BY VICKY BROWN, May 3, 2013
I had never heard of Banoffee Pie. Even the first dozen times I watched the movie “Love Actually,” I had never noticed it was Banoffee Pie that Juliet was trying to exchange for video of her wedding day. Lucky for me, my husband is a detail person.
“Love Actually” is my favorite movie. I know it should be “Casablanca” or “Milk” or at least “The Wizard of Oz” or something, but it isn’t. My favorite is a cheesy, feel-good movie.
So it seems to makes sense that it would also supply me with my new favorite dessert, as well as that feel-good feeling.
Banoffee Pie is too decadent for most, I’ll warn you now.
To make it you will want about 30 minutes and:
- 1 ½ packages Graham Crackers (packages – not boxes!)
- 5 Tbls Butter, melted
- 4+ ounces Dulce de Leche, Cajeta, or your own favorite caramel sauce
- 4-5 whole bananas – ripe and firm
- ½ pint heavy cream
- 3 Tbls sugar (we used baking sugar, but white sugar or even powdered sugar would work just fine)
Optional: Toffee — we prefer Laughing Bellies Toffee, naturally.
Preheat your oven to 350F.
Crumble the graham crackers and mix it with the melted butter. Press it into a pie pan firmly. If you’re used to making graham cracker crusts you can use your own formula, but I recommend not adding any additional sugar. If your crust is too dry add more butter, if it becomes too moist, add more crackers.
Put the empty crust into the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes, until the crust just begins to brown. Once it is done pull it out to cool on a rack and turn your oven off.
Place your cream and the sugar in a large bowl and whip it until you have firm peaks, but be sure to stop before you get solid chunks (sweetened butter!). You can get quicker results if you can chill your bowl first and it’s perfectly fine to use an electric mixer, just keep an eye on it as it starts to form peaks.
If your crust is cool you can start to build your pie.
Add about ½ of your Cajeta/Caramel on the bottom, just barely cover the crust.
Peel your bananas and use their natural curve to nest them around the pie pan. You could halve your bananas along the length, but I like them big and chunky. When you slice your thin pie slices, they look cool whole.
If you have toffee, it should be crumbled up and sprinkled on this decadent mess now, saving some to decorate the top, too.
Drizzle all but about 1 tablespoon of your Cajeta/Caramel over the bananas.
Add your whipped cream, generously to the top. Hint: The better your cream quality, the better your whipped cream. I like Twin Brook Creamery glass jar heavy cream.
Use any toffee sprinkles you still have and your last tablespoon of Cajeta/Caramel can be used to drizzle over the whipped cream and make your decadent dessert beautiful, too.
Chill the pie in the fridge for as long as you can stand it. We lasted almost a half hour.
Because of the bananas, this pie is best fresh, but ours kept in the refrigerator for four days. If I were preparing it for a dinner party, I would want to make it the same day.
Were you wondering about the name? Banoffee Pie is apparently from the UK and simply named after the combination of its two main ingredients, bananas and toffee (caramel sauce).
If you’re a bit more ambitious, you can even make your own caramel sauce with condensed milk. We prefer the Cajeta even to our delicious Dulce de Leche, because the Cajeta has a slightly less sweet and complex flavor.
