Banana's Foster Fritters

The first time I remember having bananas foster was early on in my dating life with Hubby.  We went to a dinner party hosted by one of my co-workers at the time and they made it for dessert served over ice cream. As I watched my co-worker's husband make the dish, I was wowed by the drama of it.  The rum caught on fire lighting up the pan while the bananas flambeed amdist a gooey caramel like rum sauce.  What I was most impressed with was the simple ingredients involved and how quickly a delicious and impressive dessert came together. 

Baked Explorations Banana's Foster Fritters are inspired by the classic dish.  It's bananas foster meets donut.  I was worried this would be a lot more complicated than its inspiration dish.  But it really wasn't.  The dough is very simple and comes together quickly and easily.  The rum dipping sauce takes just a few minutes in a saucepan.  The most challenging part was the frying.  I still struggle with frying and getting oil to the right temperature.  The recipe recommends 375 degrees, but I found that too hot.  My first fritter was very dark on the outside but still raw on the inside.  I lowered the heat and found 350-360 worked best for me, however, the outside was still a tad darker than I would have liked it to be.  But at least the dough wasn't raw!  As you can see I gave these a solid dusting of  cinnamon powdered sugar.

The result?  A crisp texture on the outside with a moist cakey inside.  The bananas are incorporated into the dough and the dipping sauce is what makes this a "fosters" fritter instead of just a banana fritter.  With brown sugar, butter and a little rum, among other things, the sauce has the same flavor as the gooey goodness from a traditional banana's foster.  Seems like the sauce was a big hit with many of the Club: Baked bakers.  Some have even suggested this would be a good sauce/syrup for pancakes, waffles or french toast or a topping for ice cream.  All great ideas!

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you the best part!  You probably already noticed in the pictures, I added chocolate chips into the dough of a few of the fritters.  I love banana and chocolate together.  It was delicious!

Hubby enjoyed these (the ones without chocolate chips of course), which is always a pleasant surprise coming from my non dessert loving husband.  I made half a batch and ended up with 8 small fritters.

Thank you to Stephanie of Ice Cream Before Dinner for choosing this week's tasty recipe.  You can find the recipe over on her site.  To see how other bakers did with their fritters head over the Club: Baked site. 

Next up on the Club: Baked roster...Pumpkin Cheddar Muffins on October 1st.  I'm not gonna lie, this one sounds a little odd to me.  I have had mixed feelings about savory muffins in the past.  But I'm curious about the combination of pumpkin and cheddar.  This one is definitely outside my comfort zone--which isn't a bad thing!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Do you all remember the cookie dough ice cream craze back in the 90's?  People couldn't get enough of Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough ice cream.  I, however, was not one of those people.  I thought it was okay, but definitely not in my top 10.  It probably had to do with the fact that the chunks of cookie dough were nestled in vanilla ice cream.  If you haven't already figured it out by now, I am a chocolate girl through and through.  Now, wave a pint of a Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie under my nose and I'm yours!  At least long enough to pry the pint out of your hands and get my spoon in there.

Even though I'm not a cookie dough fanatic, I have been intrigued by the cookie dough cupcakes I've seen on some of my favorite food blogs.  The cookie dough cupcake over at Tracey's Culinary Adventures is downright adorable.  Kevin and Amanda's blog features a cookie dough filling that is actually baked in the cupcake.  But it seems all the recipes I found online, at least in some part, center around the one found on Annie's Eats (which came from a few different sources). 

My brother and his 3 kiddos came over for a barbecue this past weekend and I thought they would be the perfect taste testers for the chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes.  What kid doesn't like cookie dough? 

I did switch up the recipe a bit and used a chocolate cake base instead of a white cake base.  Had to get in  a little something for us chocolate lovers.  Okay, it was for me.  And....the kids too....yeah.  The chocolate cake was filled with chocolate chip cookie dough (an eggless version so that you can enjoy that raw cookie dough texture without fear of salmonella), frosted with cookie dough buttercream and topped with a homemade chocolate chip cookie.  This cupcake is not for anyone watching their calorie or sugar intake.  I cannot even fathom how many calories are in just one of these little babies.  It's a rich and decadent treat and there's no doubt it's all about the cookie dough.  Prepare to indulge!

I have to pause to give a shout out to my awesome new cupcake stand.  My gal pals gave me this really cool display for my birthday.  And they also gave me this cupcake carrier that I keep meaning to photograph and share here...because I've already used it 3 times in the last 2 months.  What's so cool about the carrier is you can bake cupcakes in it and then transport them.

Back to the cookie dough cupcakes....In my research I found 2 approaches for the filling.   The most common was to bake the cupcake and then cut out cone shape from the top and fill it with cookie dough.  The other option was to make cookie dough into balls or tube shapes and then freeze them (overnight if possible) and place the frozen dough in your cupcake batter and bake away.  I went with option 2.  On a side note, my cupcakes almost ended up with no filling because I popped these babies into the oven and about 90 seconds later realized they were missing their cookie dough filling.  Whoops!  I quickly pulled the cupcakes out of the oven and dropped in a ball of frozen dough.  Because the dough is frozen it doesn't bake through and retains its cookie dough consistency.  If you like a really soft cookie dough, you might try the bake and fill option instead.

Check out the inside! 

Now, let's talk frosting.  It is just like cookie dough in taste and texture.  This buttercream has confectioner's sugar and brown sugar, vanilla, salt and a bit of milk (if you need it to get to the right consistency).   The brown sugar provides that slightly gritty texture that you get from cookie dough.  The frosting is a pure sugar rush. 

Don't forget to top it off with a chocolate chip cookie!

I did a little experimenting with the chocolate chip cookie.  I adapted Melissa Murphy's chocolate chip cookie recipe and added a little extra butter and some toffee bits with milk chocolate.  The cookie wasn't quite where I wanted it to be so I won't share the recipe today...but I have some ideas on how to get it closer to my ultimate chocolate chip cookie. 

The cupcakes were a hit with the kids!  I've enjoyed a few over the last 3 days.  Ate it for breakfast (maybe twice)....with a big glass of milk.   
 

Check out Annie's Eats for the buttercream frosting and her cookie topper recipe.  You can find the chocolate cake recipe I used here and lastly, check out Kevin and Amanda for the chocolate chip cookie dough filling.

Enjoy!