Bananas and Scream

"Bananas and cream,
Bananas and cream;

And all that we want is
Bananas and cream!”

Every morning when the toddler wakes up, my sleepy husband nobly goes to his room and brings him into bed with us. There, we talk and snuggle, waking up slowly. When the husband goes upstairs for his shower, I collect a pile of books and the toddler and I read together until we are both finally ready to get up. One of our current favourites is a poetry book, “Here’s a Little Poem”. This morning, the toddler was particularly taken by a David McCord poem, ‘Bananas and Cream’. In fact, he recited parts of it all day.

As I thought about what I might make for tea, the cold weather and the toddler’s obsession with this poem meant that I couldn’t help but think about making some vanilla custard to accompany some bananas for our dessert.

“We didn’t say dish,
We didn’t say spoon;
We said not tomorrow,
But NOW and HOW SOON”

I can’t take any credit for this recipe at all. It is based on one from Madeleine Shaw’s fantastic book, ‘Get the Glow’. However, due to some of my FODMAP requirements, I have changed some of the ingredients. I find custard desperately difficult to make. It always seems to curdle, and making it with a non-dairy milk makes it even trickier. However, it seemed to work tonight. And when served with flapjacks from the ‘Livia’s Kitchen’ blog, it made the perfect dessert for a wintry evening.

“Bananas and cream,
Bananas and cream?
We yelled for bananas,
Bananas and scream!”

Vanilla Custard
(Dairy Free + FODMAP)

250ml Almond milk
1 tbsp Maple syrup
1 ½ tsp vanilla bean paste
3 egg yolks

Separate the eggs and whisk the egg yolks in a bowl. Heat the milk, syrup and vanilla in a small saucepan over a moderate heat until it is warmed through, but not boiling. Pour the milk mixture very slowly into the egg yolks, whisking all the time so the mixture does not curdle. Once everything is combined, pour the mixture back into the saucepan. Whisk the custard over a moderate heat until the custard thickens a little. Be careful not to let it boil. Once it has thickened, take it off the heat and pour it into the bowl to cool.

I served it with a banana and these chocolate and almond butter flapjacks, although it would taste great on its own, or as an accompaniment to a cake or pudding. Delicious!

Extracts of ‘Bananas and Cream’ by David McCord taken from ‘Here’s a Little Poem’, collected by Jane Yolen and Andrew Fusek Peters, illustrated by Polly Dunbar. (Walker Books, London)