Caramel banana ginger crumble panna cotta verrines

Since my last post on caramelised bananas, a little voice in my head was constantly chanting "caramelised bananas...make caramelised bananas!" It's akin to a non-stop chant that goes on in my head...that would not stop till I fulfill the whining that goes on...all inside my head, of course.

Caramel banana ginger crumble panna cotta verrines

Crystallised ginger pieces

Not to be outdone, there's another voice chanting another rhythm of its own in my head. It goes along the line of "ginger. ginger. ginger." You can imagine how the insides of my head are. It's a noisy environment in there for sure. Snorts.

I've been looking up ginger recipes, buying ginger lemon cookies, buying crystallised ginger pieces, and generally thinking of what ginger goodies I can make next. I was organising my bookmarks document, when I saw this. Yeps, you can only imagine the euphoria of the voices in my head.

I baked the ginger crumble first, and I'm not sure if it's the hot weather here in Singapore, or the recipe, but while mixing the crumble mixture in a bowl, it seemed, well, very wet looking. I was feeling apprehensive but I went ahead and baked the mixture. Sigh. Buttery mess. There was just too much butter I think, and the whole baking paper was soaked in buttery oil. Meh. I swapped a clean tray and lined it again with baking paper and transferred the mixture (sans buttery mess) and continued baking. It crisped up just fine, just that I would recommend reducing the butter amount for the crumble.

Caramel banana ginger crumble panna cotta verrines (adapted from Helen at Tartelette)
(makes four verrines)

Vanilla panna cotta
Recipe here. Divide equally among four glasses.

Ginger crumble

1/4 cup light brown sugar

4 tbsp all purpose flour

3 tbsp cold butter (I recommend reducing to 2)

1 tbsp chopped crystallized ginger

Preheat oven to 175ºC. In a bowl, combine the sugar, flour. Add the butter cut in small pieces, the ginger and mix with your fingertips until you get a mixture that ressembles coarse crumbs. Spread the mixture on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes until golden brown. Let cool to room temperature.

Caramel bananas
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp butter
2 medium bananas, cut into thick slices

Place half (or all) of the banana slices on a heated pan, sprinkle coarse sugar over and let it caramelise. Flip and continue cooking till both sides are caramelised. Remove and cool slightly. Over medium high heat, cook the sugar with the water in a saucepan until it caramelises to a golden caramel. Turn the heat down to medium and add the butter. Let it melt before adding all of the banana slices. Let them cook in the caramel for a couple of minutes until soft. Remove from the heat and wait a couple of minutes before dividing the banana slices in between your glasses. Top with the crumble and serve.

Overall taste: Yums. I love love love the sweet caramelised caramel bananas, the smooth silky panna cotta and crunchy addictive ginger crumble. One point to note, I divided the caramel bananas atop the cold panna cottas while the mixture was still piping hot. Mistake. After five minutes of happy photo taking, I noticed that the panna cotta layer seemed to be bubbling upwards. The chilled layer was probably heated by the hot caramel, tsk tsk tsk. Not that I mind actually. I ate one verrine with the panna cotta layer tasting kinda like a cream pudding texture. I refrigerated the other two remaining (Sis ate one), and when I had it the next day, the panna cotta was all firmed up again. Yums. The panna cotta was simply delicious both ways. :)