Flan With Bananas

Total Time: 2 hrs Preparation Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 1 hr 30 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 6
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 3 bananas, peeled and chopped
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons brandy (optional)
• 3 cups whipping cream (i used 1 cup whipping cream with 2 cups 2% milk)
• 1 vanilla bean, split
• 8 egg yolks
• 5 tablespoons sugar
• cracked ice
• 4 tablespoons brown sugar

Recipe

• 1 melt butter in skillet over medium-low heat. add bananas and 1 tablespoon sugar.
• 2 mix to coat bananas with butter. cover and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• 3 with the back of a wooden spoon mash bananas against the side of the pan until they are a chunky puree.
• 4 stir in lemon juice.
• 5 if using brandy,increase the heat to high and add brandy. cook one minute. take off heat.
• 6 put banana puree into six 1-cup custard dishes or ramekins.
• 7 preheat oven to 300°f.
• 8 in saucepan, bring cream (milk combined with cream or just all milk works fine) and vanilla bean to a boil. turn off heat and set aside.
• 9 in a double boiler over simmering water, combine yolks and 5 tablespoons sugar, stirring constantly for 15 minutes or until mixture coats back of spoon.
• 10 mix in vanilla cream and stir until mixture thickens to light cream consistency (5-10 minutes). remove vanilla bean.
• 11 spoon custard into dishes over the banana mixture.
• 12 place dishes in roasting pan. pour hot water into roasting pan to depth of 1/2 inch.
• 13 bake custards for 50 - 60 minutes or until set. check with knife inserted in middle of one custard. knife will come out clean.
• 14 remove from pan.
• 15 cover dishes with plastic wrap and put in refrigerator to cool). (custards may be prepared one day ahead to this point).
• 16 preheat broiler.
• 17 put cracked ice in broiler pan and put custard dishes in pan.
• 18 sprinkle each custard with 2 teaspoons brown sugar.
• 19 broil 4 inches from heat until sugar caramelizes--watch carefully--this happens very fast.