I always thought it was a shame that you had to burn the alcohol off when you flambéed bananas, so I’ve reintroduced the rum in a different form—in ice cream. Peanut Phyllo Crisps add the crunch you need to play off the soft bananas and ice cream.

　　

Ingredients

serves 6 on it¿s own or 10 as part of fourplay

　　

For the Bananas

6 tablespoons (75g) sugar

　　Coarse salt

　　6 baby bananas, halved lengthwise or sliced on an angle

　　4 tablespoons (57g) unsalted butter, cut into bits

　　1/2 cup (120g) Myers’s rum

　　

To Serve

Candied peanuts (see page 215)

　　Rum and Coke Ice Cream (page 229)

　　Peanut Phyllo Crisps (page 212)

　　

For the Bananas

Step 1

Set a large sauté pan over medium-high heat and get it good and hot. Sprinkle the sugar evenly over the pan and add a good pinch of salt. Cook, swirling the pan once the sugar has started to color, until the caramel is medium amber.

　　

Step 2

Add the bananas, cut side down, and scatter the butter around them. Cook, shaking the pan often, for about 1 1/2 minutes, until the bananas have browned. Turn them over and continue to cook, shaking the pan, for about 1 minute, to brown the other side.

　　

Step 3

Take the pan off the heat and pour in the rum. Return the pan to the heat, tip it to ignite the rum, and cook, shaking the pan and turning the bananas in the caramel, for about another minute, until the caramel has thickened and the bananas are just cooked through. No mushy bananas.

　　

To Serve

Step 4

Put some candied peanuts on dessert plates and top with a scoop of ice cream. Add the bananas, a piece or two of the peanut phyllo, and some more peanuts. If you want, grind some of the nuts to a powder in a spice grinder to use as a garnish. Repeat for each serving.

　　

make it simpler

Step 5

Instead of making the ice cream, you could soften some store-bought vanilla ice cream, stir in some rum and some Coke, and refreeze it. And you could replace the candied peanuts and the phyllo with chopped honey-roasted peanuts and some crumbled cigarette cookies.

　　Reprinted with permission from Dessert Fourplay: Sweet Quartets from a Four-Star Pastry Chef by Johnny Iuzzini and Roy Finamore. Copyright © 2008 by Johnny Iuzzini and Roy Finamore. Published by Crown Publishing. All Rights Reserved.Johnny Iuzzini,, executive pastry chef of the world-renowned Jean Georges restaurant in New York City, won the award for Outstanding Pastry Chef from the James Beard Foundation in 2006. This is his first book.Roy Finamore, a publishing veteran of more than thirty years, has worked with many bestselling cookbook authors. He is the author of three books: One Potato, Two Potato; Tasty, which won a James Beard Foundation award; and Fish Without a Doubt.__