Banana Dulce Chocolate Tart

 When making this recipe, I used the leftover crumbs from last week’s cookie duds as a chocolate crust and filled it with a creamy dulce de leche, a caramelized version of sweetened condensed milk. Then I topped it off with fresh banana slices. The top was caramelized to create a banana crème-brulee-like crust. Together, it has a taste reminiscent of Banana’s Foster, without the ice cream.

   For the crust, I used a simple chocolate cookie recipe. After the prepared cookies cooled, I ground them into crumbs in a food processer and made a crust using the “graham cracker crust” method of mixing crumbs with melted butter seen in many recipes, such as crumbles, pies, and cheesecake. After pouring the crumb mixture in my tart pan (any nine-inch round pan can be used) and pressing it into the sides, I baked it off and created the crust.

Caramelized Banana Dulce de Leche Tart

Ingredients:

1 recipe Chocolate cookie Crust (below)

1 recipe dulce de leche (below)

3-4 bananas

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/8 cup white sugar

Directions:

1. Adjust top oven rack so it is just below the top (with enough space for the pan to sit about one inch from the top hot coils) and set oven to broil on high.
2. Pour the (cooled) dulce de leche into the crusted pan.
3. Mix together the sugar and cinnamon.
4. Slice the bananas in thin, quarter-inch slices and cover as much as the surface of the dulce de leche with bananas (arrange the bananas so that almost no spaces are visible if you want a really intact crust, but it’s not necessary). Sprinkle the sugar mixture over the banana slices so most of the surface is covered in a thin layer of sugar.
5. Cut out a circle with a circumference slightly (about ½ inch)smaller than the pan’s out of a piece of aluminum foil and lay it over the tart pan (to avoid burning the crust).
6. Put the tart in the oven, just under the broiler for around 3 minutes while watching carefully for the sugar to bubble. Take it out when the “bubbles” start to brown/burn. Let the tart cool completely (this may take awhile) and be careful not to move it to keep the crust intact. Refrigerate/freeze the tart according to how firm you want the slices.**

**slices” is a relative term, as this is a pretty runny tart. Honestly, this is best eaten with a group of friends (or alone with a big spoon) straight out of the pan.

Chocolate Cookie Crust

1 ¾ cups chocolate cookie crumbs (see below)

6 tablespoons melted butter

Directions

 

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2.  Mix cookie crumbs and melted butter until well blended. Press mixture into an 8 or 9 inch pie plate or tart pan. Bake at 375 degrees F for 7 minutes. Cool completely before using.

Here’s the cookie recipe I used to make the crumbs, but any chocolate cookie can be used (for instance, Oreos, chocolate graham crackers, chocolate wafers, etc.).

Ingredients1 cup butter, softened1 1/2 cups white sugar2 eggs2 teaspoons vanilla extract2 cups all-purpose flour2/3 cup cocoa powder3/4 teaspoon baking soda1/4 teaspoon salt. Directions:

 

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2.In large bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; stir into the butter mixture until well blended. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.

3.Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, or until slightly overcooked- cookies should be somewhat hard. Cool slightly on the cookie sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely. 4.After cooled, put cookies in a food processor and grind until coarse crumbs are created (this recipe will yield far more crumbs than necessary for one crust, leftovers can be stored in a sealed container).

5.For a more solid tart, freeze it after it has cooled completely (this is how we had it and it turned out great!) The filling is dulce-de-leche, a golden-brown caramel-like liquid made from sweetened condensed milk.

To make Dulce-de-Leche, all you need is 2 cans of sweetened condensed milk. Then:

1.  Empty the contents of two cans of sweetened condensed milk into an oven-proof dish; sprinkle with a dash of kosher salt and tightly cover it with foil.

2.  Place the covered dish in a larger roasting or casserole pan and fill it up with water until the water reaches three quarters up the smaller covered dish to create a water bath. Bake at 425 degrees F for 60-90 minutes checking every 30 minutes on the water level and adding more as needed.

Dulce de leche is ready when it takes on a brown and caramel-like appearance. Remove from the oven and whisk to smoothness. Let cool before storing.