Chapter 9 · The Pâtissier
The Fool's Gold Tart
A peanut-butter shortcrust tartlet layered with roasted-banana pastry cream, a bright Concord grape gelée, and maple candied bacon — the King’s sandwich rebuilt as plated pâtisserie.
Yield: 12 tartlets (58 mm / 2.3-inch rings) | Prep: 45 min (assembly only — shells made separately) | Cook: 30 min | Inactive: 3 hr (component chill + sets) | Total: ~4 hr 15 min
Headnote
This tartlet is an homage to two pieces of Elvis Presley legend at once. The classic “Elvis” sandwich — peanut butter, banana, and bacon — supplies the banana; the Fool’s Gold Loaf, the hollowed bread filled with peanut butter, grape jelly, and a pound of bacon that Presley once flew across the country for, supplies the grape and the name. Built as a composed tartlet, the components are reorganized so each one cuts the one beneath it: a milk-chocolate seal grounds the peanut shell, a deliberately under-sweetened roasted-banana pastry cream reads creamy and faintly savory, a lemon-brightened Concord gelée delivers acid, and the candied bacon lands salt and crunch at the very top. Teaching Idea: The Moisture Seal. A baked tart shell is porous; a wet filling will wick into it and turn a crisp shell soggy within hours. Brushing the cooled interior with melted chocolate lays down a continuous hydrophobic film — fat repels water — that blocks migration from the banana cream into the crust. Here the seal does double duty: peanut butter and milk chocolate are a proven pairing, so the barrier also reads as a flavor layer rather than a neutral one.
Ingredients
The Shells
- ½ batch 12-02 Foundation Tart Dough, Variant 7 (Peanut Butter Shell) — approximately 18–20 shells at 58 mm; shape 12 and freeze the remainder raw. See 12-02 for the full formula, mixing, and blind-bake instructions.
The Moisture Seal
- 75 g (2 ½ oz) milk chocolate, 38% cacao or higher, chopped
The Roasted-Banana Pastry Cream
- 100 g (approximately ⅓ cup) roasted banana purée — weighed after roasting (≈ 130 g peeled raw banana; 4–5 finger bananas or 1 large Cavendish)
- 200 g (¾ cup + 1 tbsp) whole milk
- 50 g (approximately 3 large) egg yolks
- 22 g (1 ¾ tbsp) granulated sugar
- 22 g (3 tbsp) cornstarch
- 20 g (1 ½ tbsp) unsalted butter
- 2 g (½ tsp) Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- ¼ tsp vanilla extract
- a few drops lemon juice
The Concord Grape Gelée
- 125 g (½ cup) Concord grape juice
- 10 g (2 ½ tsp) granulated sugar
- 8–10 g (2 tsp) lemon juice
- 1 pinch Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- 3 g (1 ½ sheets, or 1 tsp powdered) gelatin — or 1 g agar-agar (see Chef’s Notes for agar method)
The Maple Candied Bacon
- 5 strips (approximately 140 g) thick-cut bacon
- 25 g (1 ½ tbsp) maple syrup
- 25 g (2 tbsp) light brown sugar, packed
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 pinch cayenne
For Finishing
- flaky sea salt (Maldon), for finishing
Mise en Place
- Prepare ½ batch 12-02 Foundation Tart Dough, Variant 7; shape into twelve 58 mm rings and blind-bake per that folio’s Phase 5. Cool completely in the rings before sealing.
- Bloom the gelatin: submerge sheet gelatin in cold water for 5 minutes, or sprinkle powdered gelatin over 15 g cold water and let stand.
- Bring the egg yolks and milk toward room temperature.
- Chop the milk chocolate and set it in a clean dry bowl.
- Line a wire rack over a sheet pan for the bacon.
- Preheat oven to 400°F/205°C for roasting the bananas; the bacon bakes after, at 350°F/175°C.
- Set out a piping bag and a small offset spatula for assembly.
Method
Phase 1: Roast the Bananas
Place whole unpeeled bananas on a foil-lined sheet and roast at 400°F/205°C for 18–20 minutes, until the skins are fully blackened and the fruit is collapsed and soft. The skins should split and weep a little syrup — that darkening is the sugars caramelizing and the starch converting, which is what gives the cream its depth without added sugar. Cool until handleable, then scoop the flesh and weigh out 100 g. Mash smooth with a few drops of lemon juice to hold the color.
Phase 2: Build the Banana Pastry Cream
In a saucepan, warm the milk over medium heat until it steams and small bubbles ring the edge — do not boil. Meanwhile, whisk the yolks, sugar, and cornstarch in a bowl until pale and ribboned, with no dry streaks of starch. Whisking constantly, pour about a third of the hot milk into the yolks to temper them, then return everything to the saucepan.
Cook over medium heat, whisking without stopping, until the cream thickens and the first slow bubbles break the surface, then cook 60 seconds more — this cooks out the raw-starch taste and fully sets the cornstarch. The cream should be thick enough to hold a clean ribbon. Off the heat, whisk in the butter, salt, and vanilla until glossy, then fold in the roasted banana purée. Press a sheet of plastic wrap directly onto the surface and refrigerate until cold and firm, at least 2 hours. Why: the cream must be fully set before it can carry a layer of gelée without the two bleeding together.
Phase 3: Seal the Shells
Melt the milk chocolate gently — in 20-second microwave bursts, stirring between each, or over a bain-marie — keeping it below 110°F/43°C so it does not scorch or seize. Using a pastry brush, paint a thin, even coat over the entire interior of each cooled shell: base, walls, and into the docking holes. Set at room temperature for 2–3 minutes, or 1 minute in the refrigerator, until the surface is matte and firm to a light touch. The coat should seal without pooling in the base.
Phase 4: Set the Concord Grape Gelée
Warm the grape juice, sugar, and salt in a small saucepan until steaming but not boiling. Off the heat, squeeze the bloomed gelatin to remove excess water (or add the powdered gelatin slurry) and whisk in until fully dissolved, then stir in the lemon juice. Strain through a fine sieve into a measuring jug and let it cool to approximately 86°F/30°C — warm enough to pour, cool enough that it will not melt the cream below. It should look glossy and just beginning to thicken at the edges of the jug.
Phase 5: Caramelize the Bacon
Toss the bacon strips with the maple syrup, brown sugar, several grinds of black pepper, and the cayenne until evenly coated. Lay flat on the lined rack and bake at 350°F/175°C for 20–25 minutes, until deeply caramelized and lacquered — the strips will still flex slightly when hot but crisp as they cool. Watch the final minutes closely; the sugars go from amber to burnt quickly. Cool completely on the rack until rigid and glassy, then chop into a fine rubble.
Phase 6: Assemble
Transfer the cold banana cream to a piping bag. Pipe into each sealed shell, filling to about 3 mm below the rim, and smooth level with a small offset spatula. Spoon a thin layer of the cooled gelée — about 5 g per tartlet — over the cream, tilting each tartlet to flood the surface to the rim in an even mirror. Refrigerate until the gelée is fully set, about 30 minutes.
At service — and not before — scatter the candied bacon rubble over each tartlet and finish with a few flakes of sea salt. Why: the bacon is crisp only while dry; held on the gelée it softens within the hour, so it is the last thing added before the plate leaves the pass.
Chef’s Notes
- Gelatin-free gelée: Substitute agar-agar at approximately 1 g per 125 g of juice. Agar must be brought to a full boil to activate, then sets as it cools below 104°F/40°C — pour at about 113°F/45°C, before it gels. It sets slightly firmer and more brittle than gelatin, which suits a thin mirror. Alternatively, 150 g jarred Concord grape jelly loosened with 15 g water and the lemon will re-set on its own pectin as it cools — no added gelling agent needed.
- Finger bananas run sweeter: Lady Finger and other small bananas are more intensely sweet than Cavendish. The cream’s sugar is already cut to 22 g to account for this; taste the finished cream and adjust only upward if needed.
- Make-ahead: The banana cream holds 3 days refrigerated; the gelée can be set in a flat container and re-melted gently; the candied bacon keeps 1 week airtight at room temperature. Blind-baked, sealed shells hold 2 days in an airtight container. Assemble (through the gelée) up to 24 hours ahead; add bacon and salt only at service.
- Why milk chocolate, not white: White chocolate or cocoa butter gives a flavor-neutral seal (the 12-02 default). Milk chocolate is used here deliberately — the peanut-and-chocolate pairing reinforces the shell, and its faint cocoa note sits well under banana and grape. Use 38% cacao or higher for a firmer, less cloying seal; lower-cacao milk chocolate works but stays softer, so brush it thinner.
- Shell fragility: Variant 7 is the most delicate of the seven doughs. Bake, seal, and fill the shells in their rings, and unmold only once the chocolate seal has set — it adds rigidity that helps the shell survive handling.
Glossary
- Crème Pâtissière: French pastry cream — a stovetop custard of milk, egg yolks, sugar, and starch cooked until thick. The base for countless tart and pastry fillings.
- Tempering: Gradually raising the temperature of eggs by whisking in a little hot liquid before combining fully, preventing the yolks from scrambling when they meet the hot milk.
- Blooming (gelatin): Hydrating gelatin in cold water before use so it dissolves smoothly and evenly into a warm liquid without forming lumps.
- Gelée: A lightly set, glossy gel — here a fruit juice set with gelatin or agar — used as a thin, clean-cut layer or mirror finish.
- Moisture Seal: A continuous hydrophobic coating, typically melted chocolate or cocoa butter, brushed inside a baked shell to block a wet filling from soaking into the crust.
- Blind Bake: Baking a pastry shell without its filling, weighted or frozen to hold its shape, to set the structure before a no-bake filling is added.
- Nappé: The consistency at which a custard or sauce coats the back of a spoon and holds a clean line drawn through it with a fingertip.