You may or may not know that I usually don’t do banana. Not because I don’t like them – I do like a banana now and then! I just subscribe to the idea that one should eat locally sourced produce, and unfortunately banana’s are never local.
I broke my rule, however, to bring a friend his request of banana cream pie on his birthday. I used a recipe from Tasty Kitchen, and although it ended up delicious, I think I’ll have to try again to get the consistency down.
This pie, despite a flaw in consistency, was so easy I couldn’t believe it.
Step one: prepare your pie crust.
Line your baking dish, and use your fork to create a nice edge.
Get out your pie weights. Mine are beans. I’ve used them several times, and just keep them in a jar in my pantry.
Place a pie of tinfoil in your crust, then your beans. Bake and set aside for afterwards. Confession: I used store bought crust. You can make yours, or buy it, or make a graham cracker crust, whatever your heart desires. Once it’s cooked, set aside for later.
Now for your “cream”: with sugar and flour. In a sauce pan, I know, a little unconventional, but go with me.
Now you’re going to add your milk. I should have titled the post, “In Which Everything I Photograph is White.” Anyways, so you let your sugar/flour/milk bubble up and thicken, for about five minutes…you’d better stir the entire time, lest your floury mixture sticks.
After that, you’re going to take your egg yolks (that you’ve whisked) and add about 1/2 cup of the milk mixture to them. This, in case you’re wondering, is called tempering your eggs. This fancy term is saying to you, “Hey, make sure you bring the heat of eggs up a bit before you add them to something hot,” because no one wants scrambled eggs in their pudding…I think…
Now add your tempered egg mixture back to the rest of the mixture on your stove.
Add your butter and your vanilla. Stir well. Yum!
Now comes your assembly.
And now, whipped cream. I made my whipped cream and brought it separately, since the eating didn’t take place at my house. You can also add it directly to the pie, your choice. I also chose to do two layers of bananas, but you can just do pudding, banana, pudding, if your heart desires.
Sugar and heavy cream = heavenly whipped cream. If I could, I’d just eat whipped cream every day for dinner.
So that’s a banana cream pie, y’all. How do you make yours? Do you use a graham cracker crust, or a pie crust? Does yours slice nicely (like mine did not?)
[addtoany] Yum