Bannoffee Pie Recipe
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Recipe Overview
Preparation time: 30 minutes plus 15 minutes freezing time and 2 hours refrigeration
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Makes: 10 slices
Ingredients Needed
- 355g/12.5ozs digestive biscuits/cookies
- 125g/4ozs melted butter
- 200g/7ozs dark chocolate
- 1 tablespoon/15ml/0.5oz coconut oil
- 400ml/14oz tin Caramel top n' fill
- Pinch of salt
- 800g/1.7lbs thinner bananas (weight with skin on)* see note below about bananas
- 150g/5ozs cream cheese, chilled
- 120g/4ozs caster or superfine sugar
- 950ml/1 quart thickened or pure cream, chilled
- 200ml/7flozs double cream, chilled
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
Note: This bannoffee pie is very banana forward so if you want a traditional bannoffee pie, use 2-3 bananas sliced up on the base or slice the whole bananas lengthways and lay the whole sliced bananas on the base.
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1 - Preheat oven to 180C/350F conventional or 160C/320F fan forced. Blend the digestive biscuits in a food processor or Thermomix until very fine (5 seconds, Speed #9). Empty into a bowl. Add melted butter to the mixture and mix well until you get the texture of damp sand. Press into the base and sides of a 23.5cms/9.2inch on base, 25.5cms/10inch on top rim, 3cms/1.2inch high flan tin with removable base. I use a glass to smooth out the base and make the sides and a knife to smooth the edges. Take your time making sure that this is even around the edge and on the base. It takes me around 8 minutes to do this. Bake for 15 minutes. Then cool on a rack and then transfer to the freezer to freeze for 15 minutes. Then gently lift the base out of the collar of the tin leaving the biscuit base on the cake tin base.
Step 2 - Place the base on a cake turntable. Melt the chocolate in a microwave in a double boiler or in a microwave on 70% power in 30 second increments. Stir in coconut oil and spread along the base and slightly up the sides to give the base a bit more structure and hold.
Step 3 - Remove bananas from skins but do not cut. Lay out whole bananas on top of the chocolate and try and fit as many bananas as possible. You may need to cut a banana or two to fit it in.
Step 4 - Take the caramel top and fill and stir in the salt with an angled palette knife. Spread out over the top of bananas avoiding the last inch around the edge.
Step 5a stand mixer - Make the stabilised whipped cream. Freeze a mixer bowl, beater and whisk for 5-10 minutes before using. Using a beater attachment beat the cream cheese and sugar together until very smooth (around 1 minute). Then switch to the whisk attachment and add the cream and vanilla and whisk until it starts to come together and you get soft peaks. Then scrape around the edges with a spatula to incorporate the cream cheese into the cream and whisk again until you get stiff peaks. Your cream is ready when you can slice a butter knife through the cream and the cut holds.
Step 5b Thermomix - Freeze the bowl and butterfly insert for 5-10 minutes before using. Beat the cream cheese and sugar together 15 seconds speed #4. Add the two creams and vanilla and set to 2.5 minutes speed #4. Take the MC out and whip for another 30 seconds, speed #4 while watching only stopping when the cream becomes thick enough. Your cream is ready when you can slice a butter knife through the cream and the cut holds.
Step 6 - Spread the cream over the top of the pie making it around 4cms/1.6inches high. Using a dough scraper, smooth the top and the sides repeating until smooth spinning the turntable to help achieve a smooth finish. You may need to add cream in areas and re-smooth it. Refrigerate for 2 hours. When ready to serve, sift cocoa powder or chocolate powder on top and cut into slices.
Personal Note
I made this pie for Miss America's birthday but unfortunately Queen Viv had mixed the dates around and we had to change things and Miss America was no longer able to make his own birthday dinner due to work. It was made even more awkward because she hadn't told me that he couldn't come so this pie was made for him but he wasn't there. I had also already paid a deposit for 4 people to have dinner but she had two friends Matt and Carmen that lived nearby that were keen to try the restaurant out.
It was a fairly noisy restaurant but not too overwhelming but sometimes the noise would blur the edge from words so that they weren't entirely clear. Butt Matt and Carmen were great company.
We were talking about something when Matt brought up a tv show. "It's called 'Will it Cake' and they sculpt all sorts of things out of cake like bricks," he explained. I've seen the show and sometimes they look so identical that you often can't tell which is the real one and which is the version made out of cake until you slice into it.
"That's identity theft!" exclaimed Queen Viv.
"Of a brick?" I asked her.
"That should be illegal!" she said shaking her head indignantly. It turns out that she thought that it was a tv show about "Will and Kate" the royal couple and because it was a bit too noisy she thought that there was a tv show where they were sculpting the royal duo doing all sorts of things!
So tell me Dear Reader, do you like bannoffee pie? And do you like banana forward desserts or just a little banana flavour?