Baby Banana

Banana Cake, Banana Cremeux, Chocolate Ganache, Coffee Ice Cream, Chocolate-Hazelnut Croustillant

Pastry Chef Eunji Lee of Jungsik | New York
Yield: 50 servings

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Adapted by StarChefs | February 2019

INGREDIENTS:

Coffee Ice Cream:
60 grams ground coffee
2.5 liters milk
800 grams egg yolks
500 grams cane sugar

Banana Cake:
14 eggs
600 grams sugar
500 grams pastry flour
8 grams baking powder
360 grams heavy cream
400 grams banana
200 grams butter, tempered

Dulcey Ganache:
680 grams Dulcey, coarsely chopped
1 pod vanilla, split and scraped
3.104 kilograms cream
134 grams gelatin, bloomed

Banana Crémeux:
120 grams egg yolks
120 grams sugar
300 grams banana
250 grams heavy cream
48 grams gelatin

Chocolate-Hazelnut Croustillant:
220 grams feuilletine
16 grams fleur de sel
100 grams dried banana, coarsely chopped
180 grams toasted hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
220 grams Jivara chocolate, melted

Yellow Enrobage:
1.2 kilograms white chocolate, coarsely chopped
1.2 kilograms cacao butter
10 grams liposoluble yellow coloring

Chocolate Spray:
Milk chocolate, coarsely chopped
Cocoa butter

Baby Banana:
Cocoa powder

To Assemble and Serve:
Basket filled with fruit

METHOD:

For the Coffee Ice Cream:
In a nonreactive container, combine coffee and milk; refrigerate overnight. In a pot over medium-high heat, bring coffee milk to boil, decrease heat, and barely simmer. In a bowl, whisk to combine yolks and sugar. Temper egg mixture into hot coffee milk. Stir to nappe, and remove from heat. Using an immersion blender, blend until smooth. Strain through chinois, and process in an ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions.

For the Banana Cake:
Heat oven to 170°C. In a large bowl, whisk to combine eggs and sugar. In a small bowl, whisk to combine flour and baking powder. Add to a separate bowl, banana and cream. Using an immersion blender, blend until smooth. Pour banana cream mixture into egg mixture, stirring to combine. Add flour mixture followed by butter.; continue to stir. Into a prepared sheet tray, pour batter. Bake 25 minutes. Rotate tray and bake 20 minutes more; cool.

For the Dulcey Ganache:
Place Dulcey in a large bowl. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine vanilla and one-third of the cream; bring to a simmer, stir in gelatin, remove from heat, and infuse 10 minutes. Through a chinois into the bowl with Dulcey, pour half the vanilla cream, stirring to melt Dulcey. Add remaining cream. Using an immersion blender, blend until combined and smooth; chill.

For the Banana Crémeux:
In a bowl, whisk to combine yolks and sugar. To a pot over medium-high heat, add banana and cream. Using an immersion blender, blend until smooth. Bring to boil, decrease heat, and barely simmer. Temper yolk mixture into banana cream. Cook until mixture reaches 83°C to 84°C. Stir in gelatin. When dissolved, remove from heat, pass through a chinois, and chill.

For the Chocolate-Hazelnut Croustillant:
In a bowl, combine all ingredients. Spread in a thin, even layer on a sheet tray lined with a silicone mat. Let set.

For the Yellow Enrobage:
In a bain marie, combine all ingredients. When melted, blend with an immersion blender, and strain into quart containers.

Chocolate Spray:
In a bain marie, combine chocolate and cocoa butter. When melted, blend with an immersion blender, and strain into a spray gun.

For the Baby Banana:
Cut Banana Cake into small rectangles. In the bowl of a KitchenAid Commercial stand mixer fitted with a whisk, whip Dulcey Ganache, transfer to a piping bag, and pipe into silicone baby banana molds. Transfer Banana Crémeux to a piping bag and pipe into the Dulcey Ganache. Nestle a piece of Banana Cake into each mold, piping more Dulcey Ganache over top to cover. Smooth surface with an offset spatula and freeze overnight. Unmold Baby Bananas onto a parchment-lined sheet tray. Working quickly, dip in the Yellow Enrobage, letting excess drip off. Return Baby Bananas to sheet tray and spray with Chocolate Spray to mimic brown tone of a ripening banana. With gloved hands, dip your fingers in cocoa powder and dot on ends of banana, and then create a streak of cocoa powder down one side.

To Assemble and Serve:
In a small bowl set on an oval plate, spoon some Chocolate-Hazelnut Croustillant. Place a spherical scoop of Coffee Ice Cream on top. Place Baby Banana amongst the fruit in the fruit basket. Tableside, deliver the plate with the ice cream, and let guest pluck the Baby Banana from the basket to finish the plate.

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