Banoffee Pie

I have seen Banoffee pie in a lot of books, blogs… but I always though, I will make it someday. Well, this day arrived thanks to Christophe Adam book,”Caramel“.

It is a kind of tart that could go unnoticed in his book because it has not got great decorations or a presentation very attractive. I was taking a look at his book looking for a filling for one tart and… I find this tart. It was so easy and simple, but I loved it. He makes this tarta with an almond pastry, a creamy caramel banana filling and Chantilly cream for decorate, in one side.

What I really loved was is color, so golden, smooth, so delicious! So, I decided to change my first idea and make this. In fact was great because I had got a lot of ripe bananas at home. I made it twice and the reason was the filling.

It is creamy, too much, it is thought to fill a little tart that you are not going to cut into pieces. I believed that caramel would act like coagulant, but this did not happen. It was consistent but not enough.

I added some gelatin and works well for this size.

By the way, too much time without share music … today I bring you a calm and relaxing song of “The amalgamation of soundz” to begin this Friday 😉 (Link to Youtube).

I made a cocoa pastry because I though it would be great with banana and Chantilly, but you can change it if you wish for the original almond pastry. For decorate I made Chantilly stars, I think it looks beautiful this way. After, you can serve more cream with a piece of tart.

Although I would cover it completely, combo is so nice!

BANOFFEE PIE:

For one ring pastry of 9,6 inches

FOR THE CACAO PASTRY:

• 6.35 oz (180 g) pastry flour
• 0.88 oz (25 g) cocoa powder
• 0.88 oz (25 g) ground toasted hazelnut
• 4.6 oz (130 g) cold butter
• 1 large egg
• 1.4 oz (40 g) moscabado sugar
• 0.07 oz (2 g) salt
• 1 beaten egg-white for brush

FOR THE CARAMEL BANANA FILLING:

• 4 ripe large banana, roughly 14.6 oz (415 g)
• 4.73 fl oz (140 g) whole milk
• 8.1 oz (230 g) sugar
• 4 gelatin sheets

FOR DECORATE:

• Chantilly cream (recipe below)
• grated black chocolate
• dried bananas slices*

* You can see how to make them in the link, only available in Spanish.

CHANTILLY CREAM:

• 7 oz (200 g) cream
• 0.7 oz (20 g) sugar
• vanilla extract, a few drops
• 1/2 tsp gelatin powder + 2 tsp water

INATRUCTIONS:

Make cacao pastry.

1. Grate butter, set aside.
2. In a big bowl add pastry flour with cocoa powder ground toasted hazelnuts, grated butter and salt. Mix between your hands until combined. Texture must be grainy.
3. Add moscobado sugar, egg and mix lightly.
4. Transfer the dough to a counter and knead making fraisage technique. It will be useful to get an homogenous dough but without gluten developed.
5. Put the heel of the hand over the dough and push to the front little by little to get a merged dough but without being elastic. We can see how to make it in this video.
6. Once the dough is homogenous, roll it between two teflon sheets into 0,11 inches (3 mm). Diameter dough must be bigger than iron skillet.
7. Let sit between two sheets over a baking tray in the fridge for 2 hours or overnight.

Bake cocoa pastry.

1. Remove teflon sheets and place the pastry over a parchment.
2. Helping with the ring pastry, cut the base and let sit without remove the ring.
3. Cut strips, bit higher than the ring height, and place around the base. You must to cut several strips to cover the tart sides. Press which each other to join the ends the strips.
4. Remove the excess of pastry with a knife to have a perfect edge.
5. Tap the base with a fork. Refrigerate for 30-40 minutes.
6. Preheat oven 345ºF.
7. Remove from the fridge, line pastry with baking paper and fill with ceramic pie weights or uncooked beans.
8. Bake for 15-20 minutes.
9. Remove ceramic pie weights, brush with beaten egg-white and bake for 5 minutes more.
10. Remove from the oven, with care, and let cool.

Make caramel banana filling.

1. Hydrate gelatin sheets in cold water for 15 minutes.
2. While, smash ripe banana in a medium bowl, previously sliced.
3. Pour whole milk, mix with a whisks and transfer to a saucepan.
4.  Place over medium heat and let until simmer. Remove from the heat.
5. On the other hand, add sugar in a medium saucepan and let until get a brown caramel. Stir occasionally to avoid burn and get a perfect melt from sugar.
6. Pour, with too much care, over the banana mixture and mixing at a time with a whisks.
7. Cook medium heat until simmer, remove from the heat and let cool until get 122ºF.
8. Drain well gelatin sheets, add to the banana mixture and stir until dissolved.
9. Pour caramel banana mixture over the pastry and place in the fridge overnight.

Make Chantilly cream.

Before make whipped cream we must know:

• Cream must be cold 24 hours before used it.
• The bowl in which we are going to make whipped cream must be cold. I recommend to use one aluminium bowl and freeze 20 minutes before beat it.

1. Add gelatin powder with water in a glass, mix and let hydrate 5 minutes.
2. Put into the microwave on high temperature for 15 seconds. Remove and let cool (it must reduce to 91-95ºF) while we beat the heavy cream.
3. Pour heavy cream into freeze bowl and beat with an electric mixer into slow speed.
4. Once cream is becoming to form stiff peaks, add sugar little by little stirring the whole time. Increase speed gradually but without reaches high one. Ideally use medium speed.
5. Before finish to beat the cream, pour vanilla extract and gelatin mixture and beat until get a perfect whipping cream. Be sure not to over-beat, otherwise cream will become lumpy and butter-like.
6. Cover with plastic wrap and chill until used it.

Decorate Banoffee Pie.

1. Fill a pipping bag with Chantilly cream, I have used a star piping tube (nº 6B de Wilton).
2. Decorate with cream at your choice. I did not use all the cream for decorate, we will have too much cream that we can serve with the tart in a small bowl.
3. Grated some black chocolate and place over the cream stars and over the tart.
4. Finally, place some dried banana slices.
5. Serve and enjoy.
   

NOTES:

• How must I preserve this pie? Refrigerate in an airtight container or covered with film plastic.
• How much time can I preserve it?  It could be perfect for 5-6 days with Chantilly cream and 7-8 days without it.
• How can I preserve the remaining Chantilly cream? In an airtight container, place in the fridge, for 5-6 days.
• Dried banana slices place them over the tart until served, or they will be wet and soft.
• What can I do with the remaining dried banana slices? They can be stored for months in a Fido jar. You can use them to decorate, to serve with granola or simple enjoy. They are a healthy snack!
  

I have never been a big fan from banana desserts, I always prefer to eat it naturally. But I must to say that this Banoffee pie is an exception, well, this Sour Cream Banana Cake too. In fact, this is an ingredient that I am beginning to use at pastry and each day, I love it more. I do not know what is happen to me, maybe the age, things that they do not like me in past, nowadays I love them.

But, those things that I loved, nowadays I do too. I love to enjoy at a table 😉

I hope you enjoy this tart too in the weekend. It is not complicate to make and result is… amazing. If I tell you otherwise, it would be a lie.

Have a nice weekend, see you on Monday!
Eva