Celebrate Good Times...Come On!

Celebrations. I love celebrations. It is always fun to have a reason to celebrate.

Yesterday, I celebrated the fact that Peru tied with Brazil. I also celebrated the fact that my friend brought me 8 pounds of super crunchy peanut butter from the US. You heard me right, eight pounds.

As I was reading through several blogs today, I was so pleased to see another celebration underway; that of the Daring Bakers. I have recently been following their monthly challenges and greatly admire the skill, knowledge and creativity of so many of the Daring Bakers. Today the founders, Ivonne and Lis, write about the beginning of the Daring Bakers, share pretzel recipes and give others a way to be a part of the group.

Something else to celebrate? Why yes! There is a pot luck housewarming party at Culinary Concoctions by Peabody! This is a blog which I have recently started to read since so many raved about the recipes. I have decided to take a wonderful surprise to help Peabody celebrate this very special occasion.

After the snacks, the drinks, and the dinner, everyone wants a little something sweet to top everything off; but a plate of dessert seems so guilt laden. The original recipe calls for whipped cream and a topping of the caramel sauce. My theory is that desserts that don't require plates, forks or other "eating equipment" seem to cause less guilt, are eaten more quickly and seem to just be more fun. So these are hand-held, no-guilt, potluck-party desserts!


What else am I celebrating? Well, this is officially my 100th post here on Canela & Comino!!! What started out as a place to share recipes (as you can tell by all of my first posts!) has turned into a challenge to create new things, share about Peru and even make some new friends. For me, I never much thought about this being something that "other people" would want to read! But to all of you I say, "Gracias!!"

So for all of you...Peru, Daring Bakers, Peabody and...me...I want to share a fun and special dessert!

Banana Chocolate Shortcakes

Shortcakes:
1 1/2 cups of flour (about 6 3/4 ounces)
1/2 cup of sugar
1/3 cup of unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 cup of chilled butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup of plain yogurt
8 moquicho bananas, peeled and sliced lengthwise and sauteed until browned

Carmel Sauce:
1/4 cup of sugar
2 tablespoons of water
2 tablespoons of evaporated milk
1 teaspoon of butter

Preheat oven to 375F. To prepare the shortcakes, combine flour, sugar, unsweetened cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Cut in 1/4 cup butter with a pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add yogurt; stir just until moist. Knead lightly in bowl 5 to 6 times. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface; pat dough until it is 1 cm thick. With a circular cookie cutter, cut out circles from the dough; transfer to s baking sheet. Bake at 375F for 18 minutes or until just firm to the touch. Remove from pan; cool on a wire rack.

To prepare caramel sauce, combine sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat; stir gently just until sugar dissolves. Cook, without stirring, until pale golden (about 4 minutes), gently swirling pan if needed to cook sugar evenly. Remove from heat; add milk and 1 teaspoon butter, stirring with a whisk until smooth. Cool 5 minutes.

Split shortcakes in half horizontally using a serrated knife. Arrange 2 banana halves over bottom half of each shortcake; top each serving with about 1 teaspoon caramel sauce and top of shortcake. Makes about 16. Adapted from Cooking Light, January 2007.

Tips & Hints:
*Instead of the caramel sauce, some (pictured here) just have manjar blanco (dulce de leche) on them. This makes preparation quick & easy!
*Moquicho bananas are the "baby" bananas but could be replaced with sliced yellow bananas.