Bananas Flambé & Chocolate Tart

Start by cutting the bananas in small cubes and add them to a small saucepan, together with the sugar and cook them for 2 minutes or until the sugar is slightly caramelised. I did not want to cook the banana for too long because it would have turned into puree. After 2 minutes, add the rum and reduce it or if you have a little bit of courage, flambé it, but just be careful. Unfortunately I don't have pics with the process but you can make sure you make  little bit o research before playing with fire and alcohol. It's no big deal but you just have to be careful. After flambéing the bananas (it should take 1 minute or less), turn off the heat and immediately add the soaked gelatine sheets (I usually soak them for 5 minutes in very cold water, then I drain them well and add them to the cream) and incorporate them well. Take a 16cm ring and cover the base with plastic foil, then place a flat plate underneath and then add the jelly to the ring , level it and freeze overnight. 

I like to use a blender or chopper for my crust so that I won't melt the butter with my hands, but feel free to use whatever you want. When making shortcrust pastry, you need to make sure that there's no heat, otherwise the butter will melt too fast and your crust will shrink. This can happen with the blender too, this is why I suggest small pulses. 

In a blender, add the flour, cocoa, sugar and mix everything well (give it some pulses). Then add the cold butter and quickly pulse until the mixture resembles coarse sand. Add the beaten egg, give it few pulses just until it comes together into a ball, then transfer to a flour dusted surface and  shape it gently into a ball. Do NOT knead. Wrap it in plastic foil and refrigerate for at least 1h.

After 1h, take the dough out and roll it out into a biiiig circle (use 2 baking sheets dusted with flour, that's the easiest method), then add the rolled-out dough to the tart base (I have used a 20-23 cm tart base) and shape it nicely. Cut the excess dough and trim or add where necessary. Add a baking sheet on top filled with beans and make sure they cover the entire base, so that the crust will blind bake nicely. Bake in the preheated oven at 160 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes and after 20 minutes remove the beans and bake the crust for further 10 minutes. Allow to cool completely on a rack.

For the ganache, bring the cream to a boil and then pour it over the chopped chocolate. Mix well until incorporated. Allow to slightly cool.

After the banana layer has completely frozen, you might take it out from the freezer and carefully remve it. Place it in the tart crust and then pour the ganache over while still warm. Do not allow the ganache to cool completely, otherwise it will become impossible to pour. Set in the fridge for at least 30 minutes-1h before adding the mirror glaze.

In a saucepan, add the glucose syrup/honey, sugar and water and bring to a boil or simmer until the sugar melts. Then pour this mixture over the condensed milk and mix everything well. Pour this mix over the chopped chocolate, and at the end add the soaked  and drained gelatine sheets. Mix everything well and pour over the ganache layer (make sure it's set). Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or until the jelly is defrosted.

In order to decorate the tart, you can flambé 1 more banana and scatter it on top. i did that and I have chopped some almonds as well. You can caramelised them with a little bit of sugar or you can simply bake them until golden and then chop them and scatter them over the tart.

Enjoy!