Fananas Boster Frangipane

 
Preheat oven 350
Grease baking dish w/a spritz of Pam

Note, this dish could very easily be Kosher For Passover and/or Gluten Free and/or Dairy Free with a few tweaks.  Also worth noting, this recipe was originally done as a "reduced sugar" dessert; however, with the caramel sauce, there isn't a real good substitute for the effects of real sugar in caramel.

Ingredients:

3/4 C. Almond meal
1/3 C. Splenda (or granulated sugar)
1/4 C. Grapeseed (or other neutral) oil
pinch salt
2 eggs
1 tsp. Almond extract
1/2 tsp Butter extract
1 T. AP flour (or potato starch or other Gluten Free flour)
2 Bananas, peeled, sliced in half end to end, then sliced in half at the midpoint, quartering them.
2 T. Amaretto or rum

Prep the bananas and put in a large container, coating all surfaces w/the amaretto or rum. Set aside.

In a large bowl, with a hand mixer, blend together all the other ingredients.

Pour into prepped baking dish, and make a fancy spiral or pinwheel w/the banana slices. Bake at 350 for approx 20 minutes, center rack.

While the frangipane is baking, make the caramel:

2/3 C. Sugar (I used turbinado)
2/3 C. Milk (I used Lactaid, though I'm sure Almond milk could work)
2 T. Butter (Nondairy butter substitute could work)
Pinch of salt
A few drops of vanilla extract

Blend everything together in a pot over medium heat. Stir frequently. Raise the heat to high, and it will continue to foam up. Keep taking it off the heat, back on, etc. Stir frequently. Watch this. Because eventually, it will come together as caramel eventually. 

At first you'll think, "WTF, when will this start to look like caramel?" Seriously, this is the part that takes the longest to come together. But once it does hit the caramel stage, things move quickly and you can scorch this pretty quick. Luckily, I got a good batch of caramel first time out. I've never made caramel before. Tip: You really need to babysit the caramel to ensure it won't scorch and to ensure it doesn't boil over.

Take frangipane out of oven. Let sit a few minutes in the baking dish. You can leave it in the dish as is, if you're making it for yourself, or if you are planning on taking it to a party, you might want to invert it out of the baking dish, then invert it again onto the plate you'll be taking to someone else's home. Pour the caramel all over the top. Optional sprinkle with slivered almonds if you're being fancy.

Serves about 6-8, depending on how big your slices are.