Banana, Toffee and Chocolate Macarons...

Australia's Biggest Morning Tea continues in our tearoom this week. Last week, we managed to raise over $500 for the Cancer Council, and this week my contribution was inspired by leftovers in my kitchen...

I had a small, over ripe banana in my fruit bowl - hardly enough to make a banana cake or some banana muffins, so I thought I'd see if I could use it for a ganache.

I started with a dry caramel - by heating ~100g of sugar in a pan until it liquefies and then turns a golden brown. I then added some cream, folded in my mashed banana, and then added some dark chocolate. I wish I could tell you the exact quantities, but to be honest, I didn't measure anything!

Unfortunately, the ganache didn't set hard enough, so I added some more dark chocolate. The result was quite surprising - the banana flavour was so strong it almost tasted like I had added banana essence into the mixture.

For the shells, follow the generic macaron recipe here.

Banana, Chocolate and Caramel Macarons

Ganache made with melted Mars Bars (caramel only), chocolate and mashed banana.

Banoffee Macarons (Banana, Toffee and Cream)

The flavour of the week is Banoffee (click here if you've never heard of a Banoffee Pie before).

I made the filling by adding a mashed banana to some caramel (toffee and cream), and cooking it over low heat until thickened. The macarons are filled with white chocolate ganache to represent the cream and the banana caramel for the banana and toffee flavours. Surprisingly, the banana flavour is quite intense.