Banana Tartes Tatin

From the kitchen of Carly

Caramelized bananas arranged in neat circles, topped with buttery puff pastry, then flipped to reveal glossy caramel and tender fruit. Individual tartes tatin that feel fancy but come together in under thirty minutes, with store-bought pastry doing most of the work.

Banana Tartes Tatin

A Tatin that trades apples for bananas, baked in individual crème brûlée dishes so each one inverts to reveal glossy caramelized fruit. The diagonally sliced banana slivers brown into golden ribbons, their corners crisp and almost candy-like against buttery, fluffed puff pastry. It's the move when you want showstopping dessert without the fuss of a full tart.

Prep
n/a
Cook
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Total
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Servings
4
Difficulty
medium

Ingredients

4 servings

  • 4 tbspunsalted butter, softened
  • 8 tbsplight brown sugar
  • 4firm ripe bananas, peeled, cut on a diagonal into 1/4"-thick slices
  • 46" rounds puff pastry cut from one package of puff pastry, thawed
  • 1Four 5"-diameter
  • 1"-high crème brûlée dishes

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F and set all four crème brûlée dishes on a rimmed baking sheet. Coat the bottom of each dish with 1 tablespoon of softened butter, then scatter 2 tablespoons of brown sugar evenly over it. Lay the slices from 1 banana over the sugar in overlapping concentric circles until the bottom is covered, then drape a 6-inch puff pastry round on top, tucking the edges down around the bananas.

  2. Slide the baking sheet into the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the pastry is deeply golden and puffed and the filling is bubbling up around the edges. Working quickly and carefully, invert each tart onto a plate.

Tips from the kitchen

  • Use firm ripe bananas, not soft ones; they hold their shape and won't collapse into mush during baking. If they're too yellow, grab them today and bake tomorrow.
  • The trick to a clean inversion is making sure the sugar and butter coat the bottom evenly. A light press with your fingers gets caramel into all the corners of the dish.
  • Don't skip the diagonal cut. It creates those thin, overlapping slivers that caramelize in pockets instead of steaming flat. The geometry matters.
  • Keep puff pastry cold until the moment it goes in the oven. Warm pastry won't puff as dramatically and the edges won't brown right.

Variations

  • Banana and cardamom: Add 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom to the brown sugar before sprinkling into each dish.
  • Banana and dark rum: Brush the puff pastry rounds with a thin glaze of rum mixed with a touch of honey before baking.
  • Caramelized banana and almond: Toast sliced almonds and scatter a light handful over the sugar layer before arranging the banana slices.
  • Banana and passion fruit: Drizzle 1 teaspoon passion fruit curd between the butter and sugar in each dish for tartness against the caramel.

Make ahead and storage

These are best served warm the day they're made, but you can refrigerate leftovers for up to 2 days and rewarm gently in a 300°F oven for about 10 minutes.