Chocolate Frangipane Tart, Banana and Salted Caramel

This has an amazing flavour. Chocolate Frangipane tart with banana and caramel will have you in love

Chocolate Frangipane Tart with Banana and Salted Caramel

I made this tart when I was going to lunch at a friends house. I asked what kind of dessert they would like and they said chocolate so, this was my contribution. Its a kind of take on a banoffee pie. Its got banana and chocolate and salted caramel thrown in. What’s great about this is will last for days. It will survive a strenuous trip in the car and it will be easy to cut.

And now you are asking……”whats frangipane”? Isn’t that a flower?  Ha, no……. it’s a mixture that is light and fluffy from vigorous mixing and it is made by beating butter and sugar then adding eggs and most usually almond meal. Like other recipes it can be adapted to suit what you have and what you can eat.

Frangipane is a great base for a tart because it makes a deliciously moist and soft filling that holds any fruit in place,  any fruit at all…….. apricots, strawberries, raspberries, peaches….is it winter?, then quinces, citrus fruit, apple, rhubarb, pears…. really, it is the best.  To make the mixture light and fluffy I used pure icing sugar so that the sugar didn’t have to break down and melt into the butter before it gets fluffy and light. I also used hazelnut flour and added cocoa to make an unusual chocolate flavoured frangipane. You can do the same or leave out the chocolate altogether.

Pre-bake the tart case. This isn’t compulsory, but it makes for an amazing crunchy base. The base of your tart case can be painted with jam and then filled with the frangipane mix before placing fruit on the top and baking.

Chocolate Tart with bananas

Chocolate Frangipane Tart, Banana and Salted Caramel

Caramel, banana and Chocolate . This is a match made in heaven. Cup measurements are Australian cup sizes

5 from 8 votes

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Course Dessert

Cuisine dessert

Servings 8

Ingredients

  

Pastry

• 250 gm plain flour approx 1- ½ cups
• 40 gm pure icing sugar ¼ cup
• 125 gm butter chilled unsalted, chopped
• 1 whole Egg 70 gm
• 1 Tablespoon water, cold

Chocolate Frangipane filling

• 200 gm butter softened unsalted
• 150 gm pure icing sugar sifted
• 100 gm Hazelnut flour or almond meal/ flour
• 100 gm dutch cocoa
• 2-3 whole bananas
• 2 whole eggs or 3 small eggs
• 1 whole yolk

Salted Caramel Glaze

• 1 Tablespoons water
• 125 gm caster sugar
• 2 drops lemon juice add to water
• 200 gm butter chopped cold
• 50 ml thickened cream 1/4 cup
• 1/4 teaspoon flaked sea salt or salt to taste.

Instructions

 

• Use a 23cm ( 9-10in) tart case with a removable bottom. Set the oven to 180C or 350F
• Make the pastry by adding the flour and sugar to a food processor along with chilled cubed butter and a small pinch of salt and blitz this mixture till it is combined and looks a bit like dried crumbs. Mix the egg and chilled water and beat together. Add all but a tiny drop of the egg mix and blitz. The pastry should come together in a soft ball. If there are still a lot of dry bits then add the rest of the liquid and blitz again.
• Turn onto a bench and flatten the dough, wrap in plastic and put into the fridge till chilled.(20 minutes)
• Once rested bring the dough out and let it soften 5 minutes before rolling to fit your tart case. You can roll it out with a little flour and put it between a couple of pieces of baking paper. Put the prepared tart tin in the fridge to firm up the pastry (15-30 minutes), the freezer works well.
• Bake the pastry case blind ( Line with paper, fill with beans and bake. Remove the paper after 15 minutes and finish baking the tart without the beans and paper till golden, Cool)
• Using an electric mixer beat the butter and icing sugar till very light in colour and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and them the cocoa. beating all the time. Add the flour of nut meal and beat through. Set this aside (It can be done the day before, take it out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature before using)
• Put cut bananas onto the tart case and then spread the frangipane on top.
• Bake for 30- 35 minutes testing by pressing your finger tips into the middle. It will be soft but have a little give. Cool
• Have all of the ingredients ready including the butter cut into cubes, the cream and a whisk.
• Put the sugar into a small saucepan. Swirl to combine the liquid and dissolve the sugar. When the sugar is dissolved turn the heat up a little. Watch while it starts to colour. I like to let it get very dark before adding the cream and stirring. Take off the heat. Next add the butter 1/3 at a time whisking well. You will end up with a dark shiny sauce. Add a 1/4 teaspoon of flaked or sea salt and stir. Pour onto the tart and tilt from side to side so the caramel spreads easily

Notes

You can replace hazelnut: 200 gm almond meal
Use unsalted butter to reduce over salting in caramel

Praline recipe here

Making chocolate frangipane

Recipe for Hazelnut Semi freddo HERE

Here’s a quick peek at making salted caramel and putting the tart together.

Semi freddo recipe can be found in “here”.

Strawberry Frangipane Tart  recipe here

Pear Frangipane tart