Sunday, November 29, 2009

Pumpkin banana mousse tart

Yesterday we attended an all-day Lord of the Rings festival with some friends, and I wanted to make an earthy dish with a Thanksgiving flavor. I settled on pumpkin banana mousse tart, which I found in Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa Family Style.

It's the only Ina Garten book I don't own, which is fine for now, because it doesn't have as many recipes I really want to make. (However, I did look one over and copy down the names of recipes I want to make, which is easy because they're all on the Food Network's website. This tart was one of those.)

You start by blind-baking a graham cracker crust.


This was a very easy graham cracker crust, and it was my favorite part of the tart. I will definitely have to remember this one for future tarts. I think I like it as much as a pastry shell.

While the tart cools, you mix together the ingredients for the filling, which is pretty complicated. It has a lot of ingredients for pumpkin pie, like canned pumpkin, nutmeg, and cinnamon. However, it also has a whole banana, orange peel, gelatin, and whipped cream folded in.


Yes, that's home-made whipped cream.

Once you finish the filling, you pour it in and chill the whole thing overnight. It made almost too much filling, as you can see that it's kind of over-flowing in some parts.


Then, right before you serve it, you whip up some more whipped cream and pipe it on to decorate.


Look how amazing that is! My friends loved it, and I liked it, too. It reminded me of pumpkin pie, but with a more complex flavor and lighter texture. The orange peel gave it a nice citrus flavor, too. It's not my favorite Ina dessert, but I can tell it will be a nice one for fall, and maybe for Thanksgiving someday.

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