Banana parfait with toffee sauce recipe

This recipe is an old one from the early days at The Sportsman, and it was inspired by a love of Seventies ice lollies. You will need six dariole moulds to make it, each about 130ml in capacity.

Prep time: 25 minutes, plus five hours setting time | Cooking time: 10 minutes

SERVES

Six

INGREDIENTS

• 170g caster sugar

• 115ml water

• 6 egg yolks

• 250ml double cream

• Zest of 1 lime and juice of ½

• A pinch of ground cloves (optional)

• 4 very ripe bananas (you need 375g banana flesh), blitzed to a purée

For the toffee sauce

• 200g demerara sugar

• 280ml double cream

• 20g butter

METHOD

1. Bring the sugar and water to the boil together in a small saucepan.

2. Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks in a mixing bowl until they are pale and fluffy – about four minutes – and in a separate bowl whip the cream with the lime juice, zest and cloves (if using) until it makes soft peaks.

3. When the water and sugar has boiled for one minute, pour it slowly on to the beaten egg yolks while whisking. They will swell up and double in volume.

4. Add the banana purée to the egg yolk mixture and fold it in gently, trying to keep as much air in as possible. Add the whipped cream and fold it into the mixture in the same way.

5. Divide the banana mixture between the six moulds and put in the freezer for at least five hours, or overnight.

6. To make the toffee sauce, melt the sugar in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan until it starts to caramelise (don’t stir it, just swirl the pan to melt the sugar evenly).

7. In another saucepan, heat the double cream to just below boiling.

8. When the sugar is very dark (the more daring you are to take it dark, the better your caramel will be, because it will have a balancing bitterness), carefully pour the cream into the sugar off the heat. It will splutter a bit, so be careful.

9. Return the pan to a low heat and stir until all of the sugar is dissolved.

10. Take off the heat and beat in the butter, then strain through a sieve and allow to cool completely.

11. To serve, unmould each parfait on to a plate and pour over the cooled toffee sauce.