Classic Banana Cream Pie
Have you ever seen the movie Waitress?
I haven’t seen it in a while but it’s a great movie about a down and out woman who works in a diner making pies. She’s married to a horrible man and she gets pregnant, finds and OB-GYN and falls in love with him. It was made into a broadway musical, which I would love to see.
Whenever I make pies I pretend I’m Keri Russel (the actress who plays the main character) coming up with magical pie combinations.
The recipe here is for a classic Banana Cream Pie.
It features a blind baked, non-soggy pie crust, slices of banana, luscious vanilla scented pastry cream, homemade whipped cream, and homemade chocolate curls.
It has taken me a LONG time and many trials and error to figure out how to successfully blind bake a pie crust.
What even is a blind baked crust?
There are pies that do not need the crust baked separately before adding filling. Examples are apple pie, berry pies, even pumpkin pies. But pies with custard fillings, usually chilled pies like chocolate cream pie, these need a separately baked pie crust before adding in all the fillings.
Tips for blind baking:
Chill the rolled out dough that has been placed in the pie pan until COMPLETELY frozen.
Weigh down the inside of the pie. I line the pie with tin foil and then add rice or beans all the way up to the top.
Find the rest of the recipe below.
Classic Banana Cream Pie
Crust (makes enough for two banana cream pies):
18 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into small cubes
2 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup to 3/4 cup chilled water
Instructions:
Combine flour, sugar, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add in butter and using a pastry cutter or fork, cut butter into flour into even smaller pieces. If butter starts to get warm, place in the freezer for 15 minutes before continuing.
Slowly add cold water to dough, using fork to blend dough together. Add just enough water until the dough comes together. Separate into two balls of dough, flatten into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap. Let sit in fridge or freezer for at least one hour.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Roll out pie dough using flour as needed. Place in pie pan. Freeze until completely frozen through. Line with foil and rice or beans. Bake for 20 minutes then remove the foil and rice/beans and bake for another 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven, let cool.
Pastry Cream Filling:
2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup corn starch
1 teaspoon vanilla
6 tablespoons butter, room temperature
Instructions:
Combine milk and sugar in medium saucepan over low heat. Bring to a low simmer, stirring so the sugar will dissolve. In a separate bowl, combine egg yolks and cornstarch. Whisk to combine. When milk comes to a low simmer, slowly pour about 1 cup of the milk into the egg yolk/cornstarch mixture, whisking as you go. Pour milk, cornstarch, and egg yolk mixture back into pot with the rest of the milk. Continue cooking over medium heat, stirring constantly. Continue stirring for 5 to 8 minutes until the pudding begins to thicken. Once pudding is thickened and coats the back of a wooden spoon, remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla. Cool in fridge with plastic wrap pressed on top of pudding to prevent a skin from forming.
3 bananas
1 cup heaving whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons sugar
Whip whipping cream until soft peaks form, add vanilla and sugar and continue to whip until firm.
Chocolate Shavings:
1/3 cup chocolate chips
Instructions:
Melt chocolate in microwave or using double boiler. Spread in a thin layer on the back of a cookie sheet. Freeze for 5 minutes. Using a bench scraper, begin at one end of the chocolate and press down moving in a forward motion. This will create a chocolate shaving.
To Assemble Pie:
Cut bananas in half lengthwise and line the bottom of the pie pan. Top with pastry cream, then whipped cream, then chocolate shavings!
