Banana Cobbler
This recipe is great in so many ways. It uses up very ripe bananas (a nice switch up from banana bread), requires few ingredients that are almost always on hand, and is delicious.
Have you ever heard of banana cobbler? I wonder if the name is fitting. (What is the distinction between cobbler, crumble, slump, or buckle?) This recipe is almost more like a banana bread pudding — but a bread pudding made from bread crumbs and not cubes of bread.
As you slice the bananas in, it seems an overload of fruit for a small amount of batter. But don’t hesitate — the bananas breakdown and meld into the cobbler as it bakes, creating that pudding like consistency. The best part though? The crispy, buttery edges that pair oh so well with banana.
Serve dusted with powdered sugar, or how we did with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a walnut praline crumble. But honestly, it’s tasty all on its own.
Banana cobbler
Makes one 8x8in cobbler
Ingredients:
1 stick butter, melted
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
3 ripe, medium bananas
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.
Pour melted butter into an 8x8in baking dish, or one of similar measurements.
Mix the next five ingredients together until they form a thin batter. (I like to use a 4 cup liquid measuring cup so not to dirty an extra bowl. Measure the milk first and then add the remaining ingredients.)
Pour batter into the pan with melted butter. The butter will rise up to the top which is fine.
Slice the bananas into the batter, spacing them out as evenly as possible. It will seem like an awful lot of fruit, but don’t worry.
Bake for 45 min, or until set. Serve warm or at room temperature dusted with powdered sugar, dolloped with whipped cream, or a scoop of ice cream and maybe a dusting of walnut praline crumble. Enjoy!
Adapted from this recipe.
Walnut praline crumble
Ingredients:
1/2 cup walnuts
1/4 cup sugar
1-2 tbs water
Directions:
Get a sheet of parchment paper ready on a flat surface.
Preheat oven to 350 and toast walnuts for 5-10min, or until fragrant. Keep an eye on them and stir if necessary to keep from burning. Once toasted, remove from oven and promptly move to the prepared parchment paper.
Using a small saucepan, measure in sugar and add 1-2 tbs of water. The amount of water isn’t too, too important. You just want enough to moisten the sugar. Swirl or use a fork to combine.
Over medium-low heat, cook the sugar mixture without stirring until it turns a deep, amber caramel color. If your stovetop heats unevenly, you may have to rotate your pan. As the mixture cooks, it will liquefy and bubble and slowly deepen in color. Once it starts to deepen in color, however, it will move quickly from there to burning. So keep a close eye on it!
As soon as the sugar mixture looks a pleasant caramel color to you, quickly remove from heat and using a metal spoon or other very heat resistant utensil, pour onto the walnuts as evenly as possible and scraping to get all the last bits of melted sugar.
Allow praline to cool and harden. Once fully cool, blitz in a food processor in pulses until it forms a fine crumble. Don’t process too much or else it will turn into more of a paste.
Use the praline as a garnish over ice cream, on top of cakes, or folded into frostings, pastry creams, or simple whipped creams. Enjoy!
Adapted from Joe Pastry’s recipe.
