Chocolate covered bananas

I’m not a big fan of desserts, to be honest. But there is one exception, which is the chocolate covered banana. It has a huge sentimental value, as my grandma used to make those every time we visited. Schnitzels and these were the two things you could always rely on when growing up in CZ!

Well, the basic recipe is simple, put a banana on a plate and pour some melted chocolate over it. No more descriptions needed, haha. Well, this version is a little bit more complex.

For 8 portions:

1 banana
50g dried banana
fresh mint, flower and caster sugar

Streusel

50g butter
50g brown sugar
50g plain flour
50g walnuts

Ice-cream

500ml full-fat milk
50g dark chocolate (we used 70 percent chocolate from Valrhona)
50g Dutch cacao powder
10g dried milk
30g glucose
100g caster sugar
0,5g xanthan
1 tonka bean

Chocolate sauce

50ml water
70g dark chocolate
salt
1 tbs rapeseed oil

Let us start with the ice cream. It is not a classic, where you would use crème anglaise, so not based on eggs. It’s rather something between ice cream and sorbet. Chocolate has great properties when you work with it and solidifies on its own pretty well. If you don’t have xanthan at home, you can use a gelatine sheet instead.

Dissolve sugar and glucose in milk. It’s enough if you heat it to 80 degrees. Add chopped chocolate and don’t heat it up anymore. Add the cocoa, dried milk and xanthan. Grate the tonka bean finely and blend the whole mixture until smooth. Chill it in fridge or in an ice bath. Move to an ice-cream machine or use a frozen Kitchen Aid bowl (ideally you would use a blast chiller).

For streusel: mix all the ingredients together in a blender (chunks are good, it shouldn’t be too smooth). It is easier if the butter is room temperature. Wrap in foil and freeze. When it’s solid, bake at 180 degrees for 10 minutes.

Dissolve the chocolate, pinch of salt and oil in a pot. Be careful, this might get burnt really easily. Mix well. You can also season it with honey, add cream or some alcohol (rum, malibu, cognac or amaretto).

Cut the banana in half and quarters. Sprinkle with sugar and let it sit. Add more sugar and remove the excessive one. Burn with a blowtorch and remove the skin.

Decorate the plate with mint, chocolate sauce, edible flowers and add the rest of the ingredients. Enjoy!