I have reached that stage in my blogging life (which has been all of 6 months so far - haha) where I need to start organising my recipes, photos and videos into neat folders arranged by date. Why the idea of doing that seems both really exciting and stressful at the same time, I do not understand. But i may or may not have cancelled plans tonight to undertake the mammoth organising mission - yay !
I am also working on university apps, which, as it turns out is the most stressful thing in the whole world - almost as stressful as pulling a tart out of a tart pan and seeing if it breaks. Anyone who knows me knows my struggle with the perfect tart - either they’re too brittle or they’re too puffy or they’re too hard and threaten to break your teeth when you eat them…and then you have to end up eating the filling with a spoon and throwing the tart away.
It’s a little less painful this time because this weekend I managed to turn out NOT ONLY a perfectly shaped tart shell out of the pan but ALSO a perfectly shaped BISCUIT BASE SHELL out of its pan. It really was a happy dance kinda moment except that i had the tart and biscuit shells in my hand so I had to hold in the excitement. I don’t know WHY but for some reason whenever I’m turning a tart of pie or any kind of breakable shell from its pan i turn surgeon mode and if any one is around me, they need to be surgeon (or atleast nurse mode) as well. No one must move or touch anything or talk above a whisper.
So after the immense success of the tart and biscuit shells, I decided to celebrate with not one, but TWO Banoffee pies. This was my first time making Banoffee, and interestingly enough, the recipe was given to me by a 6-year old whom I’ve never met but was visibly excited that someone has called her up on the phone for the recipe. After a couple of my own additions to it, it tasted pretty amazing but I won’t take the credit for that because Cmon, can you ever actually go wrong with banana and toffee? Its a foolproof combination. Quite like banana and nutella or raspberry and dark chocolate.
RECIPE:
Ingredients:
Pie crust
1 cup flour
1 tbsp powdered sugar
8 tbsp white butter
1/4 + 1 tbsp crushed butter biscuits (such as good day)
1 egg
Pie Filling:
2 -3 large bananas
2 cans milkmaid condensed milk
2 packets Whipping cream
pinch of salt
PIE CRUST*:
Mix the flour, sugar and crushed biscuit in a bowl. Whisk in the egg and butter and mix until a doughy consistency is formed. Knead the dough and roll into a flat disk and wrap in cling film. Refrigerate for an hour.
When the dough is chilled, take it out and leave in room temperate for 10 minutes. Roll the dough flat using a rolling pin until thin. Press the dough into the tart pan and firmly press it down using your hands. Refrigerate for another hour.
Bake in the oven at 200 ˚ C for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool complete before CAREFULLY turning it out onto a flat surface.
PIE FILLING AND ASSEMBLY:
To make the toffee - Put the cans of condensed milk into boiling water (Make sure the cans are FULLY IMMERSED in the water, or else they might explode) for about 3 hours. Then let them cool and refrigerate. When cool, add a pinch of salt and pulse in the food processor until the consistency is smooth.
Pour half the cooled toffee over the base of the crust. Spread evenly using a spatula.
Chop 3 bananas into thin slices and layer over the toffee
Pour the remaining toffee onto the banana layer and spread with spatula
Whip cream in an electric mixer for 5 - 7 minutes or until stiff peaks form. Spoon the whipped cream on top of the pie as the final layer.
Garnish with shaved chocolate, cocoa powder or nuts
Keep it in the fridge until ready to eat !
Notes:
*Alternative pie crust: Pulse 200 grams butter biscuits (Such as Good Day) in a food processor and transfer to a bowl. Pour 70 Grams butter, soft or melted, into the bowl and mix together with your hands. Spread the biscuit mixture onto the base of your dish and evenly form a crust by pressing it down with your hands or a flat spatula. Once done, put the dish in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
If you don’t have a food processor for the biscuits, you can do this manually in a very easy way: Spread the biscuits on a chopping board. Cover with a large-ish towel. Use a rolling pin and roll over the biscuits repeatedly for about 2 minutes. Remove the towel and collect the crushed biscuits in a bowl.
You can add sugar to the whipped cream if you want but i don’t think it is necessary because the toffee-banana is already quite sweet.
If you make the tart shell version, make sure the tart may puff up a little as it bakes. Halfway through baking, you can check for this and pat it down gently with a fork.
If you make the biscuit version of the crust, DO NOT attempt to pull it out of the dish. I highly recommend you serve the complete pie in the dish itself, because even though it may come out of the dish smoothly, it will fall apart once you cut a slice.
Eat the same day as you make it otherwise the bananas will brown