Weird birthday dessert request

August 21, 2008 11:08 AM

A friend has requested that I make him a birthday dessert with the following ingredients: cheesecake, bananas, and chocolate.

Yes, it's a weird combo, but I never deny anyone's birthday dessert requests. What I'm looking for (ideally):

*A dessert with all ingredients combined, so no suggestions for a cheesecake and chocolate-dipped bananas as a separate dessert (seems silly, but someone I know actually suggested this).

*A tried-and-true, favorite, and tasty cheesecake-banana-chocolate dessert family recipe that gets raves at family gatherings. (i.e., an old, comfort-food type dessert).

Thanks for any and all ideas!

posted by angiewriter to food & drink (17 comments total)

Banana Chocolate Cheesecake

Seems perfect
posted by arniec at 11:14 AM on August 21, 2008

Ta da, Bananas Foster Cheesecake I'd put little chocolate wafers on the side as a garnish.
posted by LN at 11:15 AM on August 21, 2008

This recipe: Chocolate Wrapped Banana Cheesecake looks great but I have not actually made it. It does look fairly labour intensive though.
posted by GuyZero at 11:16 AM on August 21, 2008

The cheesecake factory seems to do pretty well with normal-ish cheesecake and crazy toppings. If it were me making this dessert, I'd do an oreo crust for either a normal cheesecake or a banana cheesecake (hopefully somebody else will come along here with a good recipe for that), and then top it with hot fudge and sliced bananas and whipped cream. Maybe even chocolate-dipped banana slices, if I was feeling especially motivated.
posted by vytae at 11:16 AM on August 21, 2008

2 layers of cheesecake, sliced bananas in between (either raw or flambeed). Cover with chocolate ganache (dark chocolate is better I think?) so that it looks like this.

Alternately, you could combine mashed bananas into the actual cheesecake. I've never tried that but a Google search shows that it is edible!
posted by acidic at 11:22 AM on August 21, 2008

Mmm, Bananas Foster Cheesecake....
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 11:31 AM on August 21, 2008

acidic has already specified my exact plan.
posted by Netzapper at 11:43 AM on August 21, 2008

Depends on how far out you wanna go.

Me? I'd dump all 3 ingredients (+ ice cream and milk) into a blender for a choco-nana cheesecake shake.

Or make a traditional banana split with homemade cheesecake icecream.

Or a martini with chcolate and banana liqueurs, vodka, heavy cream with chocolate shavings and a graham cracker garnish.

Or riff on a soup - some kind of sweet creamy "broth" with chocolate "meat" and banana "veggies".

Or nouveau smores - graham crackers and chocolate, but cheesecake instead of marshmallows with banana coulis.

But that's just how I roll ;-)
posted by grateful at 12:12 PM on August 21, 2008

Ice cream. Cut a cheesecake into chunks, slice the bananas and chunk some chocolate. Make a plain vanilla ice cream and at the end drop the cheesecake, bananas and chocolate into the ice cream freezer. Swirl in some chocolate sauce at the end for added attractiveness.

A recipe that *might* fit your second question with a stretch is the nutrition disaster known as a banana split cake. (Another recipe.) The filling isn't Cheesecake but it's cheesecake-esque in texture. You could probably modify the filling of the traditional banana split cake with a boxed cheesecake filling and it would work well, assuming you would use/eat that kind of stuff.
posted by hecho de la basura at 12:13 PM on August 21, 2008

This is the way to do it.
posted by nowonmai at 12:16 PM on August 21, 2008

I would definitely make a Bananas Foster Cheesecake, because Bananas Foster is the best food EVER.

However! Why not make the crust chocolatey? It's very easy to make a cheesecake crust, usually it'sn just graham crackers, sugar and butter. I make a chocolate one for my chocolate chip cheesecake, and I either use chocolate wafer cookies with butter, or chocolate grahams, chocolate syrup, and butter. Both turn out just great, and I just eyeball the amounts, creating a crumb mixture that holds together well. The chocolatey crust is soooo good.

Simply mixing in some shaved dark chocolate with the bananas while they're still hot would make an amazing chocolate bananas foster topping for such a cheesecake. Please send me some!!
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:17 PM on August 21, 2008

Damn - more ideas:

One large banana cupcake with cream cheese icing and chocolate pudding piped into the center.

Or, a trio of mini cupcakes, each piped with cream cheese icing, chocolate pudding and banana mousse.

Or another trio: cheesecake filling molded to look like a banana with graham cracker crumbs sprinkled on top, a banana carved into to look like a chocolate kiss (or truffle) with chocolate shavings or cocoa powder, and a piece of white chocolate molded in the shape of a piece of cheesecake. Drizzle plate with banana coulis.

I'm getting hungry...
posted by grateful at 12:18 PM on August 21, 2008

Thanks to all of you for your great suggestions!!

acidic--I LOVE your idea. I'm going to investigate this further.

nowonmai--Of course I checked Google. I wanted *more* than what I found there. Thanks for your ever-so-helpful idea.
posted by angiewriter at 1:59 PM on August 21, 2008

before I even saw the other comments "Banna Fosters cheesecake popped into my head.
posted by warriorengineer at 3:09 PM on August 21, 2008

Crepes - stuff with sliced bananas and cheesecake, drizzle with chocolate ganache, serve with whipped cream.
posted by casarkos at 5:11 PM on August 21, 2008

In defense of nowonmai, there were a million and a half results on Google and 15 answers here, not sure about the "more" you're looking for. acidic's thing looks awesome, but like a lot of thick chocolate to have surrounding a cheesecake. Most of us can't roll like grateful, even if we all wish we could. Bananas are naturally creamy and would probably work well mashed and blended into the cheesecake, with a chocolate graham cracker crust and some chocolate sauce to the side, and some fresh strawberries or raspberries to cut the richness.
posted by farmdoggie at 7:11 PM on August 21, 2008

I noted in my post that I was looking for someone who perhaps had an old family recipe that had this combination of ingredients. Google is a great resource; I use it on a daily basis, but it's not able to dig into family's recipes and provide them to me. That's why I asked on here for additional suggestions. sheesh.
posted by angiewriter at 11:04 PM on August 21, 2008