Banana cocoa slice ~ peanut pastry ~ yoghurt and lime sorbet by Paul Ainsworth

banana cocoa slice ~ peanut pastry ~ yoghurt and lime sorbet by Paul Ainsworth (photography by David Griffen)

📝 Ingredients

• Serves 4
• Ingredients
• Pastry layers
• 250 g all butter puff pastry
• 100 g caster sugar
• Chocolate mousse
• 100 g dark chocolate 70%
• 50 g caster sugar
• 50 g egg yolks
• 175 g dbl cream
• 25 g whole milk
• Yoghurt sorbet (1/2 paco)
• 225 g greek yogurt
• 55 g stock syrup
• 20 g sorbet stabilizer
• 5 g glycerine
• Peanut nougatine
• 60 g salted butter
• 25 g glucose
• 25 g whole millk
• 75 g crushed peanuts
• 75 g caster sugar
• 20 g water
• To serve
• 4 straight ripe bananas
• 100 g demerara
• 1 bright green lime zest on fine microplane and freeze

👨‍🍳 Instructions

1. 1Yogurt sorbet
2. 2Blend all the ingredients together until smooth and freeze for 10 hours. Pacotize just before use.
3. 3Peanut nougatine
4. 4Combine the sugar and the water together over a medium heat and let it reach 118c. In the meantime, combine the butter, glucose and milk together so that when the sugar syrup reaches 110c, start to bring the butter mixture to the boil, then add the peanuts. By this time the sugar should be at soft ball, so add it into the peanut mix and stir until well-combined. Place the mixture into a container and chill.
5. 5When the mixture is cold and set, remove from the fridge and place onto a large tray lined with greaseproof paper. Allow the mixture to come to room temperature and spread evenly to 2mm thin, bake at 180c for 10 minutes, then rotate the tray and check every two minutes until amber in colour. Remove from the oven and while keeping it on the greaseproof paper, place the nougatine
6. 6onto a chopping board. Cut in half horizontally, then proceed to cut into rectangles 12cm by 3cm. If the nougatine becomes too brittle to work with, return to the oven for a minute at a time until workable again. You will need one per portion but as they are fragile be sure to have spares. You can store them in an airtight container until needed.
7. 7Pastry layers
8. 8Roll the puff pastry to 2mm thick, sprinkle a thin layer evenly of icing sugar and place between layers of greaseproof between large trays, bake at 180c, bake for 10 min then rotate the try check again after five min and then every few min rotating until a deep golden brown, cool the pastry and cut into rectangles 12cm by 3cm, there will be two per portion but again have back-ups.
9. 9Chocolate mousse
10. 10Melt the chocolate over a bain-marie. Then whisk the milk and cream to stiff peaks. Meanwhile, place the sugar and water in a pan over a medium heat until it reaches 110c. Have the egg yolks in a stand up mixer and whisk at a high speed. When the sugar becomes like a soft ball (118c) pour the mixture down the side of the bowl, making sure the syrup does not touch the whisk. Whisk until sabayon stage, then add the melted chocolate. At this point, whisk at a low speed until the chocolate is combined and the mixture is body temperature. Then add in the cream a third at a time, folding in carefully until well-combined. Finally, place this mixture into a piping bag and chill for 2-3 hours.
11. 11Presentation
12. 12Trim each banana to 10cm in length, then slice into 2mm rounds, keeping in the shape of the banana as you go. Press down ever so slightly so the slices overlap each other and check that the banana is no longer than the layers of pastry. Next, transfer the banana carefully onto a stainless steel tray, sprinkle with demerera sugar and blow torch until amber taking care not to burn. Then repeat the process again to create a thin crisp layer. Pipe the chocolate mousse onto a layer of puff pastry, zigzagging tightly to keep height and stability for the layers to go on top. Dot a little ball of mousse just off the center of the plate, then put the puff pastry with mousse onto this to hold it still. Then place another layer of pastry on top and then the caramelized banana on top of this. Finally finish with the layer of peanut nougatine on top. Make sure the layers are straight and place a quinelle of yogurt sorbet just off center on the other side of the plate and sprinkle with a pinch of the frozen lime zest and serve.