I wanted a sweet treat for my birthday, but I didn't get a chance to do any baking earlier in the day and we had riding in the evening, so anything that required baking or chilling was out. (We didn't get home until nearly seven and it was close to eight by the time we finished dinner, so I wasn't about to start baking a cake or waiting for mousse or somethign to chill at that point!)

After a bit of staring at recipes and trying to figure out what I could make relatively quickly with ingredients I already had on hand, I settled on banana splits. We still had a little ice cream in the freezer that we'd gotten to go with the apple crisp a little while back. We had bananas. We had almonds in the freezer. We had cream. We even had a jar of maraschino cherries! (The recipe I was using didn't actually call for cherries, but that's madness! If you're gonna have a banana split, you gotta put a cherry on top.) I also had an assortment of other toppings that I was able to get out to make an impromptu sundae bar: mini marshmallows, chocolate chips, sprinkles, etc. The Kidlet was delighted!

And, the nice thing about banana splits, is they don't require much in the way of prep. Assuming you already have some ice cream handy, the only thing you have to do is toast some almonds and make up the fudge sauce. Oh, and whip the cream I guess. Still... easy-peasy!

Banana Splits

Slightly adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

For each split use:

• 3-4 Tbsp. hot fudge sauce
• 1 banana, halved lengthwise
• 3 scoops of ice cream¹
• 1 Tbsp. slivered almonds, toasted
• 2 Tbsp. whipped cream
• 1 maraschino cherry
• other sundae toppings² (optional)

Directions

1. Make your fudge sauce and keep it warm while you get everything else assembled.
2. Place a banana in a bowl with the two halves spread apart.
3. Line the three scoops of ice cream up down the middle of the banana.
4. Spoon some fudge sauce over the ice cream and sprinkle with toasted almonds.
5. Add a dollop of whipped cream and place a cerry on top.
6. Add other toppings and garnish as desired.

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¹ The recipe calls for 3 scoops of vanilla ice cream per banana. We opted for 1 scoop of falooda kulfi and 1 scoop of vanilla ice cream, but then ended up going back and adding more ice cream after we'd started eating it. So, I think three (smallish) scoops is definitely the right amount for one banana. Just plan on splitting your split with a friend! ^Back
2 eg. chopped peanuts, chocolate chips, sprinkles, mini marshmallows, fresh (or thawed frozen) pitted cherries, strawberries, caramel sauce, stroopwafel, graham crackers, etc. ^Back