As a youngster, I was very finicky. I would eat nothing from the school cafeteria except a custard pie and a sweetened orange and banana compote. My mother was thus unfairly forced to make my lunches every day. Those two cafeteria desserts, however, lived on fondly in my memory, and I needed to find a way to reinvent them to my more mature tastes. The custard pie evolved into my Eggnog Pie (recipe here). As much as I liked the compote, I believed that I could turn the idea into a more interesting new dessert, hence this Orange-Banana Bavarian Cream.
Grate the zest of 2 large oranges into a pot with 1 1/4 cups of milk, and set aside.
Zest the oranges into the milk.
Squeeze the the juice from those 2 oranges and strain it. It should yield 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 cup of juice. Sprinkle the gelatin over the juice, and set aside.
Carefully remove the skin, including all the pith, from a third large orange. With a sharp knife carefully remove the orange segments, leaving behind the membranes.
Remove the orange pith.
Sprinkle the segments with 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 tablespoon Grand Marnier. Set aside.
Sugar the orange segments.
In a heavy-bottomed pan, beat the egg yolks with a whisk, and gradually beat in the 3⁄4 cup of sugar until the mixture is pale yellow. You may need to adjust the amount of sugar, depending on the sweetness of your oranges.
Beat the egg yolks and sugar.
Continue beating until the mixture forms a slowly dissolving ribbon. Beat in the cornstarch.
Beat to form a ribbon.
Heat the milk with the reserved orange zest until boiling. Strain the milk to remove the zest.
Strain the zest from the milk.
Quickly begin whisking the hot milk in a thin stream into the egg yolks. Set over moderate heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the mixture reaches 170° or until it coats a spoon lightly. Don’t overheat or the eggs will scramble.
Heat until it coats a spoon.
Remove from the heat, and beat in the orange juice and gelatin mixture. Continue to beat until the gelatin is completely dissolved. Scrape the mixture into a bowl and set in a larger bowl of ice. Stir occasionally until the mixture is cool, but do not allow it to set.
Chill the mixture.
In the meantime, beat the heavy cream in a chilled bowl until medium peaks are formed. Beat 2 tablespoons of Grand Marnier into the orange mixture, then gently fold in the whipped cream. Traditional Bavarian creams (such as Julia Child’s famous recipe) also use beaten egg white, but I did not want to dilute the orange flavor that much.
Fold in the whipped cream.
Slice the bananas, and sprinkle with drops of lemon juice to keep them from discoloring.
Rinse a metal ring mold or other mold in cold water, and shake out the excess. Spoon half of the Bavarian cream into the mold. Layer both the bananas and the orange segments on top of the cream.
Arrange the fruit over half the cream.
Finally, spoon the remaining Bavarian cream on the top of the fruit.
Spoon on the remaining cream.
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
To unmold the orange-banana Bavarian cream, dip the mold into hot water for a couple seconds. Run a sharp knife around the edges, and reverse on a chilled serving platter. The dessert can be unmolded several hours before serving and kept in the refrigerator.
Decorate the Orange-Banana Bavarian Cream with orange slices and mint.
