made by sifting together 3/4c. all-purpose flour with 2 Tbs. corn starch)
- 1/2 c. brown sugar, replaced with 1/2c. granulated sugar.
+ 2 Tbs. cake flour
+ 1 c. Banana nectar (available in the Goya aisle)
+ 1.5 tsp. cinnamon
- chocolate chips, + butterscotch chips (about 3/4 c.) [Butterscotch chips were a BAD idea!]

Banana Rum Sauce:
1/4 c. banana nectar
1/8 c. Dark rum
1/8 tsp. vanilla extract
Dash of cinnamon
1/4 stick butter
[I tried this, made changes, and it came out SPECTACULAR!]
1/2 c. Sugar (I used Florida Natural, which is raw-ish)
1/4 c. Unsalted Butter, cut into small pieces
3 Tbs. + 1 dash Myers's Dark Rum
4 Tbs. Banana Nectar
1/8 tsp. Vanilla Extract (Imitation is totally fine)
1 Over-ripe Banana (brown on the outside, a bit squooshy)
1 dash Salt
1 dash Nutmeg
2 pinches Cinnamon

For the dough:
Sift dry ingredients together, and set aside. Cream butter until fluffy, then add sugars and cream until very light, a few minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time. Stir and then beat in vanilla and banana. Incorporate dry mix until just mixed (pulse on low if using electric mixer, being careful to not let flour get everywhere). Stir in butterscotch chips. Chill dough for 24+ hours. Spoon small ping pong ball sized pieces onto parchment-lined cookie sheet. Bake at 350 until golden brown, 8-10 minutes. Drizzle with banana rum sauce. Serve warm.

For the sauce:
Cream butter until fluffy. Add nectar, rum, vanilla and cinnamon, and beat until incorporated. Drizzle on cookies and ice cream. Top with sprinkle of cinnamon and/or sugar. Heat sugar on high (WITHOUT STIRRING) until the edges start to brown and bubble. Then, stir constantly until the whole lot is caramelized. Remove from heat and stir in butter. Once butter is incorporated (and still off the heat), stir in rum, banana nectar, vanilla and spices. (BE VERY CAREFUL as the caramel is HOT and might SPLATTER the ALSO HOT liquid EVERYWHERE!) Return to medium heat and stir until mixture is homogenized. Using the back of a spoon (and being VERY CAREFUL), moosh the over-ripe banana into the pan in pieces. Continue mooshing it in the pan until it's in very small pieces (the heat helps, as does stirring). Cook and stir for a little while to let it thicken a bit (to taste and preference). To test the sauce, remove from heat, continue stirring, lift out spoon and blow on it for a minute to lower the temperature. Taste, adjust, cook at will.

*Caviats: I haven't tried the sauce yet! It just seems like a good idea. I don't have any rum on hand, and the flavor is definitely missing from the cookies, but I don't feel safe adding any more liquid to the dough. Ergo, sauce! I'll try making some once I get around to getting rum. In the meantime, the cookies are pretty tasty on their own, with or without the butterscotch chips. I found that in smaller cookies, the chips are overwhelming, and omitting them altogether worked fine. I also baked a few right after mixing the dough, without chilling. As usual, they're not quite as complex in flavor as the chilled dough, but still are tasty. Good for making in a time pinch! I baked this recipe halved, as I only had one egg on hand. The additions above are pre-doubled, so use it with the full batch cookie dough recipe. Enjoy! =)

-Update- The sauce is AWESOME! It doesn't harden like a glaze, but it's super-yummy. The cookies ended up more like cupcakes, very cakey in texture. Some crunch was missing from the overall palate feel; perhaps some sweet panko next time? I ended up using the sauce as a dip since I didn't plate the cookies individually; it was really, really yummy. I imagine it would be superb on vanilla ice cream as well. Give it a go; let me know what you think! Over and out.