Bananas for Nutella

So the selection for us French Fridays with Dorie cooks was the recipe Nutella Tartine from page 415 in Around My French Table. I made this recipe last year after I'd made a loaf of brioche from Dorie's baking book.  The brioche and the Nutella Tartine were delicious!  I still had some Nutella left over, not so the brioche.  Looking for more Nutella recipes in Dorie's book, I found the recipe for Double Chocolate Banana Tart on page 467.

Guess what I made on Superbowl Sunday?

How fortuitous, since I was planning to take dessert to our friends' house that day.  The host and hostess are fans of chocolate and bananas, respectively.  Score!

Let me tell you, the recipe for this Tart is tons more involved and complicated than the Nutella Tartine. Still, I was up for the challenge.  I. Went. All. The. Wa-a-a-y to try the Chocolate Nutella version described in Dorie's Bonne Idee. That includes the Chocolate Shortbread dough recipe found on page 501.  Wow. I remember thinking, "Hope all this works". I'm glad I started right after breakfast!  We were expected at our hosts' residence at 4 pm.

The Chocolate Shortbread dough calls for flour, unsweetened cocoa powder, confectioner's sugar, 9 tablespoons of butter and a large egg yolk.

9 Tbsp butter much be ice-cold

The food processor creates pea-sizes and oatmeal flakes.

Add the egg yolk, more processing, and see what happens...

Dorie describes (she is a master at this) how to listen for a change in the sounds coming from the food processor to signal you've processed long enough. Wow, she was right, as usual.  Clumps and curds.  I took the option of kneading then chilling the dough, rolling it out (not missing an opportunity to use my fancy rolling pin).  Removing the baked shell from the oven I promptly stuck my thumb into the side. Oh well, handcrafted, right?

The dough is easily laid and pressed into the pan.

Turns out carmelizing bananas is a little tricky. I can see now why you want to start with firm bananas. I probably overcooked mine but I don't think it was noticeable in the final product.

I love how "ganache" is the Fancy Nancy word for boiled cream with chocolate and butter! 



The carmelized bananas are laid in the bottom of the baked tart shell. Next came the Nutella and Bittersweet Chocolate Ganache.

For this Dorista Superbowl Sunday means great food and fun commercials on the television. Who plays the game and who wins is barely on the radar.  So for me, the day had it ALL.

I think I surprised myself:

Absolutely Delicious!!