Chef Juliette
Apricots (Abricots)
Apricots peeled clean and poached just to tenderness, their golden halves held in clear syrup for tarts and cold sweets: a small lesson in texture, restraint, and knowing when fruit is ready.
Culinary Explorer
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Bananas à la Norvégienne
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 2564, Bananas à la Norvégienne, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Banana skins cradle banana ice beneath a thick, grooved coat of rum-scented meringue, browned in a fierce flash while broken ice guards the frozen center. The insulation is the whole lesson.
Desserts
French
Celebration
Dinner Party
Special Occasion
30 min
Active Time
2 min cook•32 min total
Yield4 servings
Bananes à la Norvégienne (banana ice in its own skin beneath rum meringue) teaches one clean principle: insulation must be complete before heat arrives. The banana ice stays frozen not because the oven is gentle, but because a thick, unbroken coat of Meringue à l’Italienne (No. 2383), Italian meringue made stable with hot sugar, takes the blast and browns before the heat can travel inward. Leave one gap and the center begins to run.
The original entry assumed a pastry station with banana ice ready, a brigade-sized batch of meringue, hands that could pipe several portions at service speed, and a salamander fierce enough to color them in moments. Your honest equivalents are a fully heated broiler, a freezer-cold metal platter, and four bananas assembled one at a time. The oversized meringue yield is brigade scaffolding and has been scaled to 250 g; the three-quarter filling, rum flavor, grooved piping, broken-ice bed, and rapid browning are the dish, so they remain.
Before you cut a peel, have the ice, meringue, piping bag, and broiler ready. Once the banana ice enters the skin, speed matters, but coverage matters more. The one step that decides the dish is the seal: pipe thickly from peel edge to peel edge before the broiler sees it.
Bananes à la Norvégienne belongs to the Parisian grand-kitchen repertory of frozen entremets, not to Norway. The name borrows the snowy northern image of omelette norvégienne, in which a frozen center survives fierce heat because meringue slows the heat long enough for its surface to brown. This banana variation carries the same principle into an individual fruit shell, with rum giving the meringue its prescribed finish and broken ice buying the pastry cook a few more moments.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
medium just-ripe bananas
Quantity
4
well chilled
prepared banana ice
Quantity
1½ cups (355 ml / 340 g)
frozen firm but scoopable
dark rum
Quantity
1 tablespoon (15 ml / 14 g)
broken ice
Quantity
8 cups (1.9 L / 1.1 kg)
for the tray
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| medium just-ripe bananaswell chilled | 4 |
| prepared banana icefrozen firm but scoopable | 1½ cups (355 ml / 340 g) |
| Meringue à l’Italiennecooled fully | 3 cups (710 ml / 250 g) Meringue à l’Italienne (No. 2383) |
| dark rum | 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 14 g) |
| broken icefor the tray | 8 cups (1.9 L / 1.1 kg) |
Equipment Needed
- •Rimmed metal baking sheet, at least 33 x 23 cm (13 x 9 inches)
- •Small freezer-safe stainless-steel serving platter
- •Piping bag with a 6 mm (¼ inch) open-star tip
- •Small sharp knife
- •Teaspoon or narrow melon baller
Instructions
- 1
Ready the extremes
Set an oven rack 10 to 12 cm (4 to 5 inches) below the broiler and heat it at its highest setting for at least 10 minutes. Put a small stainless-steel serving platter in the freezer while you work, and have the broken ice waiting beside a rimmed metal tray. Use metal throughout; glass and ceramic can crack when they meet the broiler and ice in the same service.
A fierce, fully heated broiler is safer for the frozen center than a hesitant one. You want color in moments, before the heat has time to travel through the meringue. - 2
Hollow the bananas
Lay each chilled banana on its natural curve. With a small sharp knife, cut away a long strip of peel about 2.5 cm (1 inch) wide from the upper side, stopping short of both ends so the shell keeps its strength. Ease out the pulp with a teaspoon, working in small pieces and taking care not to pierce the remaining peel. Arrange the emptied skins snugly on the cold metal platter and return it to the freezer while you prepare the meringue.
- 3
Flavor the meringue
Fold the rum into the cooled Meringue à l’Italienne (No. 2383) with broad, deliberate strokes until evenly scented. Do not beat air out of it. Fit a piping bag with a small 6 mm (¼ inch) open-star tip, the home equivalent of the book's small grooved pipe, and fill the bag. If the rum loosens the meringue slightly, whisk it briefly by hand until a piped ridge holds again. Ça se rattrape.
- 4
Fill and seal
Work with one banana at a time. Spoon banana ice into the hollow peel until it is three-quarters full, exactly as the original directs, then immediately pipe Meringue à l’Italienne (No. 2383) over the exposed ice in close grooved rows. Build a thick, continuous coat that touches the peel around the entire opening. Repeat with the remaining bananas. The seal is the technique: if even a pinhole of ice remains visible, patch it with reserved meringue before continuing.
If the banana ice softens or slumps while you pipe, stop and return the metal platter to the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes. Firm the center, repair the meringue seal, then proceed. - 5
Brown over ice
Spread the broken ice about 4 cm (1½ inches) deep in the rimmed metal tray, then press the banana platter securely into it without letting meltwater rise over the platter's rim. Slide the entire arrangement under the fully heated broiler and watch without looking away. Brown for 45 to 90 seconds, rotating once if necessary, until the grooved peaks are deep hazelnut and the hollows remain ivory-gold. If color is slow after a minute, pull the tray out and let the broiler recover rather than leaving the frozen center under weak heat.
- 6
Serve at once
Wipe the outside and rim of the metal tray dry, set it on a heatproof board, and carry the bananas to the table still nested over broken ice. Serve immediately, one banana to each guest, while the meringue is bronzed outside and the banana ice remains firm within. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Choose bananas that are fragrant and fully yellow but still firm, with very few brown marks. An overripe peel tears while you hollow it and collapses beneath the filling.
- •The 250 g of Meringue à l’Italienne (No. 2383) is roughly one third of the brigade preparation. Its hot-sugar ratio stays untouched; only the service quantity changes.
- •Use smooth banana ice without fruit chunks. Keep it in the coldest part of the freezer, then let it stand only until a spoon can cut through it cleanly; soft filling spends your precious broiling time before the tray reaches the heat.
- •The removed banana pulp does not go back into this assembly. Freeze it for another dessert or breakfast, but don't stir warm pulp into the prepared ice and sacrifice the firm center the dish requires.
- •A small glass of the same dark rum is enough beside this dessert. The meringue and banana already provide all the sweetness the table needs.
Advance Preparation
- •Prepare the banana ice well ahead and keep it tightly covered in the freezer. It must be firm before assembly, since the short broiling cannot rescue a center that began soft.
- •Meringue à l’Italienne (No. 2383) may be prepared up to 2 hours before service and held covered at cool room temperature. Let it cool fully, then fold in the rum only when you are ready to pipe.
- •Chill the bananas and metal serving platter for 30 minutes before assembly. Break the ice and preheat the broiler just before service so neither extreme is lost.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 270g)
Calories
400 calories
Total Fat
1 g
Saturated Fat
0 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
0 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
40 mg
Total Carbohydrates
96 g
Dietary Fiber
4 g
Sugars
78 g
Protein
4 g
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