Banana Cream Pie
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
A show stopping pie! Sweet, creamy, banana cream pie with fresh sliced bananas, rich homemade custard, toasted coconut, and a chocolate crust, all topped with sweet whipped cream! So luscious! You can also make this with a traditional or graham cracker crust and the toasted coconut is optional but it’s so good!
Author: Ruth Guerri
Recipe type: Pie
Serves: 1 - 9" Pie
Ingredients
Crust:
- 7 Tbs of unsalted butter
- 1 oz of semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 Tbs of sugar
- ½ tsp of salt
- 7 oz of thin chocolate wafers, like “Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers“
Filling:
- ⅔ cup of sugar
- ⅓ cup of cornstarch
- ⅛ tsp of salt
- ½ tsp of ground nutmeg
- 3 cups of whole milk
- 4 egg yolks
- 1 Tbs of rum
- 1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped out
- 1 Tbs of butter
- 1 tsp of vanilla extract
- 4 firm, ripe bananas
- ½ cup of toasted coconut (optional)
Whipped cream:
- 1 cup of heavy cream
- ½ tsp of vanilla extract
- 2 Tbs of powdered sugar
Instructions
- In a small saucepan over low heat, add in the butter, chocolate, sugar and salt, stir and cook just until melted.
- Using a food processor, add in the cookies and the chocolate/butter mixture, then pulse until crumbs are moistened.
- Press the crumb mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a 9″, deep-dish pie plate
- Freeze until firm, about 30 minutes, then bake the crust for 15 minutes at 350°. If you decide to use toasted coconut, just place it in a dry medium-sized skillet, cook over medium heat for 2 – 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until golden.
- Next, in a heavy, medium-sized saucepan, whisk together the sugar, cornstarch, salt and nutmeg, gradually whisk in the whole milk, then egg yolks and rum. Scrape in seeds from vanilla bean. Whisk over medium-high heat until custard thickens and boils, about 6 minutes.
- Remove from the heat. Whisk in the butter and vanilla extract. Transfer the custard to large bowl, cool completely, stir occasionally or place plastic wrap directly on the top of the custard to prevent “skin” from forming.
- To assemble, add 1 cup of cooled custard to the bottom of the pie crust, arrange a layer of bananas and sprinkle on some of the coconut if using, repeat the layering. You will have 3 layers.
- To make the whipped cream, use a standing mixer with a whip attachment, add in the cream and vanilla, mix on low speed, gradually adding in the sugar, then turn the speed to medium/high and beat until soft peaks form, about 2 minutes.
- Spoon over the pie, spread to the edges and swirl with a knife to make it pretty.
- Chill for at least 3 hours or overnight. Before serving, decorate with more sliced bananas, caramel sauce or shaved chocolate, if desired. Banana cream heaven!
Notes
You could also use a store bought pie crust or a graham cracker crust and you could place all of the bananas on the bottom and all of the custard on top instead of layering. Also, if you don’t use a vanilla bean, just increase the vanilla extract to 3 tsp.
I loved your story! Growing up this was me, except my mom would leave store-bought donuts and cartoons or legos to keep me busy while everyone slept. Benny Leicester Alf