Bananas Foster Tartelettes

By MooK

Ingredients

• Sable Dough:
• 1 stick (113 gr) butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup (95 gr) powdered sugar (unsifted)
• 1 large egg
• 1 1 /2 cups (190gr) all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons (20 gr) cornstarch
• pinch of salt
• For the almond-hazelnut frangipane filling:
• 1 stick (115 gr) butter, softened
• 1/2 cup (100 gr) granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup (50 gr) ground almonds
• 1/2 cup (50gr) ground hazelnuts
• seeds from half a vanilla bean or 2 teaspoons vanilla paste or extract
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup (60gr) heavy cream
• For caramel
• 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
• 6 Tablespoons (90g) salted butter, cut up into 6 pieces
• 1/2 cup (120ml) heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon salt

Preparation

Step 1

Prepare the shortbread rounds:
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy on medium speed, 2-3 minutes. Add the egg and mix until combined. Add the flour, cornstarch and salt and mix briefly to incorporate. Dump the whole mixture onto a lightly floured board and gather the dough into a smooth ball. Do not work the dough while in the mixer or it will toughen up. Flatten the dough into a disk, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.
You will need half the amount of dough to make the tartelettes. The other half can be kept in the fridge for up to 5 days or frozen, well wrapped for up to 3 months.
Preheat the oven to 350F and position a rack in the middle. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
When the dough is nice and cold, roll it out on a lightly floured board or in between sheets of plastic wrap to about ¼ -inch thick. Cut out eight 3-inch rounds with a pastry ring or cookie cutter. Place them on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes. Let cool.

Prepare the filling:
Place the butter, sugar, ground nuts, vanilla bean seeds and the eggs in a large bowl and whisk until smooth (can also be done in a food processor). Add the cream but stir in it instead of whisking to prevent emulsifying it or it will rise while baking. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Place 8 baked rounds of dough in 8 pastry rings of the same dimension, divide the cream evenly among the rings and bake 20 minutes at 350F. Let cool. Once cooled, remove the tarts from the rings and arrange the banana slices decoratively on top, drizzle the caramel sauce on top. Serve with vanilla ice cream if desired.

Caramel:

Heat granulated sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula.

Sugar will form clumps and eventually melt into a thick brown, amber-colored liquid as you continue to stir. Be careful not to burn.
Once sugar is completely melted, immediately add the butter. Be careful in this step because the caramel will bubble rapidly when the butter is added.
Stir the butter into the caramel until it is completely melted, about 2-3 minutes.

Very slowly, drizzle in 1/2 cup of heavy cream while whisking. Since the heavy cream is colder than the caramel, the mixture will rapidly bubble and/or splatter when added.

Allow the mixture to boil for 1 minute. It will rise in the pan as it boils.

Remove from heat and stir in 1 teaspoon of salt. Allow to cool down before using.

Cover the caramel tightly and store for up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator. Warm the caramel up for a few seconds before using in a recipe.