I love bananas, I love toffee, I love cream and I love biscuits.

Therefore to the man that invented the banoffee pie, I salute you.

I remember that banoffee pie along with ‘fairy’ cakes was one of the first desserts that I was allowed to make on my own when I was a kid. My mum could safely leave me with all of the ingredients and allow me to get on, without the fear of me setting fire to the kitchen, or myself. I used to love bashing up the digestives to make my base and layering on the banana slices in a pretty spiral pattern.

On their own I think that bananas and toffee are both great, but combined they really are a match made in heaven. As a result of this, the flavour has gone far beyond the humble banoffee pie. There are now banoffee cupcakes, banoffee macarons and even banoffee flavoured Jammy dodgers! Therefore I decided to follow in the trend and have a go at my own banoffee invention. The result was the banoffee éclair… choux pastry filled with banana and whipped cream and then topped with chewy toffee, crushed digestive biscuit and dried banana. NOM!!

Prep Time: 1 hour

Makes: 10 Éclairs

Ingredients:

For the Choux Pastry:

60g Strong Plain Flour

150ml Cold Water

50g Butter

2 Eggs, Beaten

1 tsp Caster Sugar

For the Toffee Sauce Topping:

50g Butter

50g Dark Muscavado Sugar

1 Tin of Carnation Condensed Milk

For the Filling:

100g Double Cream

1 Tbsp Icing Sugar

1 Large Banana

Crushed Digestive Biscuits and Dried Banana Pieces for Decoration

Method:

To make the Toffee Sauce Topping…

1.Place all of the ingredients into a saucepan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved.

2. Bring to the boil while stirring and then reduce the heat and allow to simmer for a good 5 minutes while still stirring continuously. This will cause the sauce to thicken.

3. Once the five minutes is up take the sauce of the heat and pour into a bowl. Then place in the fridge to firm up before piping.

To make the Éclairs…

1.Pre-heat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6.

2. First you need to sift the flour and caster sugar onto a sheet of baking parchment or foil so that it is all ready to be quickly tipped into the pan when the time comes.

3. Place the butter and water in a pan over a moderate heat and stir until the butter has melted. Let it boil for about 10 seconds and then remove the pan from the heat.

4. Now quickly tip the flour and caster sugar into the melted butter and water and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon- if your arm doesn’t begin to hurt, you are not doing it right!

5. Keep beating until you have a smooth ball of paste that has left the sides of the saucepan clean.

6. Take the ball of paste, flatten it onto a dinner plate and then place in the freezer until it has cooled down. It needs to be cool for adding the eggs in or otherwise they will scramble! Not good!

7. One the paste is cool, pop it back in the saucepan and then begin to add the beaten eggs a little bit at a time, beating well between each addition until you have a smooth glossy mix.

8. Place the mix in a piping bag and then pipe your éclairs onto a baking tray covered in parchment paper.

9. Place in the oven and allow to bake for 10 minutes. Then reduce the oven temperature to 170°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3 and allow to bake for another 15 minutes or until golden brown.

10. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

11. Once the éclairs are cool you can begin construction.

12. Whip up the double cream and icing sugar and then place in a piping bag.

13. Cut the éclairs in half and then filling with the whipped cream in any pattern you chose- I went for blobs.

14. Slice up the banana and place on top of the whipped cream filling.

15. Put the lids back on the éclairs and then pipe the toffee sauce on the top.

16. Sprinkle with crushed up digestive biscuits and place a piece on dried banana on the top for decoration.