These heavy cream recipes are not for the faint of heart but because they are made at home and have no preservatives, at least you know what you are eating. A little goes a very long way. Keep refrigerated until serving.
They are beautiful served in crystal goblets at a formal occasion or special served in a see-through plastic goblet outside on the patio after a wonderful barbecue. Sounds like a heavy dessert, but you will find these recipes light and they go down well after a big meal. Guests will think you have put in a lot of effort to please their taste buds.
Most people who entertain on a regular basis will find that keeping these ingredients on hand will enable them to become instant gourmets when unexpected guests appear. Or, after a busy day at work or on the road, these concoctions can be whipped up in a big hurry (pardon the pun), prior to making your family meal. They can rest in the fridge while you eat your dinner, indoors or out.
Banana Flambé with Chantilly Cream
Bananas are an excellent source of nutrition. Include them regularly in your diet and in school lunches. Although the price for bananas keeps creeping up, if you watch the store specials, you will find them at respectable prices from time to time. For this recipe you need firm, solid but ripe bananas. Don’t use mushy ones.
Nearly everyone has a favourite receipt for banana bread or can toss together an age-old favourite, the banana split.
This recipe has been a favourite around our house for years and years. Recently I saw a version of this recipe billed as coming from a swank New Orleans’ restaurant. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Here I’d been thinking myself terribly clever all these years, making up this recipe in less than five minutes – for more than 40 years.
Melt a quarter cup of sweet butter and stir in a ½ cup of brown sugar. Don’t let this stay on the fire too long, just until blended. Sauté three bananas, quartered, in the hot butter and brown sugar for about three minutes.
Sprinkle a little cardamom over the bananas and flambé with two ounces of Southern Comfort. Serve over Chantilly cream in individual serving dishes.
Hot sauce will cause the edges of the thick cream (almost like ice cream) to go a little soupy, but that’s what’s supposed to happen. Aren’t you drooling already?
To make the Chantilly cream, use two 10oz. containers of heavy cream, whipped; two-thirds cup of white sugar; and a half-teaspoon of vanilla.
Crème Chantilly Ananas
2 – 10 oz containers of heavy (35%) cream
2/3 c fine white sugar (not confectioners)
1 t vanilla
1 – 19 oz-20oz tin “crushed” pineapple, drained (ideally buy the one in sugar syrup although it is very hard to find now)
Whip the two containers of heavy cream until quite stiff, but still fluffy. Slowly add the sugar, mixing on the slow speed of the mixer, so as only to incorporate the sugar and not turn the cream into butter. Stir in vanilla. Refrigerate in the coldest part of fridge (near the back usually) until serving time.
When ready to serve, fold strained/drained pineapple into the mixture and transfer to a large crystal or glass serving bowl. (So that guests can see the cream). Serve dessert at the table in open wide-surface champagne glasses at a formal meal, or outside at the patio in plastic serving dishes after a backyard barbecue. This dessert is fluffy and light and very impressive; having been chilled, it has the consistency of ice cream.
Serve Crème Chantilly Ananas after a heavy meal, when you do not wish to serve an overpowering final course, as a piece de resistance. If you like, top the bowl with candied pineapple as a garniture or use a few soft centred chocolates. Serves eight.
The working title for Carolyne’s Gourmet Recipes cookbook is From Lady Ralston’s Kitchen: A Canadian Contessa Cooks. This kitchen-friendly doyenne has been honoured and referred to as the grande dame of executive real estate in her market area during her 35-year career. She taught gourmet cooking in the mid-70s and wrote a weekly newspaper cooking column, long before gourmet was popular as it is today. Her ebook, Gourmet Cooking – at Home with Carolyne is available here for $5.99 US. Email Carolyne. Scroll down to the comments at each recipe column. Carolyne often adds complimentary “From Lady Ralston’s Kitchen” additional recipes in the Recipes for Realtors Comments section at REM.
