Picky – Cookie Butter Banana Brûlée Tart

I like to think of myself as an open-minded and all-inclusive eater. I love kale. No, seriously, I enjoy the taste and texture of raw kale. Can’t get enough of bone marrow. Spicy? Yes please. In another life I would be born Mexican so I could sit at my abuela’s kitchen counter and slurp down her homemade pozole. Or maybe I’d be born Thai so I could be raised on fragrant coconut curries and pungent fish sauce. Since that’s out of question, I’m more than happy in this life to eat nearly anything that comes my way.

Well, nearly anything.

My Foods I Hate list is quite short. Some of the usual suspects are on that list – metallic liver, gut-churning offal, slimy okra, bitter melon. Also, fully ripened bananas.

The perfect banana is solid yellow but with traces of green streaking down from the woody stem. Firm to the bite and still slightly starchy. Sweet, but not overly so. A banana with any trace of brown spotting is good only for baking.

I’m not a picky eater, I swear. It’s just…ripe bananas…no. No no no no.

Cookie Butter Banana Brûlée Tart

As you may have gathered by now, there were some overripe bananas unfit for consumption-as-is sitting on my counter. And half a jar of speculoos cookie butter left over from speculoos cheesecake. So I made this simple little tart.

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/4 tsp salt
9 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1-2 egg yolks
1 cup speculoos cookie butter
2 ripe bananas, sliced
granulated sugar for sprinkling

1. First, make the tart dough. Combine the flour, sugar, and salt. Using a stand mixer, pastry cutter, or your fingers, cut the cold butter into the flour mixture until you have coarse crumbs.
2. Mix in one egg yolk until the dough just comes together. Sometimes, I find I need a little more liquid – you can add another egg yolk or a little cold water.
3. Press the dough evenly into a 9″ tart pan and run a rolling pin over the top to cut off any excess dough. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and freeze for 30 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 375˚F. Remove the tart pan from the freezer and discard the plastic wrap. Spray the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil and press it up against the surface of the tart crust. Bake for 15-20 minutes.
5. After 15-20 minutes, remove the foil and continue to bake for another 5-7 minutes or until golden brown.
6. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack until you can remove the tart from the pan without burning yourself.
7. Spread the speculoos cookie butter evenly over the crust and arrange the banana slices over the top.
8. Sprinkle granulated sugar over the bananas and, using a blowtorch, brûlée the bananas. If you don’t have a blowtorch, you can slide the tart underneath the broiler for a couple minutes, carefully watching the whole time. The sugar will melt and coat the bananas, but you probably won’t be able to get any of the sugar to brown without burning your tart crust. Trust me, I’ve tried it before.
9. Serve to unsuspecting guests and congratulate yourself on having avoided the dreadful prospect of eating fully ripened bananas.