I’d like to introduce Chef Mireille today. Visiting her blog, you’ll find different recipes from different corners of the world. Her post today is about a dessert most of us love and enjoy.

So let’s hear it from Chef Mireille from Gourmet Global.

I have an idiosyncratic attitude towards bananas.  I like to eat them a little under ripe.  Once they get soft, my stomach no longer likes them.  It’s a texture thing – my stomach does not like the soft, mushy texture once the spots appear on the skin.  I rarely get the opportunity to eat the whole bunch of bananas as the fruit itself, before this ripening occurs.  Then the ripening continues to occur as I try to think of what to do with them.  The leftover bananas usually end up in smoothies or as banana pancakes, waffles or banana bread.  Tired of the usual, I came up with this recipe for a new use of the overripe bananas.

There are many countries that include flan as part of their national dishes.  Just about every country in South & Central America, as well as all of the Spanish Caribbean islands like Puerto Rico and Cuba.  Additionally, Spain and the Philippines, which were once colonized by the Spanish also include flan as part of their national repertoire of sweet dishes.  It’s also common in France, under the name of creme caramel.

I love the coconut and pumpkin flavored flan I get at Filipino restaurants.  I have been experimenting with fruit flavored flans, which I enjoy as an alternative to the original.  Using Sugar In the Raw, the intense caramel with an almost molasses like flavor complements the overripe bananas well.  For that reason, I did not even include any vanilla extract, usually a standard ingredient in flan.