A while back, my sweet, Pacific Northwest food writer friend Karista was sorting through her cookbook collection and offered to ship some of her gently used favorites to Alaska. Of course, I was quick to jump on her offer.
Karista and I are friends precisely because we share a deeply rooted love of beautiful food, thoughtful writing, and memories made at the table. I knew she would select cookbooks from her collection that would speak to my heart. The cookbooks arrived complete with Karista's dog ears on the recipe pages (I love this) and a handwritten note that I keep tucked away inside of one of the books.
One of those cookbooks was "Favorite Food at Home," by Irish chef Rachel Allen. I enjoy this cookbook because it's warm, welcoming and unassuming. This delightful banana butterscotch pudding cake is all of those things, too. My version is only very slightly adapted from the version in Chef Allen's book. It bakes into a tender golden banana cake on top and a gooey butterscotch layer on the bottom. I served mine hot from the oven with a dollop of freshly whipped cream flecked with vanilla bean.
Butterscotch banana pudding cake
Serves 4-6
For the cake:
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 ripe banana, mashed (great use for overripe bananas)
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
6 tablespoons butter, melted
For the butterscotch layer:
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons corn syrup
2/3 cup boiling water
For serving:
Freshly whipped cream, lightly sweetened (I added some vanilla bean to mine)
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9-inch pie plate.
2. In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. In another bowl, whisk together the egg, banana, milk, vanilla and melted butter. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pie plate.
3. To make the butterscotch layer, place a small saucepan on the stove on medium-high heat. Add the brown sugar, corn syrup, and boiling water to the saucepan. Stir to combine and bring the mixture to a boil. Drizzle the butterscotch over the cake batter (it will sink to the bottom as it bakes, creating the gooey butterscotch layer).
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, until golden and just set in the middle (the cake will be slightly jiggly, but you want it cooked through). Serve warm with freshly whipped cream. Adapted from "Favorite Food at Home," by Rachel Allen.
Maya Evoy lives in Kenai and blogs about food at alaskafromscratch.com. Have a food question or recipe request? Email maya@alaskafromscratch.com and your inquiry may appear in a future column.