Waxflower’s Bartender Breakfast is bananas

This one’s a banana cocktail with a backstory.

“Bartender Breakfast is a tribute to my best friend, who [is] the manager of Danico in Paris,” says the drink’s creator, Margot Michat. “For years, he introduced me to banana cocktails and made me drink more of them than I can remember.”

“Over time, bananas became a little inside joke between us, tied to countless memories and our shared passion for cocktails. With Bartender Breakfast, I wanted to return the favour.”

“I wanted to explore the fruit as fully as possible: clarified organic banana juice, banana peels reused to infuse Kinglake whisky, and vegan banana ice cream topped with seasonal edible flowers.”

“After all these years of him making me drink banana cocktails, it was about time I made one for him.”

Bartender Breakfast

Ingredients:

• 100ml clarified organic banana juice
• 20ml Courvoisier VS Cognac
• 10ml banana peel & vanilla-infused Kinglake Whisky
• 10ml Tempus Fugit Crème de Banane
• 15ml verjuice
• 15ml water

For the clarified organic banana juice:

• 1000g organic bananas
• 334g water
• 1.1g Pectinex

For the banana peel-infused Kinglake Whisky:

• 1L Kinglake Whisky
• 400g organic banana peels
• ½ vanilla bean

For the vegan banana ice cream (makes 15):

• 110g vegan coconut yoghurt
• 1 organic banana
• 40ml vanilla syrup
• seasonal edible flowers

Method:

1. For the banana juice, wash the bananas and reserve the peels for the whisky.
2. Blend the bananas with the water for 60 seconds, then mix in the Pectinex.
3. Vacuum-seal and cook in a 45°C water bath for 2 hours, then strain through a Superbag.
4. For the whisky, vacuum-seal the whisky, banana peels and vanilla, and cook sous vide at 55°C for 2 hours.
5. Cool completely, then strain.
6. For the ice cream, blend the yoghurt, banana and vanilla syrup, pour into 15 moulds and freeze for 24 hours.
7. Unmould and decorate with seasonal edible flowers.
8. Combine all cocktail ingredients and mix thoroughly.
9. Freeze, monitoring the temperature, until the mix is close to 0°C.
10. Transfer to a PET bottle and carbonate using a PET bottle carbonation kit with regulator.
11. Serve chilled.
12. Garnish with the vegan banana ice cream decorated with seasonal edible flowers.

Recipe by Margot Michat with Cam Lenton at Waxflower, Melbourne.