Simple Banoffee Tarts

It wasn't long ago since i made these little and simple Banoffee Tarts, to be precise i made them on the day we had a hot pot. I wasn't intending to make them at the start, but since i ended up with a whole can of awesome dulce de leche (milk caramel), i decided to make something for everyone to share. Since i had some bananas, ready-made shortcrust pastry and cream why not make some bite-sized Banoffee tarts? Simple and easy but making the Dulce de Leche can be time consuming. Here's how:

First of all, you'll need 1 can of sweetened condensed milk; remove all the labels to minimize the messiness. Submerge a can of sweetened condensed milk into a pot of cold water (make sure that the whole can is covered with water). Place the lid on the pot and turn the fire on. Once the water starts boiling, turn the heat down to a simmer and leave it simmering for about 3 hours (IMPORTANT: Please check it often to make sure that the can is still submerged in water). I used a tea towel to take the can out of the pot after i've poured all the water content down the sink. Cool down the can of dulce de leche before opening them - i left mine in the sink after rinsing with cold water. Ta-da...done! Tip: they are good on toast! 

If you rather enjoy the dulce the leche by itself you can stop reading, but if you want the rest of the Banoffee tarts recipe, read on:

1. Using a cookie cutter (3.8cm), make little tart shells with the shortcrust pastry.

2. Whip about 250ml of thickened cream in a chilled bowl until soft peaks form. Add in 2 tbsp of caster sugar and 1tsp of vanilla extract to the cream. Whip until firm peaks form - if it starts to look grainy, you have most likely over-whipped your cream.

3. Cut the banana into 5mm slices

Assembling the Simple Banoffee Tart:

1. Put 1 tsp of dulce de leche in the tart shell

2. Put 1 or 2 slices of banana on top of the dulce de leche

3. Using a 2.5cm in diameter star noozle, pipe out some whipped cream on top of the bananas

4. Add some crushed peanuts on top of the cream and...Voila! *Oops,i took the photos before completing step 4.