Banoffee Pie

The first time I had Banoffee Pie was in the UK when we were over visiting family in 2003. My Aunt made it for us to have after lunch one day. And ever since I have been hooked. It is delicious. When I was over there last Christmas we had it for dessert a lot, but in a 'de-constructed' form. Yummy.

Banoffee Pie is named after the ingredients it is filled or 'flavoured' with, Banana, Toffee (which is actually a caramel) and coffee. There are a couple of other ingredients, we'll get to those later. Banoffee pie is not a traditional pie as there is no pastry top or 'lid', instead the 'lid' is whipped cream, although I guess if you think about it, to be called a pie something just seems to need a lid of any kind. Shepherds Pie, Cottage Pie, Lemon Meringue pie (Yum!)...anyway, moving on. 

This pie is really easy to make and can be whipped up in a matter of minutes if you have an unexpected need (or craving) for a sweet dessert. It is also good because most of the ingredients are common larder ingredients and most have them on hand all the time. That is, with the exception of Banoffee Toffee, and after you read this post, and make the toffee, you will consider it a larder essential too. I know we always have a can or three in there somewhere (we have to hide it because someone in our house eats it on his ice cream!)

Once someone ate all the chocolate too, so I had to put Smarties (Like M&Ms but better, and more colours) in the base. It looked kinda odd, all the little pieces of blitzed up coloured chocolate, but it tasted just fine.

And before I forget, the pie is supposed to have almost double the amount of whipped cream pictured. But one of the boys left the lid off one of the tubs of cream and it went off over the weekend, so I only had just over a cup to whip. It id cover the pie, but only just. Damn boys, they leave the toilet seat up, miss the toilet bowl and pee on the floor, can't put their dishes in the dishwasher, leave their clothes and shoes laying all about the house AND then they have the audacity to leave the lid off my cream. If only I could evict them. 

How to make Banoffee Toffee:
Get a deep casserole dish with a lid and preheat the oven to 140 C or 130C for fan-forced (gas mark 4, 285 F). Place as many unopened tins of sweetened condensed milk as will comfortably fit in the dish (do not overcrowd) and cover completely with water.

Bring to the boil on the stove, and cover with the lid. Place in the oven and cook for 3 1/2 hours. Remove from the water (Do NOT use your hands!) and allow to cool. Store for later use. (When you store the tins of toffee after a few months, sugar crystals begin to form on the toffee and it becomes crunchy!)

You may be able to buy this already made from the supermarket. You can in Australia, the main brand being Nestle's Top-N-Fill, which also comes in chocolate, and would also work in this pie.

Banoffee Pie
 

Ingredients:
180 grams (6.5oz) Chocolate Digestive Biscuits (or Graham Crackers + 2Tbs shaved Dark chocolate)
3 tablespoons cool unsalted butter
1 tin (400g, 14oz) Banoffee Toffee
3-4 ripe (but not overly so) Bananas
2 cups thickened (whipping) cream
2 teaspoons instant coffee powder/granule thingies (or 1 teaspoon fresh grounds)
2 Tbs Shaved Dark chocolate or 1 teaspoon coffee grounds to sprinkle

Method:
Place the biscuits in a food processor (if you are using the Graham crackers also add 2 Tbs of shaved chocolate here) and pulse until they have become small chunks/ powder. Place the butter in the processor and pulse until the butter is mixed in and the biscuit mixture is coming together. You should be able to press the mixture up the sides of the processor and have it stay. If not add a touch more butter and pulse again.

Pour the biscuits into a 20cm (8in) round glass or ceramic pie dish. You can use a pie flan as an alternate. If you are feeding a large gathering you can double the recipe and use a 25cm (11in) rectangular tin. Pack the biscuits in to cover the base (I don't usually go up the sides, but you can if you want). Cover with glad wrap and place into the fridge for at least half an hour (if you are in a bind or a real rush you can skip this step).

Remove from the fridge and open the can of caramel/ toffee. Using a spoon or knife mix the toffee until it is runny and all the lumps are gone. Cover the biscuit base with the toffee, making sure the whole base is covered. You may want to use a little more than one tin if you feel that there is not enough, but the caramel is really, really sweet so less if often more in this case and one is enough to completely cover the base.

Slice the bananas into circles and cover the toffee, packing them in so there are as few gaps as possible. Depending on how large your bananas are you may need more than three.

Whip the cream with the 2Tsps of instant coffee (or 1Tsp of grounds) until it just holds its shape (soft peaks) and spread over the bananas, making sure to completely cover them. Sprinkle ground coffee or shaved chocolate over the cream and serve or refrigerate until ready to serve.

This will keep covered tightly with glad wrap in the fridge for a day or two (if it lasts that long).

The GF biscuits I use when I make this are Freedom Foods Coconut Crunch biscuits (basically a Macaroon type biscuit I should think) and they work perfectly. I even like the subtle hints of coconut they add. The moral of this story is that any biscuits should work, Tea Biscuits, ect. But the Chocolate Digestives work best. If you are not a fan of chocolate (like me) then don't add any to the base and use traditional digestives or Hob Nobs.