#bannoffee

Bannoffee Pie, Wheat Digestive base, filled with a dulche de letche (condensed milk caramel). Slices of ripe bananas topped with a compound whip cream (1:1 cream and sour cream. With just a touch of vanilla) and for the final garnish, crushed toffee with rich dark chocolate and salted pretzels. This is always a hit with guests, family and friends.

Should I post a recipe?

Banoffee pie is an English dessert in a pie made from made from bananas, cream/custard and caramel and layered with sweet pastry biscuits or biscuit crumb and butter mix. A classic comfort food dessert which doesn't require elaborate production methods and pretty easy to produce and assemble. A dessert that can be made in a hurry indeed. I will be doing my version in martini glass and do in a form of trifle. My version consists of dulce de leche, creme Chantilly, shortbread biscuit, vanilla custard , chocolate sauce, caramelized bananas and  garnished with a chocolate fan. The  recipe is as follows:

Dulce de Leche:

Boil a few cans of sweetened condensed milk in a pot totally covered with water for 5 hours. Make sure the cans are always covered with water and always top up water after every 30-45 mins. Alternatively to save time, you can buy caramelized condensed milk from supermarket as well, but I find the flavor a bit bland and not enough caramelized. You can reduce boiling time by boiling these cans for a further 2-3 hours. After boiling the cans, let them cool down at room temperature for 1 hour before opening.

Cream Chantilly:

500 g heavy cream

75 g sifted icing sugar

1 ea Vanilla bean

Method:

Whisk together heavy cream, sifted icing sugar and scraped vanilla bean seeds for a soft whipped consistency. Keep in a fridge till use

Vanilla Custard:

250 ml Milk

250 g Cream

100 g caster sugar

50 g Corn flour

100 g egg yolks

I ea scraped vanilla bean or 20 g  vanilla bean paste

50 g soft unsalted butter

Method:

Boil milk, cream and vanilla bean seeds

Mix egg yolks, caster sugar and corn flour till light and pour a little amount of boiled milk mixture to temper.

Transfer the egg yolk mix to the milk and cream mix pot and while continuously stirring, bring the mix to a boil. When the mixture gets thick, take it off the heat and add softened butter and transfer the mixture to a flat tray, cover the surface with a cling wrap and cool for a few hours 

Shortbread Biscuit:

500 g pastry flour

250 g icing sugar

4 g salt

400 g soft butter

vanilla essence

Method:

Rub pastry flour, sifted icing sugar and butter till sandy consistency and vanilla essence. Add a few table spoons of milk or water and combine to form a dough. Don't over work the dough, as it will activate gluten in the flour, which will make the biscuit firm in texture after baking. Roll the pastry in between sheets of baking paper and cool. Cut out a few pieces with cookie cutter and bake at 170*c for 10-15 mins till golden brown and evenly baked

Chocolate Sauce:

200 g 67% Dark couverture chocolate

50 ml Milk

75 ml Cream

50 g Invert Sugar or Glucose

Method:

Boil cream, milk and invert sugar and pour over chopped chocolate and emulsify to form a smooth sauce. Cool at room temperature till use

Caramelized Bananas:

Slice a banana and place on a metal tray sprayed with oil. Sprinkle some raw sugar on top and caramelize with a blow torch/ propane torch. Alternatively, preheat the oven at 230*c on grill setting and place the bananas  directly under a hot grill and let the sugar caramelize to form a thin crispy crust on top of bananas

Assembly:

Pour a spoonful of chocolate sauce at the bottom of chocolate sauce and sprinkle with crushed shortbread and layer a few pieces of caramelized bananas and repeat the process till you reach the top of the glass. Pipe with creme Chantilly, drizzle with some chocolate sauce and garnish with a few pieces of caramelized bananas and a chocolate fan.