A back-to-out-roots pie with a toffee twist to remind us of home from home…

While living in the UK, we forked down many a mouthful of Banoffee Pie. The cream-covered caramel-drenched banana pie on a crumbly crust was a heavy but satisfying dessert that we hadn’t come across before, but visited again and again while there.

Now back in Canada, we are re-exploring those culinary delights from childhood that never made it across the pond, and one of our favourites was Banana Cream Pie…

While never having made it before, we avoided a complex route and decided to take four components we were already familiar with and experimented with putting them together to make our own original (and easy) take.
We did, however, want to pay homage to the ‘offee’ of the Banoffee by adding as sprinkle of familiarity to the top and bottom…

So the components that came together were Donna Hay’s cheesecake crust – which is more like sugar cookie that we changed up with brown sugar and, for this recipe, added toffee bits baked right in. The next was a vanilla pudding that was raved about and sent to us by long-time social nester Tanya, and the final two were bananas and just plain glorious whip cream.

Banana Toffee Cream Pie

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
⅓ cup brown sugar
150g (room temp) + 30g (cold) unsalted butter, chopped
¼ cup toffee bits + more for decorating
2 cups whole milk
2 tbsp cornstarch
½ cup white sugar
¼ tsp salt
2 egg yolks
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 large ripe bananas
2 cups whipping cream
¼ cup icing sugar

Preheat oven to 300°F. Mix the flour, sugar and 150g of the butter in a bowl by rubbing together with your hands until a crumbly dough forms. Add the toffee bits and incorporate with your hands. Press into the base and up the sides of a 21inch loose-bottom tart pan and smooth with the back of a spoon. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes (checking frequently) until light brown. If the pastry puffs during baking, smooth it out with the back of a spoon while still hot. Allow to cool completely.

Lightly whisk the two egg yolks in a glass measuring jug.
In a medium saucepan on medium heat, warm the milk, cornstarch, sugar and salt and stir continuously until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Pour half of the hot milk mixture over the egg yolks all the while whisking together.
Pour the milk and egg mixture back into the pan and continue to heat until bubbles burst on the surface.

Remove from heat and add the 30g of cold butter and vanilla and whisk until smooth. Pour into a glass bowl and cover the surface of the custard with plastic wrap to keep a skin from forming. Allow the custard to cool completely

Once the crust and custard are cool, slice the bananas and layer them in the base of the crust. Whisk the custard to slacken it and pour over the bananas. Cover again with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold. Whip the cream until soft peaks form, sift in the icing sugar, then continue to whip until stiff.  Top the cold pie with the whip cream and sprinkle with toffee bits, then refrigerate until ready to devour.

While lighter than it’s Banoffee cousin, alas, that just meant we felt we could eat more of it. It was kinda irresistible and a perfect post-brunch dessert to remind you of sweeter times.