Banana Cream Pie Semifreddo with Malted Gingersnap Crumble, Maple/Bulleit Bananas & Boozy Cherries
Sometimes you make a banana cream pie, and it’s delicious. Other times, it doesn’t work out. I’m not sure what happened because one of my cooks made it, but it didn’t set up. It tasted great, but there was no way we could cut a slice and plate it up. I like challenges, and was sure we could do something with this.
I put the pies in the food processor, graham crust and all, and completely puréed them. I transferred the mixture to a stand mixer and added a bag of neutral mousse mix, which is a lot of dehydrated fat, sugar and hydrocolloids. Adding it in gradually, I whipped the mix until it just held together. There was no “off” flavor from the mousse mix. Once it held its shape, I spread it on a parchment line sheet pan and froze it. Once solid, it was cut into circles.
The dessert was finished with a malted gingersnap crumble, house-made cocktail cherries and bananas cooked with butter, grade b maple syrup & Bulleit bourbon. We may have ended up with a stronger dish than we intended.
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Chris Spear