So my mother, being an incredibly friendly person, is friends with the local produce manager, who offered her a bag of approximately 30 bananas for $2. She happily accepted, and gifted the large majority of them to me. 26 bananas… what to do?! A common first thought would be banana bread, but funny story about that… one load utilizes a mere 3 to 4 bananas, depending on the recipe… perhaps 5 if you’re really pushing it. Thus I was searching for ways to integrate as much banana as possible into recipes, and upon discussing this with my co-worker (call him C), I found a recipe for butterscotch banana cream pie. That didn’t quite fit my purposes, as 1) I was down to one mere egg, and 2) I was looking for something less creamy and more healthy. So a bit more research yielded a few more recipes, the threads of which began to coagulate in my mind, and a recipe was born.
This banana tarte uses the following recipes:
- This tarte crust- Which is, I promise you, the most odd and innovative crust you’ll ever try. You boil all the dough ingredients sans flour- yes, I said boil, at 410 degrees- and then when it’s sputtering angrily and blaming you for its heat, you add the flour all at once to the sizzling mess. It’s blisteringly hot, it’s unique, it’s delicious. It yields a fairly thin, buttery, flaky-but-not-crumbling crust that was just perfect. I’m saving this one for a fresh cream and berry tarte in the future, and perhaps apple tarte as well. Try it, it’s delicious, simple, and so different that your curiosity, if nothing else, will lead you to try.
- Caramel sauce- Which ended up, magically, having a surprising toffee flavour (I can’t explain how this happened). It’ll be quite liquid-y when you first make it, but worry not- some cooling will result in major thickening, and after a few hours in the fridge, this will be ready for ice cream topping!
The interior of the tarte- the banana filling- was inspired by the butterscotch filling mentioned above but in the end followed it so loosely that little was left of the original. Though I won’t give proportions as this turned out to be a successful tarte and thus a secret I refuse to share, I can divuldge that the filling contains all of (but not only) the following ingredients: 4 large (ripe) bananas; heavy cream; ginger; cinnamon; salt; flour; butter. The magical ingredient which gives it the perfect consistency shall remain nameless, however. But some thinking as to thickening agents can probably bring you to figuring it out or finding an even better alternative!
Some lessons learned and tips when creating this or something similar:
- Though they may look a bit odd, poking holes in the tarte crust prior to baking is a must, I usually don’t and this crust was the best I have yet to produce, thus leading me to believe that this one changed variable can be (happily) held responsible for the yummy results
- Keeping a bit of dough (raw) on hand for patching things up was a brilliant suggestion by David (his blog has some fantastic recipes, by the way, so check it out if you’re in the mood for French confectionaries)- if you need to use the whole thing, mix some flour and water (my great-grandfather called this “culinary superglue”) together and that should do the trick.
- Though I avoid using butter at all costs, a tiny bit of it in the filling will stop your mixture from sticking to the sides, and will make it far more manageable when moving from pan to tarte. You can be like me and cheat by using earth balance soy butter, if that helps!
- A little patience goes a long way when slicing bananas for the top. When the tarte looks infinitely better, it tastes infinitely better (or so I hear, I actually have yet to taste it as I’m not too crazy about bananas)- seeing is believe (my advertising professors always reiterated this)
- Though they (the caramel people) seem to say otherwise- and I’ve come to the conclusion this is what toffee-itized my caramel- if you’re paranoid like me and remove the caramel from the heat too early and then are at a loss on what to do with this runny mixture with cream, put it back on the heat for 2-3 minutes and you’ll have some exciting toffee-caramel.
On to the pictures! Apologies for the long post on this one, but there was much to say :). Last thoughts: despite my sister being not particularly fond of bananas (she loves Costa Rican ones in particular (the miniature ones) but for some odd reason dislikes most others))- she can’t get enough of the tarte. Oddly, this is becoming a trend with people I offer slices of it to- despite their not being banana fans usually, they really enjoy it. I’m curious as to why this is- my sister volunteers the caramel sauce as reasoning, but I’m unsure. What are your thoughts on this experiment?
Bananas used: 7. (19 to go!)
