Chocolate and Banana Millefeuille — Millefeuille chocolat et banane

What is Christmas if there is not a little bit of chocolate and sweets involved?

A while ago, I wrote about the typical not-to-be-missed Bûche de Noël. What a delight! And as mentioned before, there are so many good recipes to make fancy, unusual or traditional bûches. Today, on my habitual trip to my usual supermarket, WholeFoods, I ventured in the bakery section and left it with a big smile: Victoire! In the case of any food emergency, if I suddenly felt the urge to taste a slice of bûche, here in Boston, I had my answer. Wholefoods carry some.

But this is called “emergency food“, as Philip and I call it, the type of food we have only if there is no other way. The last option.

Pascale, the author of C’est moi qui l’ai fait suggests lovely bûches to make at home. Like her, I am a big proponent (or a slave, not sure) to homemade dishes!

Last year, I made two bûches. The first one was a Kumquat bûche, the other one had the praliné flavour–and it was not easy to find praliné, I used Roasted Hazelnut Praline ordered on line. Since I hosted Christmas, I had to use my creativity skills, think think, more food is required, more desserts are needed! What more than bûche though? Of course, I always had the option of the Irish plum pudding brought and made by my mother-in-law, but somehow, I resisted it very skillfully, to the horror of all the Irish family members. You might need to be born Irish to be able to understand plum pudding! Ah! But eh, I was the hostess so I could choose! So I dug and dug, and finally decided to make a nice Chocolate Banana Millefeuille. I could not run the risk to disappoint them. They needed something much better, or at least as good as their missed plum pud!

Delicate, unusual, simple but bringing the required dessert satisfaction, it ended up being a great alternative to my favorite bûche.

Chocolate and Banana Millefeuille

(for 6 people)

You need:

  • 3 large filo pastry sheets
  • 4 bananas
  • 100 g butter
  • Cocoa powder
  • Confectioner sugar
  • 10 cl rum
  • 10 cl heavy cream
  • Vanilla ice cream
  • A homemade (or bought) raspberry coulis (mine is fresh raspberries, lemon juice and sugar which I blend together through a chinois)
  • Fresh mint leaves

Steps:

  • Preheat the oven at 420F.
  • Melt 50 g of the butter in a pot.
  • On a working surface, place the first sheet of filo pastry. Brush the melted butter on top and sprinkle with cocoa and confectioner sugar.
    Repeat the process with every sheet, until you use the 3 sheets on top of each other.
    Cut them so that you have 12 squares.
  • Place them on a cookie sheet, in the oven for about 10 min. (Make sure it does not get too dark). Take them out and let them cool down.
  • Melt the rest of the butter in a frying pan. Cut your bananas in bigger chunks and cook them on all sides, until they reach a golden color.
    Add the rum and flambé them, (that is, add the rum and quickly light a match so that the rum evaporates). This needs to be done quickly.
  • Add the cream to the bananas and let cook for a 1-2 min, until the cream becomes a bit thicker.
  • Take your plates. Place the bananas on top, making the shape of petals of a flower.
    Cover with a square of filo, place a scoop of ice cream, then another square of filo.
    Sprinkle with some confectioner sugar, and pour some of the cream around the filo squares, on the plates.
  • Do the same with the coulis (create your own design here, both with the cream and the coulis).
    Decorate with the mint and serve!
    You can always use another flavor of ice cream if you think vanilla is too traditional. Possibly some pistachio as an example.

Moral of the story: nobody was disappointed. Phew! I passed the test. Plum pud -1-Chocolate Banana Millefeuille -1-; Plum pud -0-Chocolate Banana Millefeuille -2-

Posted in Chocolate, Dessert, French Inspired, Fruit

One comment

  1. hey bea
    I am going to try my hand at making a buche de noel for christmas eve for 6 Frenchies and me. I am not even going to look at a recipe though. I am just going to make a swiss roll (english thing) and fill it wit fresh cream and caramalized nuts and stuff. I havent decided yet. I was going to make praline but maybe it is too difficult?

    On christmas day I am also in charge of dessert for 20 and have hatched a plan that is rather ambitious. I will only report back if it succeeds!

    I dont know quite when I am going to find the time to do all this stuff!

    we’ll see…