Banoffee Pie
Here we go again! What the heck, Pam? Banoffee pie??
Banoffee pie is a real thing and, yes, it is a combination of the words banana and toffee. The first time I ever heard of banoffee pie was while watching Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. Guy was talking to a chef who made this amazing pie that was just a thick layer of caramel, bananas, and whipped cream. I remember the pie but didn’t remember the name of it and even if I had, I wouldn’t have known how to spell it just from hearing the word. In any case, we saw it again somewhere and decided we ought to make one, just because it was something nobody we knew had ever even heard of (like so many of our selections for this year).
So, this pie originated in Jevington, East Sussex England. It was created by the owner and chef of The Hungry Monk Restaurant when amending an American dessert. The recipe was published in The Deeper Secrets of the Hungry Monk in 1974, and reprinted in the 1997 cookbook In Heaven with The Hungry Monk. The recipe uses unopened cans of sweetened condensed milk boiled in water to make the caramel (or dulce de leche) filling. That’s how Guy’s guest had done it too, so that was our plan regardless of the recipe we chose.
We searched for recipes and many of them used pre-made dulce de leche, others made the filling with sweetened condensed milk placed in a pan and cooked in a bain marie, and still others used brown sugar mixed with sweetened condensed milk cooked on the stove top. In the end, we selected Paula Deen’s recipe for everything but the caramel. For that we just used the internet to find out how long we needed to cook the condensed milk in the crockpot in a water bath.
Our substitutes in this recipe included no confectioner’s sugar in the whipped cream, just Splenda to taste. We changed the method for making the caramel.
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup confectioner’s sugar
- 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 3 large bananas
- 10 tablespoons softened butter
- 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
- 2 14-ounce cans sweetened condensed milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
- Mix graham cracker crumbs with softened butter and press mixture into 9-inch pie plate. Bake for 5-8 minutes at 350 °F.
- To create toffee filling, pour the condensed milk into a 9x12x2 glass baking dish. Cover with foil and place dish inside a larger poaching pan. Add water to poaching pan until half way up sides of baking dish. Bake at 300 °F for an hour and a half.
- Once both the crust and toffee filling are cooled, spread half of the toffee filling evenly inside crust. Slice the bananas and layer on top of filling. Pour remaining half of filling over bananas, spreading evenly. Whip the cream with the confectioner’s sugar and vanilla and spread on top of toffee filling and bananas.
Our Experience
The first thing I did on Saturday morning was put two cans of sweetened condensed milk in the crockpot and turned it on high. From what I could tell from my internet “research”, it needed to cook in the crockpot for at least 4 hours. So, that was the plan. When we opened them up, I was a bit concerned that the caramel wasn’t thick enough. It was thick, just not as thick as I had remembered from the Triple D episode.
Paula Deen’s recipe left a little to be desired when it came to the graham cracker crumbs. How many squares make a cup and a half of crumbs?? Don’t ask us, Aubrey forgot to keep track. It wasn’t a whole box, maybe a little less than a couple packages. If you make this and find out, let me know. 😉
As we were making the crust, Aubrey mentioned that Paula Deen is a little careless with butter, in this case 10 TABLESPOONS of it! Do I think you could make the crust with less…absolutely. The butter wasn’t melted either, which is fine with me, I have another recipe that didn’t melt the butter and for some reason, it never seemed as greasy as the ones that do. I used a fork to combine them but could have done it in the food processor instead.
The crumbs were pressed into the pie tin. Our tin was for a deep dish pie so we didn’t actually go to the top and tried to keep it even. It really slumped down as it baked so I had to push it back up once it came out of the oven. (Managed to NOT burn my fingers while doing so…bonus!) I thought that in the future, I might put a piece of parchment paper over it and put another pie tin over it to keep it in place. Just a thought but not sure it would work.
We cut the bananas while the crust baked and made the whipped cream as well. Since we forgot the crust had to cool a little before assembling the pie, we should have waited to complete both of these steps. The bananas got juicy while we waited.
We decided that the caramel was going to be very sweet on its own and that the whipped cream didn’t need to be super sweet. We just added Splenda a little at a time while whipping it to get it just right for our taste.
Once again, while assembling, we thought that two cans of caramel would be too much. The crust wouldn’t be able to hold all of it either because we decided to put extra bananas in it. So, once we had the caramel and bananas in, we just drizzled a little more caramel over the bananas and called it good.
I liked the idea of piping the whipped cream so I found a star tip and tried to make it as even as possible.
While Paula Deen’s recipe didn’t call for chocolate shavings, most of the ones we saw online did. We had a sugar-free mini chocolate bar on hand and decided that it needed the chocolate shavings in order to look “finished”. I used the fine grater that we use for zesting fruit.
What we liked.
This received 5 out of 5 with Logan stipulating that it was “OK” but she isn’t a fan of desserts with bananas and one bite was enough for her.
The flavors of this pie worked so well together. The caramel was rich and sweet and paired well with the unique flavor of banana. I was glad that we didn’t make an overly sweet whipped cream because the filling was incredibly sweet. The whipped cream lightened it up just a bit. The crust provided the much needed crunch in an otherwise soft textured dessert.
Obviously, this could be a semi-homemade dessert with a few tweaks. You could buy a pre-made crust, pre-made dulce de leche, and Cool Whip. It would go together in a flash…and people would get to taste a unique pie with little effort on your part (at least unique to where I live).
What we would change.
Of course, we would cook the condensed milk longer so it would get thicker and more caramelized (and make it ahead of time). We would also cook the pie crust the day before so we could assemble it without having to wait. I also think the crust could be made with less butter without missing anything.
Some of the recipes we saw online included toffee bits added inside the pie and on the top and we thought that might be pretty good.
What we learned.
We learned how to make caramel in a very easy way! We will most likely make it again, just cook it longer. Although, the caramel we made would be the perfect consistency for ice cream…and, we have almost a full can of it!
We also had our first opportunity to try a Paula Deen recipe. I think we need to try something more southern before passing judgement on her recipes’ thoroughness.
Until next week, Happy Baking!