I’m well into my 20s and just now learned how to properly peel a banana.  How I went all this time not knowing the proper way is beyond me.  A few weeks ago, I was working late and decided I needed a snack.  I went to the kitchen, grabbed a banana and tried to open it.  Not wanting to give, I dug my nails in.  I tried snapping off the stem.  Still no luck.  Then a co-worker of mine walked over, turned the banana over and peeled it with total ease.  It totally blew my mind.  I thought he was a genius.  I mean, it’s sort of a life changing revelation. I’ve been eating bananas since I was a kid, quite often actually, and just now learned this.  I feel like this is the type of thing you learn along with tying your shoes, folding clothes, opening a door–it’s like an essential piece of information as a human being.  Apparently this is the way gorillas and monkeys peel bananas.  I love that I open it the same way they do now.  I think it’s pretty cute.  I feel like it makes us friends now or something. I feel like if I bumped into them in the jungle and we both picked up a banana, they’d respect me, you know, ’cause I know how to do it the right way.  They’d give me that nod of approval they’re always doing.

Anyway, in an attempt to exploit my new banana peeling skills, I decided I was going to make lots of stuff with bananas.  I made a few banana milkshakes, and those were cool, but not really anything too exciting.  And sure, banana bread is cool too, but I mean, the internet is filled with recipes of banana bread.  Then I remembered these awesome little cupcakes I made awhile back for a brunch I went to.  They’re disguised as cupcakes but really banana bread, and what makes them even more awesome is that they have icing on them.

And I decided that instead of putting any ol’ icing, I’d put this icing recipe that I found on Tasty Kitchen; it’s appropriately called “That’s the Best Frosting I Ever Had”.  This seriously is the best frosting I’ve ever had.  I’ll never go back to anything else.

P.S. If you’d like a tutorial on how to open a banana like a money, then click here.

Banana Bread Cupcakes with “That’s the Best Frosting I Ever Had”

Cupcake recipe by Martha Stewart. Icing recipe from Tasty Kitchen

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Some people love their banana bread super-duper moist.  If that’s the case, I recommend putting 1 3/4 cup of mashed banana.  Also, a few tips with the icing:  on Tasty Kichen there was much debate about whether or not the butter should be room temperature and I found that it should be a little bit in between.  It shouldn’t be super soft, meaning that if you cut the butter with a plastic knife it should give a little but not turn to mush.  If it’s too melted then the sugar won’t properly incorporate and you’ll have grainy icing on your hands.  Not fun.

CUPCAKES:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 4 ripe bananas), plus 1 whole banana, for garnish (optional)

2 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans

ICING:

1 cup Milk

5 Tablespoons Flour

1 teaspoon Vanilla

1 cup Butter, barely room temperature

1 cup Granulated Sugar (not Powdered Sugar!)

Since the icing has 2 steps, I’d start it first.   So in a small saucepan, whisk flour into milk and heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens. Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature. (If you’re in a hurry, place the saucepan over ice in the sink for about 10 minutes or so until the mixture cools.)

Then turn your attention to the cupcakes and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Make a well in center of flour mixture. In well, mix together butter, mashed bananas, eggs, and vanilla. Stir to incorporate flour mixture (do not overmix). Add chopped walnuts and fold in. Dividing evenly, spoon batter into muffin cups (I filled them up about 3/4 of the way full) and place in preheated oven. You’re going to want to bake them for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

While the cupcakes are in the oven, go back to the icing and cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla to the cooled milk/flour mixture.  Then add the cooled milk/flour/vanilla mixture and beat until it all combines and resembles whipped cream.

NOTE:  The milk/flour/vanilla mixture MUST be cooled before you add it to the butter and sugar mixture.  Also, if you’d like to see the step-by-step post that Ree did about the icing, then click here.

Remove cupcakes from pan; cool completely on a wire rack. Spread tops with frosting. Just before serving, peel and slice banana into rounds, and place one on each cupcake.

Sometimes failure isn’t a bad thing. Sometimes it ends up being downright delicious, like this banana cream pie. I’ll give you two reasons why this wasn’t one of my kitchen “successes.”

1)    This was supposed to be a caramel banana cream pie. However, I burned my finger while making the caramel sauce, and then subsequently burned the sauce while I tended to my finger. So, this became a caramel-less pie.

2)    Even though I now know how to make my own piecrust, I decided to use a store brand with this recipe. Sorry – I get lazy sometimes. However, I learned my lesson when, while baking in the oven, the crust softened and shrunk. You’ll notice how it doesn’t go over the edges of the pie dish. Yeah…it was a crust failure.

However, despite of its shortcomings, this was still a good pie. So good in fact, that I’ll even admit to eating all but one slice over the weekend. I mean, Chase did help me a little, but if we’re being really honest, I had twice as many slices as he did. Banana cream pie just does that to me, even when it’s not covered in caramel and I have to eat it with a finger that’s bandaged and throbbing. Sometimes there’s nothing better than soaking up our failures, especially if they’re covered in whipped cream.

Banana Cream Pie

Adapted from Recipe Zaar

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I personally think that when it comes to banana cream pie, bananas are the starring role and the cream is the supporting player. It’s basically there to just bind everything together. That’s why I recommend filling the crust with sliced bananas and then pouring the custard over it to just fill in the cracks, leaving you with a pie that isn’t sickly sweet. I ended up with a little extra custard after doing this, but feel free to use whatever ratio you want.

1 9-inch pie shell, baked
3 cups milk
3/4 cup white sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 very ripe bananas

Have baked 9-inch pie shell ready (if you buy store-bought, get a good one. But really, making your own is much better)

In a large saucepan, scald the milk by heating it until it just begins to boil. Combine the sugar, flour and salt and then gradually stir into scalded milk. Over medium heat, stirring constantly, cook until thickened.

Combine the 3 egg yolks in a small bowl and beat lightly. Stir a small amount of the hot mixture into beaten yolks; when thoroughly combined, stir yolks into hot mixture – this prevents the eggs from scrambling in the custard. Cook for one minute longer, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and blend in the butter and vanilla. Allow to sit until lukewarm. When ready to pour, fill the pie shell with sliced bananas and pour warm mixture over bananas. Allow to set in the refrigerator for at least and hour. Top pie with fresh whipped cream.

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