My baked puff pastry triangles are filled with hot vanilla and rum flavored cooked bananas and my Vanilla Bean Pastry Cream. They are then drizzled with my Chocolate Ganache Dessert Sauce and sprinkled with sliced and toasted almonds. They are a take-off of Bananas Foster, a similar dessert. Legend has it that Bananas Foster was created in 1951 in the famed Brennan’'s Restaurant in New Orleans by Chef Paul Blange and named after a frequent customer Richard Foster. The dessert is so popular, that Brennan’'s uses thirty-five thousand pounds of bananas each year. If you don't have the time to make the pastry cream, just use my Instant Pastry Cream Variation, included with this recipe, or substitute it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Frozen puff pastry is available in the freezer section of a grocery store. Of course, you can always make your own Puff Pastry recipe!
PASTRY RECIPE HELP
INGREDIENTS
Puff Pastry:
1 sheet of puff pastry (1/2 of a 1-pound package), thawed
Pastry Cream
1 recipe Vanilla Bean Pastry Cream, chilled overnight
Nuts
1 cup sliced almonds; they are thin rounds that sometimes retain a bit of the almond skin on the outside
Bananas Foster
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 tablespoons sugar can use brown sugar
3 ripe bananas, peeled and quartered lengthwise, then cut into thirds just ripened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Sauce
1 recipe Chocolate Ganache Dessert Sauce, warmed
INSTRUCTIONS
Prepare Puff Pastry and Almonds
Position oven shelf to the middle of the oven. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Meanwhile, while the oven preheats, spread nuts in one layer on ungreased shallow baking pan. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden. Set aside and let cool.
Unfold pastry and cut along the folds, making 3 rectangles. Return excess to an airtight container in the freezer.
Cut each rectangle is half widthwise and then each into 2 triangles. On an ungreased or parchment lined baking sheet place triangles with about a ½-inch in between.
Prick all over with a fork. Bake for 15 minutes and let cool on a wire cake rack until ready to use. You can bake them a day ahead and store when cooled in an airtight container.
Prepare Bananas
Heat the butter and sugar under medium heat in a large skillet until caramelized, taking care not to burn. Add the bananas and cook until tender, turning once. Stir in vanilla extract and cinnamon to the butter sauce. Pour rum all over mixture and boil briefly. (The rum may ignite. If it does, don't stir; it will burn out ).
Assemble right before serving:
Slice baked puff pastry in half. Place the bottom half on serving plate. Fill with bananas making sure you get some of the sauce. Then top with 1/4 cup of pastry cream and the remaining puff pastry triangle. Then top with warmed Chocolate Ganache Fudge Sauce.
Garnish with toasted sliced almonds.
STORAGE
Baked and unfilled puff pastry can be frozen in an airtight container for 1 month. Unused and thawed puff pastry can be frozen twice. This dessert does not freeze well. If baked and filled with pastry cream or chocolate ganache, puff pastries will last for up to two hours. Refrigerate for up to 1 day, but they may become soggy.
