🍌 Banana Puff

A Skyscraper of Texture: Introduction to the Banana Puff

In the world of Haute Pâtisserie, there are desserts, and then there are architectural feats. The Banana Puff falls firmly into the latter category. This is not your grandmother's cream puff. It is an avant-garde construction that pushes the humble Pâte à Choux to its absolute limit, layering nine distinct components into a single, gravity-defying creation.

Drawing inspiration from the complex "Zumbaron" style of modern Australian and French pastry, this dessert is a study in verticality. It begins with a Choux base, crusted in crunchy Craquelin. Inside, it hides a textural treasure map: a liquid Banana Compote, a crunchy Sesame Praline, and a gooey Salted Butter Caramel. It is crowned with a towering rosette of Banana-Caramel Chantilly, which itself hides a frozen Passionfruit Insert, all topped with a delicate Macaron Shell.

Why attempt this marathon of a recipe? It is the ultimate test of a pastry chef's organizational skills. It combines the techniques of confectionary (praline/caramel), baking (choux/macaron), and molecular gastronomy (gelcrem/gelling agents). The flavor profile—banana, sesame, malt, and Earl Grey—is sophisticated, moving beyond simple sweetness to explore smoky, savory, and floral notes.

Save as PDF Pin Recipe

Ingredients

🍪 Craquelin Sablé

120 g unsalted butter room temperature
60 g granulated sugar
60 g brown sugar
140 g all-purpose flour

💨 Choux Pastry

95 g water
95 g whole milk
95 g unsalted butter
8 g invert sugar
4 g salt
108 g all-purpose flour
148 g whole eggs

🌰 Sesame Praline

240 g toasted sesame seeds
160 g granulated sugar
3 g sunflower lecithin
2 g ground Tahitian vanilla bean
4 g sesame oil
3 g salt
Grapeseed oil as needed

🍌 Banana Compote

200 g diced ripe bananas
20 g unsalted butter
20 g malted milk powder
40 g granulated sugar
12 g rum
4 g vanilla paste
2 g salt
200 g banana purée
12 g passionfruit purée seedless
9 g Sosa Gelcrem Cold

🍯 Salted Butter Caramel

10 g Earl Grey tea
0.5 whole tonka bean
40 g banana purée
130 g heavy cream 35% fat
68 g water
38 g glucose syrup
175 g granulated sugar
35 g Valrhona Caramélia 36% chocolate
20 g gelatin mass 5:1 ratio
115 g unsalted butter
25 g 100% hazelnut paste
4 g sea salt
8 g vanilla paste

🍫 Banana Caramel Chocolate Chantilly

400 g heavy cream 35% fat
5 g Earl Grey tea
0.5 tonka bean
5 g black licorice soft logs
30 g malted milk powder
50 g banana purée
8 g gelatin mass 5:1 ratio
40 g Valrhona Dulcey 35% couverture
30 g milk chocolate 40%
2 g salt
3 g vanilla paste

🌕 Banana Passion Crème Insert

70 g banana purée
20 g passionfruit purée
6 g black licorice soft logs
76 g granulated sugar
8 g Sosa Gelcrem Hot
100 g whole eggs
100 g unsalted butter

🟡 Yellow Chocolate Coating

500 g white chocolate couverture
50 g deodorized coconut oil
50 g 100% hazelnut paste
3 g fat-soluble yellow coloring
2 g salt

🍫 Dark Chocolate Discs

350 g Valrhona Manjari 66% chocolate
Flaky sea salt as needed

🥚 Zumbaron Shells

225 g almond flour
2 g salt
225 g powdered sugar
190 g egg whites divided
2 g cream of tartar
8 g Sosa Albuwhip
225 g granulated sugar
75 g water
6 g food coloring

Mastering Textures and Flavors📗 Download your PDF now!

Instructions

Craquelin Sablé

Cream butter with sugars until light and fluffy.
Add flour and mix until a dough forms.
Roll between two sheets to 2 mm thick and chill.
Cut into 6 cm discs and keep chilled until needed.

Choux Pastry

In a saucepan, boil water, milk, butter, sugar, and salt.
Add flour off heat and stir until a ball forms.
Cook for 1 more minute, then transfer to a mixer.
Mix to cool slightly, then slowly incorporate eggs until smooth and glossy.
Pipe 6 cm rounds onto a bare iron tray.
Top each with a craquelin disc.
Bake at 165°C (330°F) convection or 190°C (375°F) deck oven until puffed and hollow.
Cool completely.

Sesame Praline

Blend all ingredients (except grapeseed oil) into a paste.
Adjust with grapeseed oil if needed.
Pipe into 2.5 cm half-sphere molds and freeze.

Banana Compote

Dry-caramelize sugar, then add butter, milk powder, rum, vanilla, salt.
Vacuum-seal with diced bananas. Chill overnight.
Blend banana and passion purées with Gelcrem Cold.
Fold in the chilled banana mixture.

Salted Butter Caramel

Infuse tea and tonka in banana purée for 24 hrs. Strain.
Heat cream + infused purée.
Caramelize sugar, glucose, and water to dark amber.
Deglaze with hot cream mixture and cook to 108°C.
Off heat, add chocolate and gelatin mass. Cool to 45°C.
Blend in butter, hazelnut paste, salt, and vanilla. Emulsify. Chill until set.

Banana Caramel Chocolate Chantilly

Cold-infuse cream with tea and tonka for 24–48 hrs. Strain and reweigh.
Heat with licorice, banana, and milk powder to 70°C.
Add gelatin, pour over chocolates, emulsify.
Blend in salt and vanilla. Chill overnight.

Banana Passion Crème Insert

Cook all ingredients except butter to 85°C.
Cool to 45°C, blend in butter.
Pipe into 2.5 cm silicone sphere molds and freeze.

Yellow Chocolate Coating

Melt all ingredients together. Use at 35°C (95°F).
Dark Chocolate Discs
Temper chocolate and spread to 1–2 mm thick.
Cut 70 mm discs just before setting.
Sandwich between baking trays to keep flat.

Zumbaron Shells

Blitz almond flour, salt, and powdered sugar.
Make Italian meringue: cook sugar + water to 121°C, pour into egg whites + Albuwhip + tartar.
Whip until 50°C.
Mix remaining egg whites and coloring into dry ingredients.
Fold in meringue until batter flows slowly from spatula.
Pipe 5 cm rounds. Rest until skin forms.
Bake at 170°C (338°F), lowering to 150°C (302°F) immediately. Bake 12–15 min. Cool.

Assembly & Finishing

Cut a 2.5 cm hole at the bottom of each choux bun.
Dip craquelin side into Yellow Chocolate Coating. Sprinkle sesame seeds.
Fix dipped buns (coated side down) onto 10x10 cm boards using more coating.
Fill halfway with Banana Compote.
Insert frozen Sesame Praline domes.
Pipe Salted Butter Caramel to fill and chill to set.
Whip Chantilly and pipe a dot on top. Place chocolate disc on top.
Pipe spiral Chantilly rosette (2 layers high).
Insert frozen Banana Passion Crème insert into top of Chantilly. Seal with more Chantilly.

Decorate sides with chopped hazelnuts.

Finish with a Zumbaron shell on top.
Refrigerate until service.

Notes

The Science of Ingredients: Molecular Gastronomy in Baking

This recipe utilizes specialized ingredients to achieve textures impossible with standard pantry staples.

1. Invert Sugar (In the Choux)

The choux pastry recipe calls for 8g of Invert Sugar (like Trimoline or Honey).

The Science: Sucrose (table sugar) creates a crisp crust. Invert sugar, however, is hygroscopic—it holds onto water. By adding a small amount to the choux dough, you ensure that while the outside crisps up, the inside membrane remains tender and moist rather than drying out into a cracker. It also promotes the Maillard reaction, giving the choux a deeper golden color.

2. Sosa Gelcrem Cold (Modified Potato Starch)

Used in the Banana Compote.

The Science: Traditional thickening requires heat (cornstarch/flour), which cooks the fruit and destroys fresh flavor notes. Gelcrem Cold is a modified potato starch pre-gelatinized to swell instantly in cold liquids. This allows us to thicken the banana and passionfruit purees without cooking them, preserving the raw, acidic "zing" of the fresh fruit that cuts through the rich caramel.

3. Malted Milk Powder

Found in the Compote and Chantilly.

The Science: This powder contains malted barley, wheat flour, and evaporated milk. It adds a distinct savory-sweet profile (umami) and high levels of maltose. Maltose pairs exceptionally well with dairy fats and banana, bridging the gap between the fruity banana and the roasted caramel notes.

4. Albumen Powder (Sosa Albuwhip)

Used in the Zumbaron Shells.

The Science: Macarons are notoriously temperamental. Adding dried egg white protein (albumin) increases the protein-to-water ratio in the meringue. This creates a much stronger, more stable foam structure that is less likely to crack or collapse during baking ("hollow shells") and allows for a chewier final texture.

Essential Professional Kitchen Tools

To build this tower, you need precise engineering tools.

Bare Iron Baking Tray
- Why you need it: The recipe specifies piping choux onto a "bare iron tray." Unlike aluminum or non-stick pans, iron conducts heat slowly but holds it intensely. This creates a thicker, stronger bottom crust on the choux, providing a solid foundation that won't get soggy as quickly when filled with the wet compote.
Silicone Sphere Molds (Micro)
- Why you need it: You need 2.5cm molds for the praline and passionfruit inserts. Freezing these liquid components into solid spheres is the only way to insert them into the choux and chantilly cleanly. You cannot spoon these fillings in; they must be frozen solids during assembly.
Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
- Why you need it: For the Choux and Craquelin. After cooking the flour paste (panade), you must cool it down before adding eggs. Doing this by hand is exhausting and inconsistent. The paddle attachment cools the dough evenly to 45°C, ensuring the eggs emulsify rather than scramble.
Vacuum Sealer
- Why you need it: For the Banana Compote. Bananas oxidize (turn brown/grey) instantly when cut. Vacuum sealing the diced bananas with the caramel and rum removes the oxygen, keeping the fruit bright yellow and forcing the marinade deep into the fruit cells (osmotic infusion).

Expert Tips and Success Hacks

Managing 9 components requires strategy. Here is how to succeed.

1. The "Cold Infusion" Secret

The recipe calls for infusing Earl Grey in cold cream for 24-48 hours.

The Hack: Never boil tea leaves in cream if you want a delicate flavor. Boiling extracts tannins, which taste bitter and astringent. Cold infusion extracts only the volatile aromatic oils (bergamot) and floral notes, resulting in a chantilly that smells like tea but tastes like sweet cream.

2. Drying the Choux

A soggy puff collapses under the weight of the macaron.

The Hack: After the baking time is up, turn the oven off, crack the door slightly (stick a wooden spoon in the door), and let the choux sit for 15-20 minutes. This dries out the internal steam. When you remove them, they should feel light as a feather and sound hollow when tapped.

3. The Macaron "Skin"

The Zumbaron shells need a skin before baking.

The Hack: After piping the macarons, let them stand at room temperature for 30-60 minutes until you can touch the surface without sticky batter coming off on your finger. This dried skin forces the air to push up during baking (creating the "feet") rather than exploding out the top (cracking).

4. Sesame Praline Texture

Praline can be gritty.

The Hack: Sesame seeds are small and hard. When blending the praline, be patient. Blend in short bursts to avoid overheating the oil, but keep going until the paste is almost liquid. If it's too thick to pipe into the micro-molds, add a teaspoon of grapeseed oil to loosen it.

5. Assembly Order

Do not assemble until the last minute.

The Hack:
1. Day 1: Make inserts (Praline, Passionfruit), Compote base, and Infuse cream. Bake Craquelin & Choux. Store choux in airtight box.
2. Day 2: Make Caramel, Whip Chantilly, Bake Macarons.
3. Service: Assemble. If you fill the choux too early, the moisture from the compote will destroy the crisp craquelin within 4 hours.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q1: Can I substitute the Gelcrem Cold? A: If you cannot find modified potato starch, you can use Instant Clearjel. In a pinch, you can use regular cornstarch, but you must cook the fruit purees to activate it, which will change the flavor profile from fresh to "jammy."

Q2: My choux pastry is too runny/flat. Why? A: You likely added too many eggs or added them too fast. The amount of egg in choux is variable depending on how much you dried out the flour paste. Stop adding eggs when the batter forms a "V" shape when dripping off the paddle. If it's liquid, it's ruined—start over.

Q3: Can I skip the licorice? A: Yes, but the licorice adds a specific "anise" note that cuts the richness of the caramel and white chocolate. If omitting, consider increasing the sea salt slightly or adding a pinch of Star Anise spice to the caramel for a similar depth.

Q4: How do I temper the chocolate discs without a marble slab? A: Use the "Seeding Method." Melt 2/3 of your chocolate to 45°C. Remove from heat and stir in the remaining 1/3 solid chocolate. Stir until the temperature drops to 28-29°C and all chunks are melted. Briefly heat back up to 31-32°C to use.

Q5: Why did my Caramel separate/split? A: Salted butter caramel often splits if the butter is added when the caramel is too hot. Cool the caramel syrup to 45°C (warm, not boiling) before emulsifying in the butter and hazelnut paste. If it splits, use an immersion blender to force it back together.

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Chef Mimo

I’m Chef Mimo, a passionate pastry chef with over 17 years of experience in the world of fine desserts. I specialize in French-style entremets, refined cakes, and creative chocolate work. Pastry is not just my profession—it’s my lifelong passion. Through PastryCrafted.com, I love sharing my recipes, techniques, and inspirations with anyone who dreams of mastering the art of pastry. Whether you’re a curious beginner or a seasoned pro, you’re welcome in my sweet world.