These are so simple and delicious, I almost didn’t believe it.
There’s a local Brazilian place that serves deep-fried bananas, and while they’re incredibly delicious, I tend to try and avoid frying if I think I can do so without sacrificing flavor or texture. I decided to try and bake them and see if I could get a similarly tasty result.
I bought one of the miniature banana varieties from the local ethnic grocery because I wanted to have them be serving-sized; I imagine it would be no problem to bake up normal Cavendish bananas and cut them in half.
First, preheat your oven to 350°.
Peel your bananas. Remove any stringy bits and carve out bruising.
Now, roll the bananas in cinnamon sugar. Here’s how I make my cinnamon sugar:
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt (regular table salt, not coarse salt)
Combine all of the above and then spread it out on a plate or in a shallow pan to do the dredging.
Ignore the ugly scarred-up baking sheet!
Pop these suckers in the oven for between 10 and 20 minutes, depending on how you want the texture – they will be softer in the middle if you let them bake longer, but the cinnamon sugar will become more caramel-like. A shorter baking time will result in a firmer center but a softer exterior.
