I recently purchased some dulcey (blonde chocolate) and was thinking of different things I could do with it. Blonde chocolate is basically a slow-roasted white chocolate that tastes like dulce de leche. It’s very much caramelized and nutty, and I wanted to play around with that flavor profile. So looking at some of my older posts, I realized that one thing I could definitely pair this with would be a banana pudding. But I didn’t want to just make another banana pudding. That would be kind of repetitive. And I’ve already made banana pudding in a cake form, so I couldn’t really do that again. So I thought about making a plated dessert with the flavors of dulcey and banana pudding in it. I will admit, I took a good amount of inspiration from Top Chef Colorado, where finalist Adrienne Cheatham made a similar dessert for her finale menu. Her version included yuzu, but for mine, I didn’t want a ton of acidity in it, so I went with skyr yogurt, just to add the sourness to balance with all of the sweetness.

For my components, we have a dulcey-banana cremeux, which is like a set chocolate mousse/custard situation, a dulcey-brown butter sable, whipped skyr yogurt, bruleed banana(which I totally admit to ripping off of Adrienne’s concept, but it was such a cool way to plate a banana!), and a golden milk foam. I am featuring Korean banana milk in this dessert again, just because I feel like it would be the perfect vehicle for the cremeaux and the foam(yeah, I know it’s technically an artificially flavored and colored thing, but I’m just embracing it since it does taste pretty good). When I was conceptualizing the components, I really wanted to focus on balance. Between all of these flavors, there is a lot of richness (cremeaux and skyr are both dense), but I knew that the foam would help with lightening up the dessert, while the sable and bruleed banana add crunch, and the skyr being tart coupled with the spices from the golden milk will help with the sweetness. I named the dessert “Stay gold” in reference to the golden milk and blonde chocolate giving the dessert that beautiful gold color.

Makes enough for 3 people
For the dulcey-banana cremeux:
1 super ripe banana
1/4 cup banana milk
1/4 cup blonde chocolate
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons gelatin powder + 1 tablespoon water
3 tablespoons skyr yogurt

Start by heating up the banana milk with the blonde chocolate. Transfer to a blender and puree in the banana, egg yolk, and gelatin. Pass through a sieve. Allow to cool down to room temperature before whisking in the yogurt. Transfer to a piping bag and pipe into silicone 1 inch half sphere molds. Freeze until set, about 1 hour, before unmolding. Keep in the freezer until it is time to plate, as it won’t take long for the cremeux to thaw.

For the dulcey-brown butter sable:
3/4 cups all-purpose flour
5 tablespoons brown butter, chilled down
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup finely grated blonde chocolate
a pinch of salt

Combine ingredients to form a dough. Roll out thinly between two layers of parchment, until about 1/18th inch thickness. Bake, uncovered, on a lined baking sheet at 375 degrees F for 10 to 12 minutes. Break apart into smaller pieces.

For the whipped skyr:
1/4 cup skyr yogurt
a pinch of salt
2 teaspoons brown butter, milk solids removed

Whip together into a light, airy mixture. Transfer to a piping bag or squeeze bottle.

For the fresh banana:
1 banana
a pinch of salt
2 tablespoons brown butter

Slice the bananas lengthwise into quartered segments. Season your brown butter. Brush the sliced sides of the banana with brown butter.

For the golden milk foam:
1/2 cup banana milk
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
a pinch of black pepper
a pinch of clove
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
a pinch of salt

Heat up banana milk with the spices and salt until it starts to release steam. Transfer to a blender and begin pureeing at a low speed, adding in your egg whites and vanilla, the egg whites while the mixture is still warm, and the vanilla towards the end.

To plate:
Edible flowers

Start with the cremeux first. Then garnish with your banana, sable, dots of cream, and finally, your foam and some edible flowers.