Baked Maple Bananas

Four bananas split lengthwise, bathed in melted butter and maple syrup, baked until warm and soft, then hit with cinnamon and served over ice cream. This might be the simplest impressive dessert you’ll ever make.

The maple syrup and butter melt together into a thin caramel sauce that pools around the banana halves as they bake. The natural sugars in the bananas concentrate in the heat, turning the cut surfaces golden and slightly translucent while the syrup thickens into a sticky glaze.

Three-quarters of a cup of maple syrup is generous, and that’s by design. You want enough sauce pooling in the dish to spoon over the ice cream at serving time. Use real maple syrup, not pancake syrup. The flavor difference is enormous when maple is the star ingredient, not a background player.

Slicing the bananas lengthwise gives them more surface area in contact with the sauce than rounds would. They also look more dramatic on the plate, draped over a scoop of vanilla ice cream with the maple-butter sauce drizzled on top.

Pro Tips

• Use ripe bananas with a few brown spots. They’re sweeter and soften faster in the oven.
• Don’t overbake. You want the bananas warm and just softened, not collapsed into mush. Check them after 8-10 minutes.
• Sprinkle the cinnamon on after baking, not before. It stays fragrant and visible on top rather than getting buried in the sauce.

Variations

• Bananas Foster style: Add a splash of dark rum to the maple-butter mixture before baking for a boozy, New Orleans-inspired dessert.
• Nutty crunch: Scatter chopped pecans or walnuts over the bananas before serving for texture contrast against the soft fruit.