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Chocolate Hazelnut and Banana Tartlets

Le Tortine di Nutella e Banana

Mary Ann Esposito

Nutella, chocolate hazelnut spread, is all the rage in Italy; Nutellaphiles eat it by the spoonful right out of the jar. And that may be as good tasting as it gets unless you decide to make these puff pastry tartlets. Nutella mixed with mascarpone cheese and spread on top of banana slices in readymade puff pastry is one of the easiest desserts to make. Pietro Ferrero, pastry maker and founder of the Ferrero Company, created Nutella in the 1940s. At the time, cocoa was in short supply due to war rationing, and chocolate was a delicacy limited to a lucky few. So Pietro Ferrero mixed cocoa with toasted hazelnuts, cocoa butter and vegetable oils to create an economical spread of chocolate, which he called pasta gianduja(pronounced pasta-john-DOO-jah). Pasta gianduja's success was unprecedented.

In 1949, Ferrero made supercrema gianduja, which was spreadable as well as inexpensive. This product became so popular that Italian food stores started a service called "The Smearing:" children could go to their local food store with a slice of bread for a smear of i>supercrema gianduja.

In 1964, i>supercrema gianduja renamed “Nutella” and began to be marketed outside of Italy.

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 sheet prepared puffpastry
1 banana, sliced
1 cup Nutella
8 ounces Mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
3 tablespoons sugar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425°F.

Roll out the sheet of puff pastry on a work surface into a 12 by 14-inch rectangle; cut out four 6-inch circles. Press each of the circles into four individual 3-inch tart forms with removable bottoms.

Place the shells on a baking sheet and poke each shell with a fork all over the surface to prevent puffing while baking. Bake 7 to 8 minutes or until they are nicely browned.

Remove shells from the oven and allow to cool completely.

In a bowl, whip the Nutella and mascarpone together with the sugar until well blended.

Place a layer of banana slices in the bottom of each tart shell, then spoon the Nutella mixture into the shells. Refrigerate for several hours before serving.

This recipe is featured on show 1922 - Cooking with Five Ingredients and on show 2026 - Cooking with Friends.

item recipe is featured in Episode 1922 of Season 19.

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Comments

Heather

September 23, 2011 at 8:00pm | Permalink

Heaven!

Vicki

October 15, 2011 at 10:21am | Permalink

I made a simplified version of these last weekend. Because I hate rolling out dough, I took half the frozen puff pastry and unfolded it, then cut it into 3 pieces along the fold lines. Baked those for 15 minutes until golden and puffy. When cool, I cut each log into approx. 4 pieces. Then I put the bananas and the Nutella mixture on top. They were fantastic!

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Heather

September 23, 2011 at 8:00pm | Permalink

Heaven!
Vicki

October 15, 2011 at 10:21am | Permalink

I made a simplified version of these last weekend. Because I hate rolling out dough, I took half the frozen puff pastry and unfolded it, then cut it into 3 pieces along the fold lines. Baked those for 15 minutes until golden and puffy. When cool, I cut each log into approx. 4 pieces. Then I put the bananas and the Nutella mixture on top. They were fantastic!