The time I made a Banana Tarte Tatin….a few times.
Bananas, tons of them. We’ve made banana bread, three times, and while its a family favourite I wanted to make something a little different. I perused pinterest and nothing peaked my fancy. Later, my daughter and I were watching Nadiya Hussain’s Time To Eat on Netflicks and both of us drooled when Nadiya made her banana tarte tatin. I looked up the ingredients and saw that I had everything I needed. What I’ve listed here is a slight departure from the original recipe to reflect slightly different ingredients and equipment.
Ingredients
Ready roll puff pastry
100g/3½oz sugar
75g/2½oz butter
30–50g/1–1¾oz chopped hazelnuts
4–5 bananas, sliced into 2cm/¾in coins
I used the the pre-rolled puff pastry, if you have to roll yours out, roll it to 1cm / 1/2 inch thickness
Directions
Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4
Cut the pastry out in a circle about 2cm/¾in wider than a shallow cake pan.
Line cake pan with banana slices.
Full disclosure, I made a few changes because I had to make the caramel three times. The first time I made it, I followed the recipe to the letter. Nadiya’s recipe uses brown sugar because, in her words, it helps the caramel color deepen, faster. Thats great, but I never made a caramel before so the brown of the sugar threw me off. The second time I made it, I used regular sugar and it went from a lovely brown to burned really fast. The third time was the charm.
Caramel
Put the sugar and butter into the pan, and when the sugar dissolves, turn up the heat and allow the caramel to get dark and thicken.
Occasionally lift the pan and give it all a little swirl. The main thing is to watch it until it is a deep caramel colour, because once it gets to that point it can burn quickly.
* It’s best to use a pan with a heavy bottom or a cast iron pan so the heat distributes evenly.
* f the butter and sugar separate, remove from the heat and add 1 tablespoon at a time until the sugar and water emulsify.
Remove from the heat and pour over the bananas.
Sprinkle on the hazelnuts.
Lay the pastry on top and gently lift and tuck it around the sides of the pan, being careful of the hot caramel.
Cut a slit in the top for the steam to escape, and bake for 25–30 minutes.
Allow the tart to cool for a few minutes, then place a plate over the pastry and carefully turn out the tart tatin. Serve in slices with scoops of the ice cream and enjoy.
Wish you were here,
xoxo
