Baked Bananas Part II

After my less-than-successful attempt to prepare a 1953 baked bananas recipe last month, several readers offered advice for achieving better results. Suggestions included broiling the bananas,using plantains rather than sweet bananas; and creating the sauce simply by baking the brown sugar and butter with the bananas, rather than pre-caramelizing it.

One reader specifically recommended a baked plantain recipe from another cookbook in our collection: La Cocina Familiar En El Estado De Guerrero. I decided to try two versions of this recipe–one with plantains and one with bananas.

Plátanos al Horno

5 plátanos machos
100 g. mantequilla
1 taza de azúcar

• Pelar los plátanos y cortarlos en rebanadas finas; colocarlas en capas en un recipiente refractario.
• Añadir trocitos de mantequilla y espolvorear azúcar sobre cada capa.
  
• Hornear a 200 °C durante quince minutos.
• Rinde 6 raciones

Receta de Amalia Avilés Orozco

Baked Plantains/Bananas

5 plantains or bananas
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar

• Peel the plantains and cut into thin strips. Layer the strips in a baking dish, adding bits of butter and sprinkling sugar over each layer as you go.
• Bake at 390* for 15 minutes.
• Serves 6.

Recipe from Amalia Avilés Orozco

In the Kitchen…

I prepared two versions of this dish–one with plantains and one with bananas. In each case, I used brown sugar, so as to more closely replicate the “caramel” flavor of my previous attempt and baked them together at just below 400* F.

To my great surprise, this time I had no problems with the fruit blackening or becoming mushy in either the plantain or banana version. Since I doubt that the caramelized sugar caused the problem, my best guess is that the metal baking dish I used last time may have reacted strangely with the fruit or sugar, though I will have to carry out another experiment to confirm that!

Both versions of this recipe were tasty and I recommend them. Admittedly, the plantains were a little rubbery for my taste, but the bananas were absolutely delicious served over vanilla ice cream.