Banoffee Pie!

Currently Listening To: Femme Fatale, Britney Spears. No shame.

[image source*]

I now own TWO aprons, so I feel like this qualifies me to be a baker.

And there is this delicious thing British people eat on the reg, which Americans unfortunately know nothing about, called bannoffee pie. Now, I was reminded of the incredibleness of this dessert (excuse me, pudding) when I was in Kenya over Christmas and we had it at a British neighbor’s house, and I’ve been meaning to try and make it ever since. And on Sunday - six and a half months later - the day had finally come.

After scouring the internet for a recipe I chose this one (I tried to avoid pondering the impropriety of using an “Americanized” version…). And, really it's a very easy recipe – it just takes time.

I made two pies and found that doubling Greeblemonkey’s recipe was more ingredients than necessary. Here’s what I would recommend for ingredients for two pies:

• 2 graham cracker crusts
• 1 tub of whipped cream
• 4-5 bananas
• 2 cans of sweetened condensed milk 

 And here’s what you do:

• Take the cans of sweetened condensed milk, put them UNOPENED into a big pot of water (make sure the water covers the cans completely! You might have to refill a few times...) and let it boil for two hours. (Like I said, not so hard to do, you just have to allow for the time.)
• Two and a half hours later (after you’ve let the cans cool, obvi) you will open them to find not sweetened condensed milk, but a thick, delicious caramel sauce. It’s a baking miracle!**
• Put a layer of whipped cream in the bottom of each crust. Chop up the bananas and arrange a layer of banana slices on the whipped cream.
• Pour the caramel sauce over the banana layer. Add another layer of bananas and another layer of whipped cream on top of that.
• If you’re feeling particularly culinary, grate or drizzle some chocolate on top.

...And voila! Really, that is all. I’d say the hardest part is waiting two hours for that daggone sweetened condensed milk to turn into caramelized deliciousness. Other than that it’s just making layers.***

[image sources: 1 | 2]

And the result? STRAIGHT UP DECADENCE.

Although, be warned that 1. It is so gooey and wonderful that it is kind of difficult to cut it into actual slices (we may or may not have just taken forks straight to the pie…) and 2. It is SO RICH that you might only manage about four bites in any one sitting (Although this does mean that I still have half a pie in my fridge downstairs, calling my name riiiight nowwww…)

*mine was not this beautiful.
** Actually, we (aka my mom) used to do this in Ethiopia to make caramel sauce for ice cream and whatever, because that’s the kind of stuff you can’t get there.

*** My mom told me that the typical British version only has one layer of each ingredient. So, you know, do what you want...