Umami Cooking

Meaty with a dash of veggies

Banoffee with a tropical twist

No crust as this dessert isn’t a pie. Instead of digestive biscuits, you have toasted coconut flakes. You serve the banoffee in wineglasses to expose the beautiful layers of banana slices, salted caramel and cream.

Banana slices, caramel, toasted coconut, whipped cream and shaved chocolate in glass

Sweets recipe

Cook’s notes

What’s the idea? Inspiration. One Sunday afternoon long ago, I was browsing the web and I came across a beautiful no-bake dessert. I had all the ingredients to make it including salted caramel sauce which we used to keep in jars in the fridge. So, I made it. To this day, it’s one of my favorite banana desserts.
But… salted caramel sauce? Isn’t banoffee made with toffee? Okay, let’s differentiate. Caramel is made with sugar and milk or cream; toffee is made with sugar and butter. Caramel is chewy; toffee is hard.
The sauce used here is melted sugar and butter. Off the heat, cream is whisked in and the mixture is cooked a bit longer. Is it toffee or caramel? The way toffee is used to make classic banoffee, it’s more caramel than toffee. We can go on ad inifinitum debating whether it’s toffee or caramel, but why don’t I just give you the recipe so you can make this sweet at home, and call it whatever pleases you.
It’s even easier and faster to make this dessert by thinning out prepared dulce de leche with melted butter and stirring in a few pinches of salt. But if you don’t have dulce de leche, you can easily make salted caramel sauce from scratch.
Useful links:

Banoffee with a tropical twist

Prep: 5 minutes
Cook: 10 minutes
Cooling 30 minutes
Total: 45 minutes
Servings: 4 people
Course: Dessert, Snack
Cuisine: Fusion
Label: Cooked with coconut
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Ingredients

Salted caramel sauce

  • ½ cup brown sugar firmly packed
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • ½ cup whipping cream
  • ¼ teaspoon salt

To make the dessert

  • 4 ripe bananas peeled and sliced
  • 8 tablespoons toasted coconut flakes (available in some groceries and in most health stores)
  • whipped cream
  • dark chocolate shaved

Instructions

Make the salted caramel sauce

  1. Place the sugar, honey and butter in a sauce pan.
  2. Set over medium-high heat and cook, swirling the pan occasionally but without stirring, until the sugar melts completely.
  3. Off the heat, carefully pour in half a cup of cream. Stir to combine.
  4. Heat just until bubbles form along the edges.
  5. Cool to room temperature.

Assemble the banoffee

  1. Place a tablespoonful of toasted coconut at the bottom of each of four glasses.
  2. Follow with a tablespoon of cooled salted caramel sauce.
  3. Add the sliced bananas then another tablespoonful of toasted coconut.
  4. Pour in two to three tablespoonfuls of salted caramel sauce.
  5. Top with whipped cream and sprinkle with shaved dark chocolate.
  6. Serve immediately.
    Banana slices, caramel, toasted coconut, whipped cream and shaved chocolate in glass
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Meaty with a dash of veggies