Recipe

Rum-Spiked Butterscotch Pudding with Sous Vide Bananas

A New Orleans pastry chef shares an easy, at-home way to top your dessert with a taste of the tropics

By Jenny Adams
Recipe by Eka Soenarko

August 26, 2024

Rum-Spiked Butterscotch Pudding with Sous Vide Bananas

Photo: Randy Schmidt

Sous-vide cooking can sound more intimidating than it actually is; the process simply requires cooking something very slowly, in a swirling, warm water bath, for an extended period of time. The method can render tough cuts of beef to a melt-in-your-mouth consistency and turn chewy seafood, like octopus, into a protein you can slice with a fork.

But what happens when you give an already tender fruit like a banana the slow-and-low treatment? In the hands of the pastry chef Eka Soenarko, of Jack Rose in New Orleans, it transforms into a delicate, spice-infused topping for desserts such as the restaurant’s rum-spiked butterscotch pudding.

Soenarko first created the pudding, which has since become a crowd favorite at Jack Rose, in order to enter it in the 2024 New Orleans Food & Wine Experience, which took place in early June. Her native Western Java, in Indonesia, inspired the bananas. “We have a dessert there where all the condiments are on top,” she explains. “In this recipe, we put the butterscotch pudding on the bottom, we smear salted caramel on the side of the dish, and then we layer on that sous vide banana, candied almonds, and brandy snap. Then, it’s up to you if you eat it bite by bite or stir it all together.”

If you want to make the banana topping at home but don’t have a sous-vide machine, Soenarko advises placing the bananas and the caramel infusion in a ziplock instead of vacuum bags. “Make sure you suck all the air out and that the bags are sealed up tight,” she says. “Then turn your oven to 150 degrees. In a pan on the stove, warm water to 150 degrees, to match the oven. Place the bags into the warmed water, then put the pan into the oven for twenty minutes. If you want, you can go a bit longer than twenty minutes, which will give even more flavor to the bananas.”

Ingredients

Rum-Spiked Butterscotch Pudding with Sous Vide Bananas (YIELD 5 SERVINGS)
- 1½ cups whole milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 3 large egg yolks, fresh
- 2 tbsp. cornstarch
- ¾ cup dark brown sugar, packed
- 2 tbsp. light corn syrup
- 3 tbsp. water
- 1 tsp. lemon juice
- ½ tsp. salt
- 3 tbsp. (45 g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp. dark Jamaican rum
- Sous-vide banana and salted caramel (recipe follows)
- Candied almonds, crème fraîche, and brandy snaps, for garnish (optional)
FOR THE SOUS-VIDE BANANAS
- ¾ cup store-bought caramel (thinned, see note)
- 3 oz. milk or heavy cream
- 1 cinnamon stick
- Peel of 1 lemon
- Peel of 1 orange
- 3 oz. dark rum
- Dash of salt
- 4 ripe bananas, peeled

Preparation

Make the butterscotch pudding: In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, add whole milk and heavy cream and whisk to warm. Remove from heat and set aside.

Whisk the egg yolks with a hand mixer or KitchenAid until achieving a ribbon-like consistency and set aside.

Measure out cornstarch in a separate bowl, add just enough of the warmed milk and cream to create a slurry, and set aside.

Whisk brown sugar, corn syrup, water, lemon juice, and salt together in a heavy-duty saucepan, over medium heat. Cease stirring and allow to cook down until dark brown, about 15 to 20 minutes. The mixture should begin to smell caramelized by this time. Use a candy thermometer, if desired, to check for a finish point around 240°F. Carefully whisk in the rest of the warmed milk and cream. It will sizzle and may splatter, so pour slowly.

Cook this mixture on medium heat until it begins to boil. Once boiling, remove about ½ cup of the mixture and, in a slow and steady stream, whisk that into the egg yolks to temper them. Keep those egg yolks moving so they don’t scramble. Slowly and carefully, pour the egg yolks into the saucepan, whisking as you go. Continue to whisk until the custard reaches 180°F.

Stir the cornstarch slurry once more to mix fully and pour it into your custard, using a sieve to eliminate lumps.

Turn the heat down to medium-low and continue to whisk. The pudding will immediately begin to bubble and thicken. Whisk again, cooking for 7 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the butter until completely smooth. Add the vanilla and rum.

Remove from heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes.

Pour the pudding into jars, roughly 5 oz. per jar. Cover each jar tightly with plastic wrap, pushing the wrap directly onto the surface of the pudding (to prevent a skin from forming), and refrigerate for 4 to 6 hours or overnight, until chilled and thickened.

Make the sous-vide bananas: Thin the store-bought caramel by gradually adding warm milk or heavy cream to it, a tablespoon at a time, stirring until you reach a smooth, pourable consistency.

Once thinned, add the cinnamon stick, lemon peel, and orange peel, and allow the flavors to infuse for 30 minutes, while the mixture cools.

Stir in the rum and strain the caramel mixture into a container. Add pinch of salt and stir.

Place the bananas in a vacuum bag and pour over 2 oz. of the caramel mixture to coat. Set the rest aside for serving.

Cook using a sous vide machine at 150°F for 20 minutes. Cool the bananas and then slice them on the diagonal.

Serve: Remove the containers of pudding from the refrigerator and take off the plastic wrap. Stir each pudding well.

In individual serving bowls, spread or smear the salted caramel on half of the inner side of the bowl. Pour each of the puddings into each of the bowls. Garnish with the bananas and the desired amounts of the remaining toppings and serve.

Jenny Adams is a full-time freelance writer and photographer, most often penning pieces on great meals, stiff drinks, and the interesting characters she meets along the way. She lives in New Orleans, with a black cat, a spotted pup, and a Kiwi-born husband. Right now, she’s working on a (never-ending) horror novel, set in the French Quarter.