Officially summer started here. But still, some days are cloudy, with light rain. Spring hangover is not yet over. Some other desserts in this space are Almond yogurt mousse, cheesecake budino, rose and berry pudding and creme brulee.
While going through the recipe lists here, I noticed that there is no banana based desserts. We had two ripe bananas on our kitchen counter. So it was a good reason for me to try a dessert on banana. This is a rich mousse. This is Johnny Iuzzini with Wes Martin’s recipe. By Gods grace, it came out well.
Servings: 6
Ingredients:
Caramelize bananas:
2 ripe bananas (Sliced ¼ inch thick)
¼ cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of butter
A pinch of salt
2 tablespoons of spiced dark rum* (check notes)
For the mousse
1 cup of heavy whipping cream + 1 tablespoon sugar
2 large egg yolks
1 large egg
¼ cup of sugar
Method:
Caramelize bananas :
Put sugar and salt in a dry skillet over medium high heat. Do not stir.
Cook until the sugar is melted and starts browning and give off a white smoke. Roll the pan to cook the sugar evenly into a dark honey color. Add butter and swirl to mix.
Remove the pan from heat, add bananas and return the pan to medium low heat. Continue cooking tossing bananas until they are very soft. Pull the pan off from heat, add rum and swirl the pan for 3 minutes.
Transfer the mixture into a blender and puree it until smooth. Set aside to cool. If you want to clear any lumps, pour through a mesh strainer into a large mixing bowl.
For the mousse:
In a sauce pan boil one third full of water. In stand mixer bowl (or any steel bowl, which is heat proof), put egg yolks, whole egg and sugar and whisk to combine. Make sure that the bowl does not touch the water. Continue whisking until very hot to touch and sugar is completely dissolved.
Now whisk them well on medium high speed until eggs are thickened, hold the trail of whisk and the mixture is cool to touch.
With an electric mixer, whisk the whipping cream with 1 tablespoon of sugar until firm peaks form.
Add the cool egg mixture to banana puree and fold it gently until no streaks remain. Add the whipping cream to the banana mixture half by half and fold it gently until combined. No white streaks of cream should be visible.
Spoon it into 6 small dessert glasses. Refrigerate overnight or at least 4 hours and serve.
Topping:
I melted 1/4 cup of sugar and made random designs on a parchment paper. In this method, if caramel is exposed to water, it will melt. I put some chocolate chips too.
*Notes:
#1 If you are not a rum person, I think you can add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Vanilla extract must be added after the bananas are fully caramelized and off from heat.
#2 If you don’t want that intensive flavor of rum, reduce the amount of rum to 1 teaspoon.
#3 This is a rich dessert and servings should be small.
You can use this mousse for fillings in cake or any other desserts. Since I made it with rum, my little one was not allowed to touch. The mousse was rich and fluffy. We enjoyed it after the meal. Try it and let me know :-)
