Paleo Bananas Foster

I remember when I was younger going to fancy restaurants with my parents and watching them make Bananas Foster tableside.  I was much less interested in the dessert than I was the fire inches from my face, but then again I was just a kid with a fire obsession. Totally kidding, sorta.
These days I am much more impressed with actual culinary skill and the ability to make those delicious treats a little friendlier to the system.  Generally speaking, I like to keep my carb intake on the lower side, and my refined sugar intake basically nil.  So treats are treats, not for everyday, and when they are made, I use better sweetening options.
So back to this bananas foster. There are only THREE tablespoons of coconut palm sugar in the entire dish, which can be easily split between 4 people.  And instead of ice cream, I used whipped cream made from coconut cream. This was super quick, incredibly easy and even classy enough to feed to people who don’t live with you!

ingredients:

• 2 bananas quartered
• 3 tablespoons coconut oil
• 3 tablespoons coconut palm sugar (reduce for aip)
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (or more if desired)
• 1/2 teaspoon real vanilla
• 1 can organic coconut milk from a can (just the cream off the top)
• 1 teaspoon coconut milk (the watered down part from the can)

1. heat coconut sugar and oil in a deep skillet
2. once starting to bubble slightly, add cinnamon and vanilla and give it a quick stir
3. turn heat down slightly to prevent burning and add bananas, sliced side down
4. cook until browned underneath and sugar sauce is caramelized
5. remove bananas from skillet and remove skillet from heat
6. to make the caramel sauce, take a teaspoon or two of the liquid coconut milk and combine in a blender (i used a nutribullet) with the caramelized sugar and oil from the skillet
7. blend until a caramel sauce is formed, it will be lighter than what was left in the skillet after cooking the bananas
8. to make the whipped cream, use a hand mixer or immersion blender to mix the coconut cream (from the top of the can) until fluffy like whipped cream. you can add a little coconut palm sugar to this but it isn’t necessary
9. serve the cooked bananas with a dollup of the whipped cream and a drizzle of the caramel sauce

shared with GLUTEN FREE WEDNESDAYS