Ben Bayly’s Campfire Banana
+ salted milk caramel + vanilla ice-cream

Serves up to 20 people

(Requires 1 banana per person)

I love camping! The simplest dessert to cook in the middle of nowhere is a campfire banana. Our kids love it. We cut a banana, stuff bits of chocolate in it, wrap it in tin foil and then chuck it in the fire to bake.

Tips:

This recipe is a simple and easy one to do for large parties.

Prepare the ice-cream & caramel in advance, fire up the charcoal BBQ really hot and blacken the bananas directly on the charcoal.

Charcoal the banana directly over the coals, and the guests would then peel the charcoaled banana at the table and eat with the salted milk caramel and ice-cream.

Ingredients & Methods

Dulce De Leche

  • 500g sugar
  • 8g bicarbonate of soda
  • 7g sea salt
  • 2L milk

Vanilla Ice Cream

  • 2L milk
  • 500ml cream
  • 60g honey
  • 125g milk powder
  • 45g dextrose
  • 400g sugar
  • 18g milk stabiliser
  • 4g xanthan gum
  • 50g vanilla paste

To Serve

  • 20 bananas
  • Store-bought chocolate biscuits (crumbled)
  • Chocolate sauce
  • Herbs such as mint or apple marigold (optional)

Dulce de Leche

  1. Combine the sugar, bicarb and sea salt in a medium bowl.
  2. Place the milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Whisk the dry ingredients into the milk.
  3. Continue to heat, but watch closely as it will foam suddenly.
  4. Skim off the foam until you can see only the milk on a rapid boil.
  5. Continue to occasionally skim. Reduce temperatue to 106°C on a kitchen thermometer.
  6. Transfer the mixture to a blender and process until smooth. This should give you about 600ml.

Vanilla Ice-cream

  1. Heat the milk, cream, and honey in a saucepan over a low heat until the temperature reaches 80°C on a kitchen thermometer then remove from heat.
  2. Combine milk powder, dextrose, sugar, milk stabiliser, xanthan gum and vanilla paste.
  3. Using a hand blender, blend the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and place in the fridge overnight.
  4. Using an ice-cream maker, and following manufacturer’s instructions, churn the ice-cream.

Bananas

  1. Fire up the charcoal barbecue until it’s really hot and place whole unpeeled bananas directly on the charcoal.
  2. Cook for about 5 minutes, turning often, until blackened. Set aside to cool slightly.
  3. Transfer bananas to serving plates and serve with Dulce de Leche, a spoonful of ice-cream, crumbled chocolate biscuits and a sprig of mint or apple marigold, if you like.