BabyCakes Page 45: Chocolate Shortbread Scones with Caramelized Bananas

As you may remember, my dear friend Jess introduced me to the BabyCakes cookbook (inaugural post found here) and, therefore, is responsible for my BabyCakes enlightenment.  She’s done it again: for my birthday she gave me the second book written by Erin McKenna: BabyCakes Covers the Classics.

It was like Christmas morning for me.  The book contains gems like Thin Mints (I literally gasped), S’mores with homemade graham crackers, Whoopie Pies, and an entire chapter of gluten-free vegan donuts. Not to mention a recipe in honor of my very favorite holiday: “Valentine’s Day Overboard Cookie Craziness”. I love this woman.Being the committed and orderly person that I am, I have a new found motivation to complete the remaining 27 recipes from the first book so I can move on to this sequel of BabyCakes bliss. So… it’s quite likely you will see more frequent posts from me henceforth.Now, on to today’s adventure: Chocolate Shortbread Scones with Caramelized Bananas.

I have been scared of this recipe for awhile, because it’s one of those lovely items that involves pre-baking –  specifically baking chocolate cupcakes for a crumb base. However, I happened to have a few cupcakes in my freezer from past adventures so I got to skip a step. Bonus!

The recipe is actually a scone that you cut in half and sandwich with 1) vanilla frosting and 2) caramelized bananas.  The first step is the baking the bananas, and they filled my house with a fragrance that was nothing short of divine.

As the bananas caramelized, I whipped up the scones. You know the drill… spelt flour, coconut oil, and other vegan magic. The chocolate crumb base and chocolate chips are folded in and become marbled through the slightly milder chocolate scone batter.

As the scones baked I confronted a new challenge: trying very hard not to eat all the then-cooling caramelized bananas.

Once the scones had baked and cooled I cut them, slathered them with vanilla frosting, and added a layer of caramelized bananas as directed.  The end result:

In a word: DELISH.  The scones are a tiny bit salty and just mellow enough to serve as a perfect backdrop for the sweet frosting and velvety rich bananas, without making the combination overly sweet.

I know, it looks like bacon. But I promise it’s just caramelized bananas! You can also ignore the half eaten scone on the lower right – I couldn’t help myself.Another BabyCakes winner for sure. After setting aside a couple for us, I’m off to divvy out these treats among friends so hubby and I do not end up eating all twelve of them over the weekend. After all, I have to save room for the next adventure. Just 26 to go!