Beijing Banana Toffee (Deep Fried Bananas)

Submitted by Nolita_Food

"Wonderful treat in winter You can use apple as well. I haven't tried any other fruits, but I guess anything that keeps its shape."

 

• Ready In: 17mins
• Ingredients: 9
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 4 large bananas
• 1⁄4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1⁄4 cup cornstarch
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon water
• 3⁄4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted
• ice water (large bowl)

• For frying

• peanut oil, the best to use

directions

1. Peel bananas and cut them into 1.5" chunks Combine flour, cornstarch, egg, water and mix till smooth.
2. Heat frying oil till moderately hot.
3. Dip the banana chunks into the batter, lift them out one at a time, tap off the excess batter and put them into the hot oil.
4. Fry for 1-2 minutes, till the batter is golden.
5. Lift them out right away and drain on paper towels.
6. Have the bowl of ice water nearby.
7. Put sugar and sesame seed in a clean dry pot, melt the sugar till it darkens a little.
8. Reduce heat to very low, just to keep it warm but not burned.
9. Dip the fried banana chunks in, a few at a time, coat them thoroughly with sugar syrup and sesame.
10. Lift them out into the ice water to harden, then lift them right now.
11. Serve right away with vanilla ice cream.
12. This dish doesn't freeze at all, and you should serve it right away.

Reviews

[Chef000]

The problem with this recipe is that there is very to little liquid.<br/><br/>I imagine the batter to be something in the range of a fritter batter, which usually has just as much liquid (by weight) as flour (or flour and cornstarch here), usually in the form of milk, in addition to half the weight in eggs.<br/><br/>Here, there is just a teaspoon of water. This resulted in a batter that was on the verge of being a paste. So I added about a quarter cup of milk, and this made the consistency much lighter and easier to work with.What would have also been helpful is, I think, a process to firm up the bananas ... I used very ripe bananas and handling the bananas in the batter made for a very squishy result (under the caramel exterior). <br/><br/>I have seen other deep fried banana recipes suggesting throwing them in the fridge for a bit -- this may work.<br/><br/>In principle, the recipe makes sense though. Make a simple batter. Fry it. Then toss it in caramel. Then dunk it in cold water to make a candied shell out of the caramel.<br/><br/>The batter needs some work though -- no pun intended.