dailydelicious: CHARLOTTE À LA BANANE: Banana charlotte, sexy and lovely banana!

Do you like banana? Well, if any people ask me this question, I have to say "yes". I love to eat it plain, baked, fried or turn it into any kind of desserts.

Banana is very simple fruit, but most of the time, it's rarely dress up due to the fact that it will turn black very quickly as soon as it contact with the air (or oxidation).

But when I saw this dessert in the book: おいしい顔のお菓子たち by Katsuhiko Kawata, I think, wow, this is very good, both in appearance and the way we use the banana. The flavor of the banana is the key of this dessert and it uses only the banana for the decoration too.

So, the banana is the queen for this time, not the took for granted fruit as always or a back up for other flavor (most of the time it's the back up for chocolate), it can turn into beautiful dessert by the simple way, just brûlé it with a blow torch and brush with the glaze. This way the fruit won't darken and become the yellow jewel on the top of the charllote.

The inside of the charlotte is the banana bavarois, with the sauté banana, the fragrance and the softness of the bavarois are great, and the banana lover will fall in love with this charlotte.
I hope that this charlotte will be a great change for any love to eat banana, because when dress up like this, the banana will be lovely and sexy again!

CHARLOTTE À LA BANANE

Makes 15 cm

BISCUITS À LA CUILLÈRE

3 .................................. Egg yolks

75g .............................. Caster sugar (a)

3 .................................. Egg whites

28g ............................... Caster sugar (b)

75g ............................... Cake flour

...................................... confectioner's sugar for sprinkle on top of the biscuits

BAVAROIS À LA BANANE

4 ................................... Egg yolks

150g ............................ Caster sugar

250g ............................ Banana puree

50g .............................. Milk

7g ................................. Gelatin

60g .............................. Milk

1tsp ............................. Rum

250g ............................ Whipping cream

BANANE SAUTÉ

1 ................................. Banana, cut into 1cm slice

7g ............................... Unsalted butter

15g ............................. Caster sugar

20ml ........................... Rum

SYRUP

70g ............................ Caster sugar

50g ............................ Water

1tbsp ......................... Rum

BANANE BRÛLÉ

2 ................................ Banana, cut into 1cm slice

................................... Apricot jam

Make the biscuits:

Preheat the oven to 160°C.

1. In an impeccably clean, dry mixer bowl with a clean, dry whisk attachment in place, whip the egg whites on high speed until they turn opaque and form soft peaks. Still whipping on high, gradually add 25g of the sugar (sugar b). Continue beating until the whites are glossy and hold very firm peaks.

2. In another bowl, whisk the yolks and the remaining 75g of sugar (sugar a) together until they are well blended, about 1 to 2 minutes. Sifting the flour over the egg yolk mixture and spoon the meringue into the mixture, gently fold all together with a rubber spatula (No matter how delicately you fold in the flour, the batter will deflate. Don’t worry but do be gentle.) The batter is now ready to be pipe.

1. Fit a large pastry bag with a plain 8-10mm tip and set aside until needed. Place the parchment paper on baking sheets.

2. Gently spoon the batter into the pastry bag. Pipe 2 disks, one 12cm in diameter and the other one 6 cm in diameter. Then making a ladyfinger band by piping plump logs of batter from top to bottom about 11 cm long and 10-12mm wide. Dust them lightly with confectioner’s sugar, refill the bag when you run out of batter.

Let the piped batter rest on the counter for 15 minutes, during which time the confectioner’s sugar will pearl, or form beads.

3. Give them a second light dusting of confectioner’s sugar and slip the baking sheets into the oven. Bake for 17-20 minutes, just until the fingers are golden. Slide the parchment off the baking sheets and transfer the fingers, on their parchment sheets, to racks. Allow to cool to room temperature.

4. When the fingers are cool, run an offset spatula under the disks and bands to loosen them from the paper.

Make BANANE SAUTÉ:

Put the butter into the pan and put the banana and sugar into the pan.

Sauté the banana until the banana soften, pour the rum and sauté until brown.

Make BAVAROIS À LA BANANE:

Mix the yolks and the sugar until light in color, set aside.

Put 50ml of milk into saucepan, and pour the banana puree into the milk, put the sauce pan over medium heat and let the mixture comes to boil, then take off the heat.

Bloom the gelatin in the water, and set aside.

Pour the banana mixture into the yolks mixture, whisk to combine.

Pour the mixture back into the sauce pan, put the sauce pan over low heat and let the mixture comes to simmer, then take off the heat.

Squeeze the gelatin out off the water, put it into the hot mixture and whisk until melt.

Let the mixture cool completely.

Beat the whipping cream until soft peaks form.

Pour 60ml of milk into the banana mixture and stir to combine, put the rum and stir again.

Put 1/3 of the whipped cream into the banana mixture and fold to combine.

Pour the mixture back into the whipped cream and fold until combine.

Assemble:

Make the syrup by mix the water and sugar and bring to boil, then let it cool and mix in the rum.

Line the foil to make the side of the 15 cm cake pan higher.

Place 12 cm disk inside of the pan and line the outside with the finger biscuits.

Sprinkle the disk with the syrup.

Pour the 1/3 of the bavarois into the pan, put the sauté banana over the bavarois.

Pour the 1/3 of the bavarois into the pan, then pace the 6cm disk over the bavarois.

Sprinkle the disk with the syrup then pour the rest of the bavarois over the disk.

Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight until firm.

When ready to serve, make BANANE BRÛLÉ:

Heat the apricot preserves in a small saucepan over medium heat until liquid. Remove from heat and strain the jam through a fine strainer to remove any fruit lumps.