the one to blow your mind away, and to feed your soul along the way.

It is not unusual if I ended up with something I totally don’t need (but just want to buy it, incase I need it someday) during my grocery shopping. But it was very unusual to find frozen filo /phyllo sheets in the supermarket as it’s usually quite rare. Of course you can make phyllo yourself, but you just missed out on the whole grocery adventure of spotting something new on the shelves! I am lazy just like that. Also, you’ll need quite a big working space to be able to stretch handmade phyllo sheets yourself.

Lo and behold.

Usually in a dessert, if there’s chocolate, it’s halfway to being great. Flambeed bananas with rum, oh even better. 70% there. hazelnut sauce, add on another 15 %. Crunchy tart shells + cold creamy mousse + hot flambeed bananas = sends your palate to heaven.

No excuses to skip it. It’s worth all the calories and whatever nots. The only down side of the tart is, when u’ve assembled it you can’t keep it as the bananas would give u an eeky texture and the phyllo will become all soft. But really, there are no spots for leftovers. 😉

The recipe was from Johnny Iuzzini’s dessert book, Dessert Fourplay; sounds enticing already. But to not let you think further, Iuzzini paired 4 desserts as a sorta tapas style / mini degustation together in one theme. For example, for the Winter Exotic Fourplay, the dessert consists of mango lhassi, coconut pain perdu with cream cheese ice cream and papaya lime compote (oh this ranks very high on my to-bake list), flambeed bananas served with rum and coke ice cream with peanut phylo crisps and a pineapple polenta cake with pineapple spice sauce. I’ve seen one of his interviews before, there actually is a sequence on which of the four should be eaten first when served together.

A run through the book, the desserts are quite simple by itself but the idea of combining four together, is ingenious.I have bookmarked quite alot of recipes from the book, I just don’t have the time / mood to do it sometimes. Just like the previous weekend, it was a couch potato weekend for me. After the dog obedience training session, I came back and had a morning nap till noon. For the whole afternoon, I was just watching tv, junior masterchef, and dozing off in between on my bed and on the sofa. Ppfftt but just yesterday night, I made some midnight brownies. Lol

I made slight changes to the recipe, used dark chocolate instead of milk since I don’t keep any milk chocolates at home. I thought dark chocolate may balance off the caramel and sweetness from the bananas. But if you want to use milk chocolate for the mousse, feel free to do so.

Chocolate Phyllo Tart with Flambeed Bananas and Hazelnut Caramel Sauce

(makes 8)

(adapted from Johnny Iuzzinni’s Dessert FourPlay)

For the Phyllo Shells
70g unsalted butter, melted
18g cocoa powder, sifted
6 (9x13inch) phyllo sheets, defrosted
25g ground hazelnut

For the Chocolate Mousse
225g dark couverture chocolate
250ml cream

For Hazelnut Caramel Sauce
110g hazelnuts
35g dark chocolate
10ml honey
50g caster sugar
a little lesser than 1/4tsp salt
50ml cream

For Flambeed Bananas
4 Cavendish bananas
25g caster sugar
15g butter
50ml rum

1. Make Chocolate mousse. If you have round tart rings / round cutter of the same size (slightly smaller than the cupcake size, or the size where your phyllo tarts will be) use them. Otherwise, like me, I used solo / souffle cups to fill in the mousse. Whisk cream to soft peaks. Let it rest in the fridge. Melt chocolate in a double boiler stirring making sure the chocolate are all melted. Remove from double boiler and let it cool to about 50C. Chocolate too hot will split the cream, too cold, mousse will be grainy. Once chocolate has cooled down, pour 1/3 of whipped cream into it and stir to loosen up the chocolate. Add in the rest of cream and fold lightly. Pour mousse into cups and freeze for about 20 minutes, or if you have time, 1-2 hours in the fridge.

2. Make phyllo tart shells. I used a cupcake pan instead of tart rings where Iuzzini suggested. Spray cupcake pan with nonstick spray / oil. Melt butter then stir in cocoa powder.

As phyllo dry very fast, just take out however much you need and keep the rest sealed. Lay a sheet of phyllo on the work surface and brush with chocolate butter. Sprinkle with some hazelnut meal. Cover with another piece and brush with chocolate butter again. Lay another piece (there are 3 layers now. Do not brush the top layer.

Cut phyllo sheets so it fits the cupcake mould, or whichever ring you are using. Fit them into the pan. Continue with the remaining phyllo sheets until you’ve gotten all the tart shells you want. Freeze the shells for at least 10 minutes to prevent them from shrinking during baking. Heat oven to 185c. Line pastry with parchment fill with dried beans or rice and bake the shells until crisps, about 15 minutes. Lift off parchment and beans out right away and let the shells cool on the rack.

3. Make hazelnut sauce. Roast hazelnuts and coarsely chop them. Put chocolate in a heatproof bowl and drizzle in the honey. Pour sugar into a saucepan with 1 tbsp of cool water. Add salt and cook over high heat till sugar caramelize. remove from heat and pour in cream. Return the pan to heat and cook until caramel comes to a boil and is smooth again. Pour caramel over chocolate and honey. Stir till chocolate has completely melted. Fold in nuts. Taste for salt.

4. just before assembling, make flambeed Bananas. Peel bananas, slice it on an angle, not too thin, about 1cm thick. Heat a large saute pan. Sprinkl sugar evenly over the pan and add a good pinch of salt. Cook till starts to caramelize. Add bananas, cut side down and scatter butter around them. Cook, shaking the pan often for 1/2 minute until banana has browned. Turn over and cook another 1/2-1 minute. Take the pan off heat and pour in rum. Return the pan to the heat, tip to ignite flames (Becareful here) shaking the pan and turning the bananas in the caramel, till it has thickened and bananas are cooked through.

5. Assemble. Set oven to 170C. Arrange phyllo shells on a baking sheet. Fill each phyllo shell with a tablespoon of hazelnut caramel sauce. Add 2-3 banana halves. Slide the shells into the oven and warm through for 5 minutes. Transfer shells to serving plate. Top withchocolate mousse and dush with cocoa powder. Serve immediately.

It’s like Katy Perry’s song, “…cause you’re hot and you’r cold, you’re yes then you’re no, you’re in and you’re out…….” There’s hot and cold, creamy and crunchy, bitter and sweet. Yummss..

To show some love and support, I am submitting this flambeed banana dessert to Aspiring Bakers’ Fruity March hosted by Bakericious.