Reason #2 I don't like the photos I take. This seems like something that should be easy to do, but apparently it's not, or maybe my expectations are too high.
Reason #3 I GOT MARRIED! Ah! Seriously, so much of my time went into planning and preparing for the wedding that I really haven't had much time for blogging. Did I mention that I got married?!? No? Silly me; reason #4 I GOT MARRIED!
But seriously, now that the honeymoon is over, I've spent some time trying to edit the hundreds of photos I have taken recently, in the hopes of blogging these recipes. Last night I started editing photos for a delicious recipe that I found while wasting time on pinterest.com. If you have not visited this website, let me warn you, DO NOT GO...it is a time sucking, yet awesome website.
This recipe has a lot of steps, but the end product is so worth the effort. Enjoy!
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| The Ingredients (minus the chocolate) |
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| Pour the boiling cream over the chocolate |
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| Mix together after letting sit |
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| Pour the ganache over the crust |
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| Add the sliced banana and a layer of salted caramel |
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| Add the pastry cream over the banana/caramel layer, top with whipped cream, swirl caramel into the whipped cream, and add the remaining sliced bananas on top. |
Graham Cracker Crust
1 ¼ cups graham cracker crumbs (10 or 11 whole crackers)
1 teaspoon sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Ganache Layer
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate (about 1/2 cup chocolate chips)
Pastry Cream
1 2/3 cups whole milk
¼ cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar
1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped out and reserved (I used 1 Tbsp of vanilla bean paste)
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Salted Caramel Sauce
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon water
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel (or kosher salt)
Items Needed for Assembly
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
3 medium bananas
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 325 F.
For the pastry cream
9. Combine the milk, ¼ cup of sugar, and the vanilla bean and seeds or vanilla bean paste in a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Note: if the vanilla bean is hardened, put the entire bean in the saucepan so that it softens as the milk warms up. Once it’s pliable again, remove the pod, split it in half, and scrape the seeds out. Then add everything back into the saucepan until the mixture simmers.
10. While the mixture simmers, sift the remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar together with the cornstarch in a small bowl. Then, in a large bowl, whisk together the egg and two egg yolks.
11. When the milk comes to a simmer, strain out the vanilla bean pod.
12. Add the cornstarch mixture to the eggs and whisk until well combined.
13. While whisking the egg/cornstarch mixture, slowly pour in about one-quarter of the milk in order to temper the egg mixture.
14. Transfer this mixture to the saucepan, set over low heat, and simmer, whisking constantly, until it reaches the consistency of thick pudding, taking care not to curdle the eggs.
15. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter until incorporated. If the mixture isn’t quite as smooth as you’d like, you can always run it through a sieve.
16. Pour into a shallow bowl, place plastic wrap directly on the surface, and chill.
For caramel sauce
17. In a heavy saucepan set over medium-high heat, stir together sugar and water. Use a pastry brush and water to brush down any sugar crystals off the side of the pan. Bring the sugar water to a boil and boil until amber-colored.
18. Once the color is right, immediately add butter and stir to incorporate. Remove from the heat, add cream and salt (be careful, as it will splatter), and mix well. It should be smooth and have a syrup-like consistency. Let cool to room temperature.
For assembly
19. Using an electric mixer or a whisk, whip the heavy cream into peaks. Add powdered sugar and incorporate.
23. Roughly chop the remaining half banana and fold into the pastry cream.
24. Drizzle a thin layer of caramel sauce over the bananas.
25. Spoon the pastry cream evenly into the crust.
26. Mound the remaining whipped cream on top and drizzle some caramel sauce over the whipped cream, swirling it decoratively.
27. Decorate with remaining banana slices.
28. Chill and serve within 24 hours. The remaining caramel sauce can be used when plating the pie.
Recipe courtesy of lickmyspoon.com
1 ¼ cups graham cracker crumbs (10 or 11 whole crackers)
1 teaspoon sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Ganache Layer
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate (about 1/2 cup chocolate chips)
Pastry Cream
1 2/3 cups whole milk
¼ cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar
1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped out and reserved (I used 1 Tbsp of vanilla bean paste)
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Salted Caramel Sauce
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon water
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel (or kosher salt)
Items Needed for Assembly
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
3 medium bananas
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 325 F.
2. Combine the crumbs and sugar in a bowl. Then add the melted butter and mix until the crumbs are moistened.
3. Transfer the mixture into a 9-inch pie pan (I used a tart pan) and press the crumbs evenly over the bottom and up the sides. Note: the edges of the shell will be crumbly.
4. Bake until lightly browned, 10-12 minutes. Cool completely.
4. Bake until lightly browned, 10-12 minutes. Cool completely.
For the ganache
5. Set the chocolate into a bowl; heat the heavy cream to boiling point and pour over the chocolate.
6. Let the cream/chocolate mixture stand a couple of minutes and gently stir until fully incorporated and glossy. It should be the consistency of warmed chocolate syrup.
7. Cool to room temperature.
8. Pour over the cooled pie crust and refrigerate.For the pastry cream
9. Combine the milk, ¼ cup of sugar, and the vanilla bean and seeds or vanilla bean paste in a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Note: if the vanilla bean is hardened, put the entire bean in the saucepan so that it softens as the milk warms up. Once it’s pliable again, remove the pod, split it in half, and scrape the seeds out. Then add everything back into the saucepan until the mixture simmers.
10. While the mixture simmers, sift the remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar together with the cornstarch in a small bowl. Then, in a large bowl, whisk together the egg and two egg yolks.
11. When the milk comes to a simmer, strain out the vanilla bean pod.
12. Add the cornstarch mixture to the eggs and whisk until well combined.
13. While whisking the egg/cornstarch mixture, slowly pour in about one-quarter of the milk in order to temper the egg mixture.
14. Transfer this mixture to the saucepan, set over low heat, and simmer, whisking constantly, until it reaches the consistency of thick pudding, taking care not to curdle the eggs.
15. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter until incorporated. If the mixture isn’t quite as smooth as you’d like, you can always run it through a sieve.
16. Pour into a shallow bowl, place plastic wrap directly on the surface, and chill.
For caramel sauce
17. In a heavy saucepan set over medium-high heat, stir together sugar and water. Use a pastry brush and water to brush down any sugar crystals off the side of the pan. Bring the sugar water to a boil and boil until amber-colored.
**Note: once the mixture starts changing color, watch it closely because it will burn quickly. If you accidentally burn the caramel, start over. Sugar and water are cheap and this is a relatively easy and quick step. The darker the color, the more caramel the flavor; the ligher the color the more butterscotch the flavor**
18. Once the color is right, immediately add butter and stir to incorporate. Remove from the heat, add cream and salt (be careful, as it will splatter), and mix well. It should be smooth and have a syrup-like consistency. Let cool to room temperature.
For assembly
19. Using an electric mixer or a whisk, whip the heavy cream into peaks. Add powdered sugar and incorporate.
20. Transfer the pastry cream to a large bowl and whisk until smooth. Then fold in about half of the whipped cream.
21. Line the bottom of the pie crust with approximately two bananas sliced into rounds on a diagonal.
22. Slice half of the remaining banana into rounds on a diagonal for garnish.21. Line the bottom of the pie crust with approximately two bananas sliced into rounds on a diagonal.
23. Roughly chop the remaining half banana and fold into the pastry cream.
24. Drizzle a thin layer of caramel sauce over the bananas.
25. Spoon the pastry cream evenly into the crust.
26. Mound the remaining whipped cream on top and drizzle some caramel sauce over the whipped cream, swirling it decoratively.
27. Decorate with remaining banana slices.
28. Chill and serve within 24 hours. The remaining caramel sauce can be used when plating the pie.
Recipe courtesy of lickmyspoon.com
This looks delicious and your pictures are amazing. I think I may know where you get your "bad blogging" from however...I am not quite certain how you could preheat anything to 325 degrees in this heat, so I will pass on trying to make this and stick to smoothies for now...Oh yeah, did you get married? Congrats!
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think about this with strawberries?? I'm maybe someday planning on inviting people over and I'm thinking this would be a good dessert- except for the part where I have something against bananas.
ReplyDeleteI think strawberries might taste good with this...I am thinking about each component separately, and strawberries + chocolate = good and strawberries + whipped cream = good and strawberries + salted caramel = good (I think). Let me know how it turns out if you wind up making it that way.
ReplyDelete