Caramelised Banana Frangiepane Tart

I'm not sure if you are like me, but I have this love for tarts. From my previous posts, you will notice the variety of tarts I've baked before, whether it is sweet or savory, with fresh fruits or cheesy German style pudding tarts, I can't get enough of them! I especially love frangipane tarts with fruits in it. Somehow the buttery flaky crust with that almond nutty filling topped with fruits just make it a perfect desert....for any occasion. One of my all time favorite was the Fresh Cherry Frangipane Tarts. However, today I'm going to introduce yet another wonderful version, Caramelised Bananas Frangipane Tarts. ;)

I actually did a similar tart about 3 years back. The earlier tart I baked has a cream cheese layer on it, so it's like cheesecake in a tart with wonderful caramalised bananas...yum. :) But this new recipe is actually a much nicer version in my opinion since I love frangipane filling more then cheese cake filling. ;P Yes, the almond meal did it's magic some how, lol!

The caramel really help accentuate the taste of the bananas and gives it a deep mallow sweetness to it. Although the usual frangipane tarts are paired with tangy, juicy stone fruits or apples, somehow this caramelised banana worked beautifully. (^o^)

Ingredients for Caramelised Bananas in Frangipane Tart (makes a 10")

Caramelised bananas

5 to 6 bananas. slice into half (ripe but still firm enough)

80g sugar

20g sugar

20ml fresh heavy cream

• In a heavy saucepan, heat the sugar and water together till it starts to turn amber. That usually takes about 4 to 5 minutes at medium low fire. Remove pan from fire and gently swirl the mixture till the color is even. Then carefully add in the heavy cream. (NOTE: the caramel will bubble once you add the cream in, so please stay at a safe distance and don't get burnt!)
• Stir in the mixture properly till everything is even in color. At this point add in the bananas halves and place the pan back onto the stove at low heat. Let the bananas cook for another 2 minutes till all has a nice caramel coating. Then set aside for use later.

Sweet Pastry tart Shell:

260g cake flour,

120g cold unsalted butter, cut small,

80g confectioner's sugar,

2 egg yolks,

1/8 tsp salt

60g chopped dark chocolate, melted and cooled (I used Lindt 75% cocoa)

• In a large mixing bowl, add in the cake flour, powder sugar and salt. then using only your finger tips, work the cold butter into the flour mixture. Alternatively, use a mixer to combine the ingredients till it resembles bread crumbs.
• Next add in the egg yolks and gently work the dough but not over kneading it. Over kneading the dough will make it hard and not flaky.
• Chill the dough in plastic wrap for at least 30 mins till ready to be used.
• After chilling, place the dough between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and roll it out flat to about 1/4" thick. Then gently place the dough over the greased tart shell and press in the sides and making sure the edges are all even.
• Prick some holes at the base of the pastry shell and chill it again before use.

Frangipane filling

120g butter, soften
120g icing sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 tbsp cake flour
165g finely ground almond meal

• In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter, icing sugar and vanilla together till well combined
• Add the first egg and beat well. Then crack the 2nd egg in and continue to beat till mixed in.
• Then add in the flour and almond meal into the egg mixture and combine well. Set aside for use later.
• Preheat the oven to 180C and take out the tart pastry that has been pressed into the greased tart tin shells. Note that no pre-baking is needed for the pastry tarts in this recipe.
• Now coat the bottom of the tart shell evenly with the melted chocolate.
• 
• Now spoon the frangipane batter into the tart shell and over the chocolate coating.
• 
• Now gently spoon and arrange the caramelised bananas over the frangipane filling.
• 
• Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 45minutes at 175C or till tester comes out clean. If the center is still soft and the sides of the pastry crust is already browning fast, cover the tart with aluminum foil and continue to bake for another 5 minutes.
• Remove from oven and makes sure the tart is cooled before removing from the pan. Serve warm or chilled whichever rocks your boat. Enjoy!

Overall a great recipe, and definitely will be baked again in the future. Well, at least I know I can use up my ripe bananas other then just banana cake. ;)

This was the last slice that was salvaged after serving @ my in laws last weekend. Everyone loved it, heehee. ;) Hope you all will try it out as well.

Happy baking everyone!

Lavender Macarons with Mango curd buttercream

There was a family gathering over at my sister's place last weekend. My mum and sis prepared lots of delicious food for everyone. To thank the generous host and hostess, I decided to bake something nice for everyone to enjoy. Since both my sister and her husband loves cheesecakes, I decided to make a simple no-bake light mango cheesecake that day. Since the cheesecake looks kind of plain on it's own, the idea of decorating it with some macarons came to mind. (Plus its AB macaron theme this month, hehe) As I didn't want to bake the usual flavors, I went with something slightly more "exotic"...Lavender Macarons! I bet some of you are going..."Ewww....potpourri flavor?! I know I know, it does sound a little unconventional, but since I did make lavender butter cookies before and they turned out wonderful, so I thought...why not?

To match the flavor with the cheesecake, I filled the macarons with mango curd buttercream. Eh...why not just mango curd, why with buttercream? Well, long story short, the curd was a little runny and it just didn't hold well in the macs. Why? Don't really know...even after I cooked it much longer then suggested. :P However the mango curd's taste was fabulous, a great recipe I got from Smitten Kitchen. Check out her link if you are interested to make the curd.

For the no-bake cheesecake recipe, please kindly refer to my previous post. As for the mac recipe, here it is:

Ingredients for Lavender Macaron Shells: (makes about 20 cookies)

100g almond meal (I ground mine from whole blanched and toasted almonds)
100g icing sugar
1 heaping tbsp lavender (I chopped mine into even finer bits)
38g fresh egg whites (about 2 egg whites)
pinch of salt
some violet food coloring (optional-I used Wilton's violet food coloring gel, a little goes a long way)

80g caster sugar
20ml water

38g aged egg whites (about 2 egg whites)

• In a blender, finely ground the almond powder and confectioner's sugar together till powdery like. Then pour it into a bowl and add in the lavender bits . Then mix in the egg white and salt. Stir and mix well. Mixture will be thick.

• In a saucepan placed over medium fire, heat up the sugar and water. Once the sugar has all melted, place your candy thermometer in and monitor it till it reaches ~108C. Once it reaches 108C, beat the egg white at high speed till it reaches soft peaks, which by then the temperature should be close to 118C.

• Slowly drizzle the sugar syrup into the egg white while the mixer is still at medium speed. Once all the syrup is in, continue to beat till the meringue is glossy.

• Fold in 1/3 of the meringue into the almond meal mixture. Since the almond mixture is thick, you'll need to stir harder to incorporate it well. Repeat the other 2 portions and fold in gently.

• Scoop the batter into a piping bag with an 10mm nozzle. Pipe out on a baking tray lined with baking parchment paper. Let rest for 10 minutes while you preheat the oven to 150C with fan off.

• After 10 minutes, bake the cookies in the oven for 14mins.

• After baking, remove from oven and let cool completely before peeling off.

Note: You can dry the mac shells a little by using your oven if that day happens to be a humid/rainy day. Preheat oven to 80C, off oven and place piped mac shells in. When the shells are no longer sticky to your finger's touch, they are good to bake. Else wait for another 5 minutes to let it dry up a little further.

I was really happy my family loved this cake...and the macs. ;) Although most of them have no clue what flavor the mac was, they just happily chomp it down (before I can tell them), lol! I guess the mango flavoring might have been a little overpowering over the lavender, since I did only add 1 tbsp. I have reduce the sugar for this recipe and thank goodness it still turned out fine. *phew!!*  So the macs were not overly sweet, just to my liking. ;) However, the violet color didn't quite show...should add a wee but more coloring next time. :P

  

To my surprise, I actually like the faint flowery scent in the mac. No, not potpourri feel at all...just a sweet scent at the background to compliment the nutty flavor of the almond. :) If I would have filled it with plain vanilla buttercream, it's flowery scent would have stand out even more. But overall, I was really happy I tried something new! Being a little adventurous never hurts ya?

I am happy to submit my post to this month's Aspiring Bakers #17: March Macaron Madness! (Mar 2012) hosted by Alan of Travellingfoodies.

Thanks Alan for hosting!

Okay, will end this post here. Thanks for staying with me!