Chocolate banana tart and palmiers

I am not a huge banana fan. They are okay in cereal, but they have to be perfectly ripe. Just the thought of a partially green banana makes me cringe. On the other hand, my husband loves bananas. Last week he brought home a huge bunch. He had to go out of town for a couple days and he left me with bananas that were overly ripe and needed to be eaten ASAP. I have a thing about wasting food - I really try not to waste anything. I'm not sure where this comes from because I don't think we were forced to clean our plates as kids. Trying to avoid wasting food has led to some creative recipes and this is one of them.

In trying to find ingredients that would go with bananas I found that I had one bag of chocolate chips, a little heavy cream, and one package of that amazing stuff known as puff pastry. So, I made a tart with a ganache filling and sauteed bananas on top.

1 -2 sheets of puff pastry, defrosted
About 2/3 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
About 1/2 cup heavy cream
Several bananas
A couple tablespoons of butter
A tablespoon or so of brown sugar

More plain sugar for the palmiers

Lay out the sheet of puff pastry and roll it with a rolling pin to stretch it just a bit. Build up the sides of the puff pastry sheet so that there is a raised edge. I actually used pieces I cut from a second sheet of puff pastry but you can use the single sheet and just crimp it a bit. Using a fork, prick holes in the bottom of the pastry. Bake the pastry per package instructions, for me it was about 20 minutes at 375 degrees. When my puff pastry came out of the oven the middle was all puffed up so I needed to deflate it. Let the pastry cool.

In a bowl over simmering water, or a double boiler, or you can use your microwave, melt the chocolate and cream together. When it is smooth and creamy let it cool for a bit.

Slice the bananas and sautee on low heat with the butter and sugar, just until slightly softened.

To assemble the tart: layer the chocolate in the tart shell, saving just a bit to drizzle over the top. Top the chocolate with the banana mixture. Drizzle on the remaining chocolate. Enjoy!

Since I had extra puff pastry left over I made some mini palmiers. These are my very favorite cookies ever. Roll out any remaining puff pastry to stretch it a small amount. Sprinkle sugar over the pastry. You can add some cinnamon if you'd like. Roll up the pastry like a jelly roll. Slice into 1/2 inch slices. Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees until lightly golden brown.