Recipe: Banana Cream Pie

As the month of Ramazan is in full-swing, we are looking forward to all the iftar parties coming up. If you are hosting one at your home, we have an absolutely incredible dessert recommendation for you. Try this special recipe of Banana Cream Pie.

Ingredients:

Flakey pie dough as required

Milk chocolate (coarsely chopped) 1/2 cup

Heavy cream 1 cup

Sugar 2 tbsp

Caramel 1/4 cup

Pastry cream 2 cups

Bananas (sliced into thick rounds) 2

Chocolate curls for garnishing

For pie dough:

Flour 11/4 cups

Cold butter (cut into 1/2 inch pieces) 1 stick

Salt 1/4 tsp

Ice water 3-5 tbsp

Mix together flour, butter, and salt in a bowl with your fingertips just until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Drizzle 3 tbsp ice water evenly over mixture and gently mix together until incorporated.

Squeeze a small handful: If it doesn’t hold together, add more ice water, 1/2 tbsp at a time, stirring.

Turn out dough onto lightly floured surface. Gather dough together, and press into a 5- inch disk.

Chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 1 hour.

For Pastry Cream:

Milk 2 cups

Vanilla essence 1 tsp

Salt 1/4 tsp

Corn flour 3-4 tbsp

Sugar 1/2 cup

Eggs 2

Butter 4 tbsp

Pour the milk into a heavy saucepan, add vanilla essence and salt

Place over medium high heat, and bring to just under a boil, stirring occasionally.

In a bowl mix, together the cornflour and sugar, adding the eggs and whisking.

Slowly pour about 1/2 of the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisking till smooth and pouring it back into the pan.

Cook on medium heat until thick.

Remove from heat and immediately pour into a sieve.

Let cool for 5 minutes

Add the butter, whisking to mix well.

For caramel sauce:

Water 1/2 cup

Sugar 11/4 cups

Salt 1/2 tsp

Heavy cream 1 cup

Vanilla essence (optional) 1 tsp

In a stainless steel pan, combine water, sugar, and salt over medium heat.

Stir with a fork until syrup comes to a boil, about 4 mins, then simmer without stirring until syrup is honey-coloured, roughly 6 mins. Shaking and swirling as needed to ensure even caramelisation.

Continue cooking until syrup is light to medium amber, a minute more. Immediately add cream and reduce heat to medium-low.

Method:

Have the pie shell ready for filling

Melt chocolate in microwave or double boiler

With a spatula spread the melted chocolate evenly over the bottom of the pie shell.

Refrigerate for 10 minutes

Whip the cream, adding sugar until soft peaks form.

Remove pie shell from fridge and drizzle caramel evenly over the chocolate.

Pour the pastry cream in the pie shell

Arrange the banana slices evenly over the pastry cream

Spread the whipped cream on top.

Garnish with chocolate curls

Chill the pie until the pastry cream is set.

Originally published in The news