Having a name that rhymes with banana meant I had to decide early on if I was going to be its friend or faux.
I chose friend.
As the start of my day, sliced over ice cream, or mashed into muffins, few fruits rival the toothsome give of a banana’s starchy-sweet flesh for me.
And for that reason, it makes an excellent ingredient for a pie—especially, ahem, a Cream pie. Nestled between layers of crust and cream, banana slices retain their shape yet can be easily cut with a knife. Cream pies also tend to be a favourite of mine because they require little, if any, baking. I ate many cream pies growing up that were nothing more than instant vanilla pudding poured into a store-bought crust. Slice some bananas and reach for the Reddi-Whip, and you’ve got your classic no-bake banana cream pie. I’ve not let that kind of ease go completely, but with the task of bringing dessert to a friend’s and wanting that dessert to be a banana cream pie, I looked for something slightly more arduous.
Knowing that my hosts were chocolate fans, I narrowed my search to finding a chocolate-banana cream pie. The one I found was outstanding.
Many no-bake pies are made with crumb or pastry crusts that have been quickly baked and then cooled before the cream filling is added. This was truly no-bake in that it was simply melted butter and chocolate added to chocolate crumbs and then cooled until firm. The chocolate became the magic binder that only added to the decadence of the pie. Layers of banana and a vanilla pastry cream are to be expected, but atop a layer of chocolate ganache? Sinful. For nostalgia’s sake, I bought a can of “Real Whipped Cream” to accompany the topping of sliced bananas.
While perhaps sacrilege to some, for those of us in the room that were slightly intoxicated and singing 80s rock tunes with PVR karaoke, the canned cream was more than fine. I provided backing to Livin’ on a Prayer while slicing the pie and then joined the silence during Paradise City as we all became enthralled with my pie’s creamy goodness. So much so we threw caution to the wind, went for seconds (which finished off the pie), and declared Love in an Elevator one of the greatest songs of all time.
While the light of day tends to change your opinion on some things… there is still no question for me that this pie is top notch.
Black-Bottom Banana Cream Pie
The recipe came from Bon Appétit. A vanilla pastry cream recipe is provided, however I made the one I learned in my recent baking course. It’s so good you will want to make extra just to eat out of a bowl with a spoon.
Next time around, I likely will put all the ganache on the bottom instead of marbling it. I made the pie one day ahead of time.
Vanilla Pastry Cream
50 g sugar
20 g unsalted butter
300 g whole milk
60 g whipping cream
30 g cornstarch
1 whole egg
1 g salt
5 g vanilla
Combine butter, cream, milk, and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat.
In another bowl, whisk cornstarch, egg, and salt so that all the cornstarch dissolves.
Slowly whisk (to temper) the boiling cream mixture into the cornstarch mixture.
Return to the heat, bring to a boil again and cook for 1 minute.
Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
Pastry cream needs to be cooled before using. To prevent a skin, sprinkle sugar on the top and then tightly cover with plastic wrap.
This makes enough for one pie.
