Banoffee Pie

Many people don’t have the concept about banoffee pie. This is an English dessert, banoffee = bananas + toffee. Bananas are a universal favorite and toffee a complete dessert in itself. Banoffee pie consist of a base which is made up of biscuit, graham cracker crust with smooth and silky dulce de leche, sliced bananas and whipped cream.

Some of you might not have an idea about Dulce de leche – Sweetened caramelized milk that is made by reducing a mixture of milk and sugar over the heat. I make mine by keeping the tin of condense milk in a water bath on medium heat. This way the heat is trapped inside the tin and allows the milk to turn into caramel. It takes almost 2 hours to turn condense milk in dulce de leche. Use the dulce de leche after cooled and shiny.

Layering the banoffee pie is simple but yet a challenging task.

Starting with the base for which you need good quality graham crackers, processed in a food processor till crumbly in texture. Mix them with melted butter and then line them in pie moulds. After the pie base is set, pour in the prepared dulce de leche evenly. Layer it with the goodness of sliced bananas, whipped cream on them and lastly layer with more sliced bananas. Garnish with flakes of chocolate. This pie is refrigerated and then enjoyed.

Things you need :

1. Induction stove

2. Sauce pan

3. 1 tin of Condense milk

Another method of making dulce de leche is in the oven, where you take a large pie dish, pouring the sweetened condense milk and placing it in a large roasting pan with hot water. Loosely cover the pan with aluminum foil. Heat the oven to 177 C and bake the condense milk till it thicken and turns in a sticky caramel.

Let’s prepare the recipe together: Its a no bake recipe and serves 6 people.

INGREDIENTS

1. 250 grms graham crackers /digestive biscuits

2. 110 grms melted butter

3. 400 grms can of condense milk

4. 2 bananas, peeled, thinly sliced

5. 150 ml double cream

6. 1 chococlate, flake bar

PROCEDURE

1. Place the unopened can of condensed milk in a saucepan with boiling water, simmer for 2 hours(don’t let the water boil dry). The milk will slowly change its colour and texture and form a sticky caramel mixture.

2. Meanwhile, process the graham crackers with melted butter in a food processor until it resembles breadcrumb texture.

3. Layer a pie dish with the mixture evenly and let it chill in the fridge for an hour.

4. After the 2 hour take out the can slowly from the the saucepan and open it to see a golden brown sticky caramel sauce is made or not.

5. On the other hand whip double cream to make whipping cream.

6. Take out the chilled pie base from fridge and pour in the dulce de leche evenly.

7. Layer the dulce de leche with sliced bananas.

8. Cover the sliced bananas with whipped cream and add the final layer of sliced bananas.

9. Finally garnish with flakes of dark chocolate or any chocolate you wish to use.

NOTES

1. I have used digestive biscuits instead of graham crackers because of the non-availability.

2. Using unsalted butter balances the salt in the biscuits.

3. Instead of following the hot water bath method for converting the condense milk in to caramel, you can make your own caramel from scratch.

4. Make sure not to leave the can of condense milk in the hot water for too long as it might thicken or it can burst as well.