Bananas Foster flambé recipe from Brie Larson’s new TV show Lessons In Chemistry

Food is at the heart of the new Apple TV+ show, Lessons In Chemistry.

Adapted from the hit book by Bonnie Garmus, it’s set in the early 1960s and follows Elizabeth Zott (played by Brie Larson) – a chemist who finds herself fronting a TV cooking show after being fired from her lab job.

As well as challenging the status quo around how housewives are seen, Elizabeth’s delicious food punctuates the show – including her ‘perfect lasagne’ recipe in the first episode, and a dish for bananas Foster flambé, which she uses to explain the rules of combustion.

Here, series food consultant, chef and cookbook author Courtney McBroom has pulled together a recipe for the dish, so you can whip up your own bananas Foster flambé…

Bananas foster flambé

Ingredients:
(Serves 4)

40g unsalted butter
45g light brown sugar
⅛tsp kosher salt
2 large bananas, cut on a bias into ½ inch-thick slices
1tsp vanilla extract
60ml rum, 80-90 proof
Vanilla ice cream or pound cake, for serving

Method:

1. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the light brown sugar and salt and stir to combine. Add the bananas in an even layer and cook for about seven minutes, until they are browned and caramelised, flipping halfway. Add the vanilla.

2. Remove the pan from the stove, take a step back, and add the rum. If you are working with gas, return the pan to the stove and tilt it slightly down and away from yourself to ignite the alcohol fumes. If it does not ignite, or if you are using an induction or electric burner, simply light it with a long-stick lighter. Once the flame goes out, give it a stir, then spoon the flambeéd bananas over vanilla ice cream (or whatever you want, really), and serve immediately.

Lessons In Chemistry continues every Friday on Apple TV+