The perfect Toffee and Banana Crumble

Last year Husband was up to his thighs in the chilly waters of the Dee in Scotland attempting to catch (and then put back in the water) a wee salmon. That was actually what he achieved – the fish was only 2″ long by all accounts!  However unsuccessful his angling was, he did tell me about a fabulous pudding – Banana Crumble – that one of his party (funnily enough the only woman in the group!) cleverly knocked up after a long day casting flies. Although I haven’t made it myself, husband will definitely vouch for how delish this pud is.

I have substituted condensed milk (which you are supposed to boil for three hours to make the toffee) for a ready made jar of caramel, because we busy #womenover50 have got better things to do than stand over a hob for that length of time. You could also cheat by using ready made crumble (M&S do a particularly good one).

The Perfect Toffee and Banana Crumble

Ingredients serves 4
Tin of Carnation Caramel or any other dulce de leche
225g ready made puff pastry
225g plain flour
100g unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
3 bananas

How to prepare
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees/gas 4 and put a 25cm/10″ flan tin or individual flan rings on a baking sheet.
Roll out the pastry and use to line the flan tin or rings. Line the pastry with greaseproof paper, fill with baking beans and bake blind in the preheated oven for 15 mins. Remove the beans and paper and leave to cool. Increase the oven temperature to 220 degrees/gas 7.
To make the crumble, rub the flour and butter together until the mix is like fine crumbs then add the sugar. (You could also add some chopped roasted nuts if you liked). Chop the bananas and spoon into the flan case/s. Top with the toffee from the tin and sprinkle with the crumble. Bake for about 15 – 20 mins until the crumble is golden brown. Good with fresh cream and/or custard.

 

The recipe is based on one by Gary Rhodes from his ©1994 ‘Rhodes Around Britain’ and the photo © Anthony Blake