BANANA & MANGO FROZEN YOGURT WITH HAZELNUT PRALINE

The idea for this dessert came to me while I was watching Donna Hay cooking banana and mango frozen yogurt.  I was immediately attracted by its simplicity in the making as well as by the minimum number of ingredients required.

Desserts are not my strong point and usually I prefer to use the skills of professional pastry chefs or chocolatiers but this time I decided to have a go.

Banana and Mango frozen yogurt with Hazelnut Praline

You will need for eight people:

6 bananas

3 mangos

1 cup (280 gr) of natural yogurt

8 wanton wrappers

200 grams of dark or milk chocolate buttons (to your taste)

Method:

Cut the bananas into rounds around 2 cm thick, place them in a plastic container and freeze.  Repeat the same with the mangoes.  It will take between 3-4 hours (depending on the temperature of your freezer) to get the fruit frozen.  Once it’s hard, get it out and empty both containers either into a blender or a food processor together with a cup of yogurt and blend until smooth.  You can serve it straight away or put it back into the freezer to harden it.

Donna Hay served it in pre-made ice-cream cones and then stuck them into an ice cream cone holder and it looked great.  However, I came up with a different idea.

I happened to have in a freezer a packet of wanton wrappers (incidentally, I bought them for another of Donna Hay’s recipes) so I took them out to defrost and once they were soft enough to bend, I brushed them with melted butter, sprinkled some brown sugar over and placed them into cup-cake tin moulds (which I also brushed with a tiny bit of butter to prevent them from sticking) lightly pressing the wrappers down into the mould and then put the tray into a 180 degrees pre-heated oven for 5 minutes or until golden brown.  Using tongs, I removed them from the mould to cool.

Hazelnut Praline

You need:

300 gr hazelnuts

1 cup of sugar

¼ cup of water

Method:

Place hazelnuts on a backing tray and toast them in an oven at 180C for about 5 minutes.  Wrap them in a towel while still hot and give them a good rub to remove as much skin as possible.

Line the backing tray with foil.  Put sugar and water in a heavy pan and place on medium-high heat.  When the sugar is dissolved, it will gradually start to turn a golden colour.  Once it becomes golden brown, add hazelnuts, turn the heat down and stir to coat the nuts with caramel.  Keep stirring until the caramel becomes dark brown and then empty the pan into a lined tray to cool.  Once cooled, it becomes one solid sheet - break it into pieces and put in the food processor and pulse.  

I like when there is some texture in the praline so I never process it until it is completely smooth.

TO SERVE

I am not a big fan of very cold desserts so I took my banana and mango yogurt sorbet from the freezer about 10 minutes before serving.  You can leave it in the freezer until the last minute, if you prefer.

When you are ready to serve – just scoop the sorbet into the wanton cups and top with a spoonful of praline. 

Then, for extra bit of deliciousness, place the chocolate buttons into a bowl and melt them in the microwave - short cut!!! (be careful not to burn the chocolate, set the timer for 5 seconds and add another 5, if needed), then scoop it into a spoon and holding it up and above the wonton cups, tip the spoon as if you are going to pour it over but instead start quickly flicking your wrist back and forth to allow the chocolate to go all over the cups.  

As with everything creative, there are no rights or wrongs as long as you are enjoying yourself and people around you like your job.

I served this dessert as a finale to my Lazy Summer Lunch meal, but it could, of course, be prepared for any occasion

Enjoy!!!