The trusty banana offers a sweet treat loaded in nutrients in a handy package, and comes with its own carrying handle. Can't really beat nature's creation of the banana.

For this, the 9th week of the Steemit IronChef Competition hosted by the fantastic foodie @progressivechef, the weekly theme is BANANA. Because bananas are naturally so sweet, I decided to make this dish without adding sugar. I added a bit of honey for one of the components, but other than that, this dish is sweetened only by bananas!

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For this dish, I've used the banana to make:

• banana meringue cookies
• chocolate banana meringue cookies
• banana leather
• banana chia pudding
• banana espresso chocolate sauce
• banana chocolate pudding
• banana slices au natural!

I started by making a puree from 3 whole bananas.

For the banana chia pudding, I combined chia seeds, banana puree, vanilla, and a touch of milk. Chia pudding takes about 20 minutes to form, because the chia seeds need to absorb the liquid and plump up. I added a bit more milk to loosen it to a pudding consistency.

For the banana leather, I simply swiped a smear of the puree across a silpat and baked on low for a VERY long time to dehydrate the banana puree into banana leather. This stuff is GOOD!

For the banana espresso chocolate sauce, I combined granulated instant espresso, cocoa powder, banana puree, and a bit of cream. I heated the mixture until it was fully combined and syrupy.

For the banana chocolate pudding, I heated a combination of milk, cream, honey, banana puree, vanilla, and salt over medium heat. Then I tempered egg yolks and added them to the pot, whisking constantly until the pudding had thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon.

For the banana meringue cookies, I whipped egg whites with the banana puree until they formed stiff peaks, and at that point, added a bit of cream of tartar and arrowroot powder to the meringue. I dolloped about half of the meringue onto the baking sheet and then swirled in some of the banana espresso chocolate sauce into the other half to create the chocolate banana meringue cookies. Then they went into the oven at 200F for about 1.5 hours until the meringues were hard to the touch....kind of....

I'll let you in on a secret (between you and me)

In the middle of making this dish, my friend asked if I would go for a pedicure with her. It being a light afternoon, of course I said yes, and she picked me up from my house. Then when I was sitting with my feet in the warm water at the nail salon, I realized in a flash that I left the house with the OVEN ON and MERINGUES inside!

I quickly phoned a different friend to hop over to my house to check it out, and surely enough the oven was on with meringues inside. She saved the day by preventing my house from burning (or at least the meringues from burning!) Only YOU can prevent meringue fires!

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Anywho, back to banana week. (My pedicure was fabulous by the way, thanks for asking). :)

I tried three different times and three different ways to plate this dish up, and I ended up doing all these freeform swirls with the banana chocolate pudding and the banana espresso chocolate sauce. I stacked some merinque cookies and slices of fresh ripe bananas, using the banana leather as a sort of 'tree trunk' to anchor the dish. Overall, I'm happy with how this dish turned out. You would honestly never know that this dessert doesn't include loads of processed sugar, and I'm sure of it because my kids and husband devoured this whole plate in about 2 milliseconds. :)

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And of course, here's my all-important proof photo:

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I hope you've enjoyed this recipe, and I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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If you're interested in being a part of the Steemit IronChef Competition, don't forget to check out the details at @steemit-ironchef. A huge thanks to @progressivechef for coming up with this awesome way to showcase our food creations and build community with each other here on Steemit. Looking forward to continuing this competition!!

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All content and images by @jaymorebeet, taken on October 30, 2017 with a Canon 7D Mark II.