Classic Banana Split

This recipe should be called something else, because it is certainly not a Classic Banana Split. That should be built as follows: In a long oval dish: 1 ripe banana split lengthwise Vanilla ice cream with pineapple sauce Strawberry ice cream/strawberry sauce (or crushed strawberries) Chocolate ice cream/fudge sauce An excess of real whipped cream Crushed toasted nuts At least one cherry on top. I’m not saying it is the best way, but it is the classic.

I don't like fruit in my desserts except for bananas, lemons and the cherry on top, so my toppings would be chocolate, caramel and dulce de leche. Or more chocolate. I might throw on chopped walnuts. I don't need the whipped cream but that is a minority opinion. I am definitely not sharing. Get your own!

All due respect, hot fudge does not belong on a banana split, chocolate sauce does. As does strawberry sauce and pineapple sauce. Chocolate, vanilla and strawberry ice creams. Nuts, whipped cream and cherries.

So funny how we all have different ideas on which sauces are “de rigueur”. My childhood memories feature a scoop of vanilla with chocolate sauce, a scoop of strawberry with strawberry sauce (or occasionally pineapple), and a scoop of chocolate with marshmallow sauce. All hidden beneath clouds of whipped cream with cherries on top. (I was a no-nuts girl…)

I’m a 3-flavor ice cream & 3-sauce gal myself: Vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce, strawberry ice cream with strawberry sauce and chocolate ice cream with marshmallow sauce. Covered with clouds of whipped cream…

I once got into a debate with a boyfriend about how many scoops of ice cream are in a traditional banana split. He said 1. I said 3. We bet on it, with the stakes being that the loser had to buy the other a banana split from the fanciest ice cream place in the city. Winning never tasted so good.

The best banana splits are done at the Chocolate Room in Brooklyn, NY. There, the banana halves are brûléed which adds a shattering sugar crust to the texture palette.

Sounds delicious but a banana split needs pineapple and strawberry sauce. Ice cream should be a scoop each of vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate.

Luxardo Cherries instead of the traditional maraschinos gives it another layer of decadence

We use Luxardo cherries for cocktails and they are extra delicious on desserts

I would be sorely disappointed if a banana split came with only hot fudge. I’m used to three scoops (they can all be vanilla), three toppings (chocolate, strawberry, pineapple), whipped cream, nuts (wet or dry) and cherries.

At the local ice cream joint these walnuts are referred to as wet nuts, as in "I'll have a chocolate wet nut sundae."

Traditional banana splits actually have 3 different toppings. Hot fudge, strawberry and caramel or butterscotch. This makes it more interesting!

This split banana ice cream treat was called a Fudge Royale when I was an ice cream scooper in the last century at Friendly’s. I much preferred it to the banana split which had a scoop each of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream topped with hot fudge, pineapple and strawberry topping, whipped cream, walnuts and maybe 3 cherries. Scooping ice cream all summer to a seemingly endless stream of customers was a great job, sticky elbows and all.