These banoffee tartlets are delightful bite-sized treats bring together the perfect trio of bananas, caramel, and whipped cream. This recipe features a buttery tart shell that cradles layers of silky caramel, luscious slices of ripe bananas, and a cloud-like topping of whipped cream with some chocolate shavings. This combination of sweet, creamy, and indulgent flavors will transport your taste buds to dessert heaven. Whether you’re hosting a dinner party or treating yourself to a special dessert, these mini banoffee tarts are sure to leave a lasting impression. Be sure to follow the bake along with me guide and prepare to savor every blissful bite!
Pantry Checklist:
- Unsalted Butter: You will need a few tablespoons of softened butter for the crust to help it form a dough. It is very important to have your butter at room temperature. You will also need more butter to make the caramel. You can ensure this by lightly pressing your finger on the block of butter. It should slightly leave an imprint. I also prefer to use unsalted butter because salted butters have varying amounts of salt content in them and it is always a good idea to add it on your own and avoid your bakes from being too salty.
- Egg yolk: Use large eggs and bring them to room temperature before mixing in. Eggs strengthen the binding of your bakes and also add moisture. Having your eggs at room temperature makes it easier to incorporate them and allow them to mix thoroughly in your bread. A good way of doing this is by letting them sit in a bowl filled with room temperature water for around 10 minutes or until they come down to room temperature.
- Almond Extract: Almond extract goes very well with this filling. However you can always use equal quantities vanilla or chocolate instead.
- All-purpose flour: I highly recommend weighing all your ingredients using a kitchen scale for accurate recipe results. If you’re using cups, don’t scoop your cup into the flour. Spoon the flour into your cup and level it off with the back of a knife.
- Bananas: You will need small banana slices to add to the bottom of this tart.
- Granulated Sugar: You will need granulated sugar to make the caramel filling for these tarts. Along with adding sweetness, sugar helps to give the texture to it.
- Heavy Cream: Adding fresh cream to your caramel will help thicken it, and give it the perfect consistency. You can use either low-fat or full-fat cream but full-fat gives better results. You will also need this to make whipped cream.
- Vanilla: I highly recommend that you use a high quality, pure vanilla extract. This helps in giving a rich flavor to your baked goods. Pure vanilla extracts are typically dark brown in color. This enhances the flavor of all ingredients and you should never leave this out.
- Chocolate: I highly recommend using good quality couverture baking chocolate chips or chocolate bars (I use callebaut) to ensure the best flavor. Couverture chocolates are made of cocoa butter as compared to regular compound chocolates which are made of saturated fats like oil.
FAQ
Caramel bubbles up a lot when cooking, so be sure to have a pan big enough to accommodate the caramel as it heats and the sugar bubbles rise. A heavy bottomed pan that will help distribute heat evenly is best. The reason caramel bubbles is due to a temperature difference between the sugar and your ingredients. As they come to a stable range, the bubbling stops. It is normal and I recommend stirring constantly to avoid it from burning.
Even though this recipe is made for tartlet pans, you can bake these mini tarts in muffin pans as well. Line & grease a muffin pan with cupcake liners. Place the dough only on the base and not around the edges. You can also use a graham cracker crust instead. Crush graham crackers together in a mixer. Mix these graham cracker crumbs with melted butter and press onto the base. Proceed with the other instructions as it is. This recipe should yield around 6-8 such mini tarts.
You can always bake this easy mini banoffee pie recipe ahead of time. They freeze & refrigerate very well in an airtight container. Make sure to thaw them if you’re freezing them. However, I won’t recommend storing them for very long as you will also end up with a soggy tart shell base due to the caramel or toffee. It is best if you instead make the dulce de leche filling, whipping cream, chocolate curls and shells ahead and assemble them when you serve.
Bake along with me:
- Step 1: Gather all ingredients for the tart.
- Step 2: Cream together butter and sugar until light & fluffy. Add in the egg yolk & vanilla.
- Step 3: Add in the dry ingredients & mix until dough comes together. Shape it into a ball, wrap with a cling film and let it chill for ~30 minutes in the refrigerator.
- Step 4: Gather all the ingredients for caramel sauce. Make the sauce while the dough is chilling and let it chill in the refrigerator.
- Step 5: Make the chocolate curls: Melt chocolate using the bain-marie method. Spread a thin layer of chocolate on the back of the baking pan. Allow to chill in the refrigerator for 3-5 minutes until set. Using the back of a spatula or cake smoother, push along the edge to make curls.
- Step 6: Roll out chilled dough into greased tart shells.
- Step 7: Blind bake tarts for 15 minutes at 350 degrees F with pie weights. Remove pie weights and bake the tarts for 10 more minutes. Cover the edges with aluminium foil. Let them cool before removing from tartlet pan.
- Step 8: Add caramel sauce and banana slices to the cooled tartlets. Top with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.
Secrets to Success
- Make your own crust. Yes you can easily run a trip down to the store to buy a tart dough. But trust me, this one is so easy and flavourful. You’ll need just a handful of ingredients that you probably have in your pantry and 30 minutes of chilling time before you can bake it.
- Use the very best ingredients. Since these miniature banoffee pies require so few ingredients, it’s best to bet on the good stuff! I highly recommend using high quality couverture dark chocolate. I use Callebaut chocolate and it gives an extremely shiny and smooth look along with an incredible texture. Couverture chocolates also hold their shape at room temperature which is required for making the chocolate curls.
- Allow the crusts to cool completely. Once the mini tart shells have baked, allow them to cool completely in the pan before flipping them out. Trust me there’s nothing worse than kneading, rolling and baking the dough only for your tart shells to crumble and break. Allow them to cool completely & grease your pans properly before baking so they come out with ease. I highly recommend using a non stick spray with a combination of both flour and oil.
- Let it chill. Even though these individual banoffee tarts are going to be so tempting to dig into right away, they taste the best once chilled. Allow them to chill in the refrigerator for atleast an hour before serving them.
LAST BUT NOT THE LEAST:
All of the recipes on the blog are thoroughly tested multiple times and carefully designed so that anyone can reproduce these delicious baked good in their own kitchen and enjoy them to the fullest. The only way to make this possible is when anyone can exactly replicate the measurements and temperatures.
- In order to standardise the way ingredients are measured, I highly recommend that you weigh them in grams. Volume measurements are nearly not as accurate and have a lot of scope for errors. To precisely be able to replicate the recipes, all you will need is a kitchen scale!
- Every oven heats up differently. Your oven might be over heating or under heating by around 50 degrees or more and you might not even know. In order to ensure that you are baking at the right temperatures, I highly recommend investing in an oven thermometer!
If you would still like to bake using volume measurements, I mentioned those below. However, I primarily test my recipes in grams and cannot promise the best results if you do so. Trust me, once you’ll start using these tools you’d never want to go back!
More tart & tartlet recipes you’ll enjoy:
Happy Baking! xx
I hope you’ll enjoy these mini banoffee pies and don’t forget to bookmark this recipe for later. This mini banoffee tartlets recipe would make the perfect delight to share with your friends & family!
If you’ve already tried them, I’d love to hear how it turned out! Leave a star rating & review on my blog post and share a picture (or video!) on Instagram and tag @thatbakeblog so I can see your bakes!
Banoffee tartlets
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: 3 tartlets 1x
Ingredients
Tartlet Dough
- 56g (¼ cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 50g (¼ cup) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
- 94g (¾ cup) all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Carmel Sauce
- 1 cups (200g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (113g) unsalted butter, cubed
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup (240ml) heavy cream, at room temperature
Assembly
- 1 banana, cut into slices
- 1 cup whipped cream
- few chocolate curls or shavings
Instructions
Tartlet Dough
- In a large bowl, add the unsalted butter and granulated sugar. Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat on medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add in the egg yolk. Beat again until combined. The mixture will now be light and fluffy.
- In a separate bowl mix together the all purpose flour and salt.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix together until the mixture is crumbly. Using your hands or a mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, knead the dough until combined. You will have a smooth dough at the end.
- Cover the dough tightly with a plastic wrap and let it chill in the refrigerator for atleast 30 minutes or overnight.
- Preheat your oven to 350ºF (177ºC) and grease three tartlet pans with a nonstick spray. Set aside.
- Once chilled, allow the dough to rest at room temperature for about 10 minutes. It should be cool yet pliable when touched. Using a tiny bit of flour or between two pieces of parchment paper, roll the dough out using a rolling pin to about ¼ to ⅛ inch thick.
- Divide the dough into three equal parts and roll each of them out into ¼ inch thick circles using a rolling pin of diameter around 2-inch larger than the base of your tartlet pans.
- Gently left and press the dough circles into the greased tartlets pans, one at a time. Press the dough into the sides and trim the dough hanging out by running the back of a knife around the top edge of the pan. Fill in any gaps or cracks by pressing in bits of dough.
- Line the dough in all pans with a small piece of parchment paper and fill it with pie weights or lentils.
- Blind bake the tarts for about 15 minutes or until they have golden brown edges.
- Remove the baking tray from the oven and line the browned edges with foil. Remove the pie weights and parchment paper. Return the baking tray to the oven and bake the tarts for around 8-10 minutes.
- Remove the pans from the tray and transfer to a wire rack. Let the shells cool completely before removing them from the pan.
Caramel Sauce
- While the tart dough is chilling, add sugar to a heavy bottomed saucepan and start melting it on medium-low heat.
- Stir continuously until all the sugar has completely melted.
- Add in cubes of butter, around two at a time and stir vigorously. The mixture will bubble when you do so. Repeat until all the butter is incorporated.
- Add in the salt and vanilla. Stir vigorously until thoroughly combined.
- Lastly, add in around half of the cream and stir vigorously again. The mixture will bubble even more at this point. Remove from heat and add in the other half. Stir again until thoroughly combined.
- Transfer to a glass jar and allow to cool completely.
- Pour caramel on top of cooled shortbread crust and spread it evenly towards the edges using an offset spatula.
- Transfer your pan to the refrigerator and allow it to chill for atleast 30 minutes or until the caramel is completely set.
- You can even double the caramel recipe and store the leftover sauce in the refrigerator in an airtight container, preferably a glass jar for upto 3 weeks!
Assembly
- Add a generous spoon of chilled caramel sauce to the bottom of these tarts. Top with banana slices until covered.
- Top with whipped cream and shaved chocolate. Chill before serving!
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: tartlets, mini tarts, chocoalte, banana, caramel, banoffee
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: banoffee tartlets, easy banoffee pie recipe, banoffee tart
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