This bannoffee slice recipe is pure Bannoffee heaven! A layer of buttery puff pastry is smothered in salted caramel sauce, sliced bananas and a creamy, light banana custard. Then to top it all off is whipped cream, more salted caramel sauce and chocolate dipped pastry. This dessert slice is based on the krempita vanilla slice and is so moreishly delicious that it should come with a warning label! This is a pushy recipe Dear Reader (and there's a Thermomix recipe too).
Bannoffee (a portmanteau or banana and toffee) is a heavenly mixture of sliced banana, caramel or dulce de leche, cream and chocolate. It's usually made into a pie and the invention is credited to Nigel Mackenzie the owner and Ian Dowding the chef of the former Hungry Monk Restaurant in Jevington, East Sussex, England. I first tried bannoffee when I was in the UK and I swooned over that combination. I'm not even a big banana eater - I'd probably eat one banana every 2 months but when you make it into bannoffee I cannot stop eating them!
Many years ago I had a banana mousse cheesecake at a hotel that I still remember to this day. And it's only now many years later that I figured out how they got the real banana flavour in the cheesecake. I'm talking fresh banana flavour, not banana lollies or candy flavour. It was using a banana puree that chefs use. So I bought a bottle of it and then I had this incredible tasting banana custard that tasted of fresh bananas! And that's when I decided that I wanted to make a version of the Krempita vanilla slice but bannoffee flavoured instead and little did I know that I loved it even more than the original vanilla slice!
Tips For Making This Bannoffee Dessert
1 - If you can't access the Monin banana puree, you can keep this as a regular vanilla custard but I promise it is worth seeking this banana puree out. It's so good (not sponsored) that you will want to drizzle it on top of ice creams or make smoothies or milkshakes with it. It wasn't overly expensive, I think it around $25 for a 1 litre/2.1 pint bottle of concentrated banana puree that will last for a while.
2 - The Monin banana puree is sweet so there is no need to add sugar into the custard. If you don't use the banana puree, you should add 1/2 cup/110g/3.8ozs of caster sugar to the custard.
3 - I love making custards in the Thermomix because they are set and forget with no need to stir. You end up with the silkiest custard too! Plus you can also whip cream in the Thermomix.
4 - This bannoffee slice is best made a day ahead to give the custard time to set.
Mr NQN loved this slice as he is a banana freak, so much so that I always call him a monkey. He got caught out recently for being messy and it involved empty plates of this bannoffee slice. Our cleaning lady Fernanda is amazing and we asked her to do a spring cleaning ahead of the warmer weather. She spent most of the time in Mr NQN's office. He and I have different ideas of what clean is. He is quite happy to sit in a messy, cramped room and he can work just fine. For me, a clean room is a clean mind and I can't work if things are messy. We compromised and over the last few months Mr NQN put a lot of his stuff in huge plastic storage boxes. There are four rows of these with four boxes stacked on top of each other. It's ALOT.
After a couple of hours cleaning his room Fernanda emerged, slightly shell shocked. She cleared out bags of things, empty boxes, dirty plates and envelopes and just junk. With great seriousness on her face she told me that his nuts were out of control. He eats nuts like a monkey and he often leaves the bags open. A disaster as far as pests are concerned.
She handed me a bag full of bags of nuts. "Give these to him in a closed box with a lid," she said. I took the bags of nuts and decanted them into a container and then handed them back to him. "I'm afraid that you can no longer have unsupervised nuts," I said joking but not really joking at all.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"Your nuts will now be supervised due to pest control issues," I told him. He took the news of the supervised nuts well. I actually think he was actually quite relieved and happy at having a new, clean office. Who knows how long it will last though!
So tell me Dear Reader, can you work in a messy room? Do you like the bannoffee combination?
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Bannoffee Slice
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Step 1 - You will need a 20x20x10cm or 8x8x4inch square tin with very high sides for this. Preheat oven to 180C/350F fan forced and line two trays with parchment. Place on square of puff pastry on one tray and dock all over with a fork. Bake for 15 minutes.
Step 2 -Then with the other sheet of puff pastry place the square baking tin on top and score to fit the tin and trim excess pastry off. Cut the pastry into 9 equal sized squares and keep in the fridge until needed. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden. Set aside.
Step 3 -Line the baking tin well using parchment that overhangs (to make it easier to lift out of the tin). Cut the single sheet of pastry to fit the baking tin and place in the bottom of the tin.
Step 4a Conventional - Separate the eggs making sure that there is no yolk in the whites at all. Place the egg whites in a clean bowl of a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and whisk until you get soft peaks. Add half of the sugar in a thin stream and whisk until you get a thick, glossy meringue and you can tip the bowl upside down without it moving. Set aside.
Step 4b Thermomix- Separate the eggs making sure that there is no yolk in the whites at all. Place the egg whites in a very clean Thermomix bowl with a butterfly whisk attachment and set to 4 minutes, 37C, speed 3.5. Remove the MC and set to 4 mins, 37C, speed 3 and gradually pour in the sugar. Watch to see that it has become shiny and glossy. Scoop out and set aside.
Banana custard
Step 5a Conventional - Whisk the egg yolks, the banana puree, cornflour and 1/2 cup (125ml/4flozs) of the milk and vanilla together in a bowl or jug until smooth. Place the remaining milk in a medium saucepan and heat until almost boiling. Turn down the heat on the milk to low and whisk in one ladle of the hot milk into the yolk mixture and add one more ladle of milk and whisk in to temper the yolks. Then slowly add the yolk mixture to the milk mixture in the saucepan stirring to prevent it catching at the bottom. It should thicken up gradually.
Step 5b Thermomix - Place the egg yolks, the sugar, milk, banana puree and cornflour into the Thermomix bowl and set to 9 minutes, 90C, speed #4.
Step 6 -In a wide microwave proof soup bowl place the water and sprinkle with the gelatine powder making sure to evenly distribute it across the surface of the water. The top should wrinkle and swell.
Mixing meringue with the custard
Step 7 -When the custard is thick and ready turn off the heat. Place the gelatine bowl in the microwave for 20 seconds on high or until it becomes liquid. Whisk in the gelatine mixture to the custard while both are hot-they need to be the same temperature, otherwise lumps will form. Thermomix-add gelatine to the bowl of custard and set to 15 seconds, speed #4. Then while everything is still hot, tip this custard to a large bowl and add a dollop of the reserved meringue and fold to combine. Gradually add more meringue until you get a light, cohesive mixture without any streaks at all.
Covering with caramel sauce
Step 8 - Spread half of the caramel onto the base of the pastry. Cut up bananas and line up across the base. Scoop the custard into the tin on top of the bananas and smooth over with an angled spatula until smooth. Cool to room temperature, cover and refrigerate for 6 hours or overnight.
Then covering with sliced banana
Step 8a Conventional - Place the mixer bowl and whisk attachment in the freezer for 5 minutes. Add the cream and the sugar to the bowl and whisk until you get thick, whipped cream.
Dipping pastry squares in melted chocolate
Step 8b Thermomix - Place the TM bowl in the freezer for 5 minutes. Insert the butterfly whisk and add the cream and sugar. Set to speed #4 for 1 minute but remove the MC and watch for when the cream is thick and whipped. Stop it as soon as you can see that the cream is thick enough.
Step 9 -Spoon the cream on top of the set custard. Remove the custard and pastry from the tin using the parchment to grip and then discard the parchment. Melt the chocolate in a bowl in the microwave on 70% power until smooth. Take the pastry squares and dip them into the chocolate and then place on top of the cake. Cut into squares using a sharp chef's knife.
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