Banoffe Pie (American Style)

Hello all! I'm back from Ireland and couldn't be happier to be back in the Dirty South (even if does happen to be brutally hot). My family had loads of fun on the Emerald Isle, but I won't try to sum up the vacation here. Its too hard to reflect on a vacation when you just got off the plane, so I'll just jump in to today's recipe.

One of the highlights of the trip was - you guessed it - eating (and photographing what I was eating). I had a piece of Banoffe Pie while I was in Galway, and decided to try it out for myself after getting a copy of The Irish Pub Cookbook from the library. The book had a great starter recipe in it, but I made a lot of modifications to please my strawberry-loving palate.

Strawberry Banana Banoffe Pie

7 digestive buscuits, crumbled*
3 T butter, softened
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 bananas
~1/2 pint heavy whipping cream
dash vanilla
condensed sugar (perhaps a tablespoon)
several strawberries

*These are kind of like shortbread cookies. I found them in my grocery store in the foreign foods section, but you could easily use shortbread cookies or do a graham cracker crust.

Mix the buscuits and the butter, and press into a pie pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes (or until browned).

Put sliced bananas over cooked crust.

Put the can of sweetened condensed milk into a 2 quart glass bowl. (This is very important! I put mine in a much smaller bowl and I made a huge mess in my microwave.) Microwave on medium power for four minutes, stirring halfway through. Microwave on low power for 10-12 minutes, stirring every two minutes, or until the contents become thick and toffee colored. Spread mixture over bananas.

Whip cream with an electric mixture until peaks occur, adding powdered sugar and vanilla. Whipped cream is fantastic just by itself, so don't sweat it if you don't have vanilla or powdered sugar.

Spread the whipped cream over the mixture, and add sliced strawberries.

Refrigerate the pie to allow it to cool and harden (I refrigerated the pie for 24 hours, but you could chill for as little as an hour).

And there you have it, a fairly simple dessert. A note of caution: don't expect to be able to slice and serve this as you would any normal pie. The crust is not too cohesive (as you can see in the earlier photograph), and it becomes soft. Cut this as you would a pie and hope for the best, but expect to scoop a fair amount of it with a spoon.

I really didn't know how this would turn out, but I just had a piece and am really impressed! The condensed milk is still a tad too sweet for my tastes, so I may use half a can next time I make this. Stay tuned for more this week, especially if you've ever wanted to make your own homemade cheese.....