Banana Cream Pie. Delightful vanilla pudding topped with fresh bananas. It’s a classic and you don’t need a box to make it.
Banana Cream Pie
Vanilla Pudding
Makes about 4 one-cup servings.
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups half and half or milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or vanilla paste or some vanilla scraped out of a vanilla bean)
- 4 egg yolks
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
Place a fine-mesh sieve over a medium bowl; set aside. In a medium saucepan, off heat, whisk together sugar, cornstarch, salt, half and half, and vanilla.
Whisking constantly, cook over medium heat until it reaches 180-185°. Don’t let it reach boiling. Take care to not let the pudding burn on the bottom of the pan.
Place the eggs in a medium bowl and whisk them together. Pour a small amount of the milk mixture into the eggs and whisk. Continue whisking small amounts in until all of it is incorporated. Pour the pudding back into the saucepan and place it over medium heat. While stirring often, bring it up to 180-185°F again.
Remove from heat; immediately pour through a sieve into a clean bowl.
Stir the butter into the hot pudding. Allow the pudding to cool to room temperature.
Place plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pudding (to prevent skin from forming); chill for a few hours.
Basic Pie Crust
- 1 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons very cold water (approximate)
Place all pie crust ingredients in a food processor except for water. Pulse until butter is incorporated with flour & sugar. Preheat oven to 375°F.
Continue to pulse and slowly add water until the mixture begins to form a dough. Keep in mind, less water is best.
Without touching dough too much, form into a ball. Gently wrap the dough ball in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30-60 minutes.
Yeast dough loves to be played with but pie crust does not. A cold crust is a flaky crust. Keep things cool by not touching the crust too much. Roll the dough ball out into a large circle – just a little bigger than your pie plate. The easiest way I’ve found to transport the pie crust into the pie plate is to fold it in quarters.
And then place it into the pie plate and carefully unfold. Pinch the edges and if there is any excess pie crust, trim it off.
Use a fork to poke holes in the bottom of the crust and bake it in a preheated oven for about 15 minutes or until it is light golden brown.
Putting It Together
- 1 recipe prepared vanilla pudding (above)
- 1 recipe fully-baked crust, cooled (above)
- 2 ripe bananas
- 1 fresh lemon
When ready to serve, slice two bananas into small discs. Put in a medium bowl and drizzle fresh lemon juice over them. Stir to gently coat banana slices with lemon juice to help prevent browning.
Whisk the pudding, place it into crust, and spread it out evenly.
Arrange banana slices over pudding however you like them to be.
Top with whoop cream. Use a large decorating bag with border tip for pretty swirls as pictured or just spread over the top when ready to eat.
Here’s to thinking outside of the box.