Monday, February 16, 2009

Banana Rum Tart with Chocolate Mousse


I had some bananas getting spotty on my kitchen shelf, and wanted to come up with some way of using them other than my standard banana bread. This is what I came up with, after reading a dozen recipes for banana custard and banana cream and a Cuban banana rum cake. I served it after red beans and rice with spicy chicken, and I will likely post that recipe very soon.

This recipe makes enough banana custard to fill one full size pie shell and three 4-inch mini tart shells.

Banana Rum Tart & Chocolate Mousse

Tart Shell
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup butter
3 to 4 tbsp ice water

Whisk together the flour and salt in a medium bowl. Cut in the butter and mix with a pastry cutter until it looks like coarse crumbs. Add 3 tbsp ice water and mix until the dough is smooth. If too dry, mix in another tablespoon of ice water.
Roll the dough out between two pieces of parchment paper to a circle slightly larger than your pan and refrigerate for 30 minutes before removing the parchment and fitting it into the pie pan. Bake for 8 minutes at 425º before filling with banana custard.

Banana Rum Custard Pie Filling
3 overripe bananas
3 eggs
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp all purpose flour
3/4 cup heavy cream
4 tbsp dark rum
1 tbsp all purpose flour
2 tbsp confectioners' sugar

In a large bowl, mix the bananas, eggs, and brown sugar on medium until smooth and bubbly. Add the cream and rum, mix in. Pour into the partially baked crust and bake in a 350º oven for about 20 minutes, or until the custard is set.

Chocolate Mousse
1/2 cup milk
6 tablespoons sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 cup chocolate chips or 4 bars of baking chocolate
Pinch of salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tsp ground cinnamon

In a small saucepan, melt the chocolate over low heat, stirring often. Set aside. In another sauce pan, combine the other half of the milk and sugar and heat until steaming and the sugar is dissolved. Put the egg yolk in a small bowl and gradually whisk in the hot milk. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over moderate heat, whisking constantly for about two minutes until it has thickened slightly.
Remove the pan from heat. Add the chocolate and salt and whisk until smooth. Whisk in the butter. Pour the mousse into a plastic bowl and freeze for 15-30 minutes, then whip with a hand mixer on high speed until the mousse is thick and fluffy.
Place a heaping tablespoon of mousse on each serving of banana rum tart. Top with an anise star, or chocolate shavings.

2 comments:

  1. The star anise on top is a nice touch. I want to make some changes to the recipe and make this for Brooke.

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  2. I bet it would be good with sherry!

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