Fire-Baked Bananas with Caramel and Peanuts
Split bananas cooked in foil, topped with caramel, salted peanuts, and dried cherries.
- calories
- 380
- weight
- 7 oz
- cal / oz
- 54
- protein
- 6 g
- serves
- 3, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 12 min
- total time
- 17 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dessert
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Gluten free
- Foil packet
- Grab and go
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Bananas | 3 | brown and soft ones work best here |
|---|---|---|
| Brown sugar | 2 tsp | |
| Salted peanuts | 4 tbsp | chopped coarse |
| Caramel sauce | 4 tbsp | squeeze bottle, shelf-stable |
| Dried tart cherries | 1/3 cup | stands in for the cocktail berries |
| Powdered coconut milk | 3 tbsp | optional, for a cold cream to spoon over |
Method
- Peel each banana and split it lengthwise. Lay the halves on a sheet of foil.
- Scatter the brown sugar over them and fold the foil into a sealed packet.
- Set the packet on the grill grate or on coals raked out of the fire. Twelve minutes, turning once. Flames will scorch it, so stay off the flames.
- If you want cream, stir the coconut milk powder with a tablespoon of cold water into a thick paste.
- Open the packet, chop the peanuts, and pile on cherries, peanuts, and caramel. Spoon the coconut cream over if you made it.
The original is an oven tray bake finished with vanilla ice cream. Ice cream is the one thing a campsite cannot produce, so it is gone. What replaces it is coconut milk powder mixed thick with cold water, which is cold, white, and fatty enough to do the same job of cutting the sugar. The cocktail berries become dried tart cherries, which travel and hit the same sour note.
Heat is doing real work on the banana, not just warming it. Sugar in the fruit breaks down and the flesh goes soft and jammy, which is why overripe bananas are the right ones. The foil packet keeps the steam in so the banana cooks rather than dries, and it means nothing to wash afterward.
Packing
Peanuts, sugar, and cherries premeasured into one bag. Caramel in a squeeze bottle inside a second bag, because it will leak. Foil sheets flat against the back panel of the pack.
Variations
- Skip the coconut cream and eat it straight from the foil.
- A spoonful of cocoa powder in the sugar turns it darker and less sweet.
- Swap the cherries for dried cranberries or chopped dried apricot.
https://www.matprat.no/oppskrifter/kos/tray-bake-med-banan-og-is