Sunday 21 October 2007

Banana-Toffee Pie


This, according to Reader's Digest, is a slice of the world's best pie. RD happens to be where I got the recipe from, and I regret to say that I hadn't heard of it before. It's certainly worth knowing and making again and again. The recipe is simple enough, the ingredients are:

300gm Marie Biscuits (or graham crackers)
1 can of condensed milk, 400gm
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 bananas
A cup of whipped cream, or more if you like
Some grated chocolate, or chocolate curls

Now for the method.


The most important and time-consuming part of this recipe is the toffee making. You have to cook the unopened, yes, unopened, can of condensed milk in boiling water for 3 hours. Make sure the can is always under water, if uncovered it might explode. This is how you get the toffee. And it's worth it. [You can boil several cans at a time, which is what I did after I made this once and liked it enough to want to make it loads of times more.... The toffee keeps indefinitely in the unopened can and can be stored and used at leisure.

Put the biscuits/crackers in a plastic bag, and crush them with a rolling pin till you get what you see in the picture. Though alternately you can pulse it in a food processor/mixer. (The actual recipe calls for 250 gm of biscuit, but I prefer a thicker crust, maybe next time I might make it 400gm, not kidding)

In a saucepan over low heat mix thoroughly the biscuits and the butter, until its warm to the touch. Put this mixture in the dish you plan to make your pie in. For my first attempt, I used a baking tin lined with parchment paper.


Smooth it out. Nice job, right? Once you've done this, refrigerate it for around half an hour.


Add the banana layer.


And then the toffee. Its a bit difficult to spread it out.


Another nice job :P


Now for the whipped cream. I love these soft peaks.


And lastly, the grated chocolate. I would like to add that I've made this pie a few times more and instead of grated chocolate I used chocolate curls, it looks prettier.


Chill it, and its ready to be eaten. Though I felt it was easier to handle after being left in the fridge overnight. Once its thoroughly set, you can remove it from the tin to a plate, but you have to be very careful as the biscuit layer cracks easily, but what the hell, it doesn't affect the taste! Dig in or see it disappear before your eyes!


Update: I just came across this amazing site, videojug, and they have a video on how to make Banoffee Pie, and two things they did different from me was that they didn't press down the biscuit crumbs very compactly, it was rather loose, which will make it easier to slice the pie, and they boiled the condensed milk only for two hours, which means its lighter colour, softer, and
spreads much more easily, though it will be be probably less caramel-y. I think another good idea would be to melt some chocolate and make a base of that, so that the biscuit crumbs get confined!

7 comments:

Gigi said...

I've never seen this recipe. Looks yummy, I'm going to have to try this very soon.

Anonymous said...

Thanks. And you can have my word, it is yummy! the only thing that keeps me from making it again and again is calories!

aisha said...

it looks so ridiculously riche!

BC said...

A friend of mine just told me about banoffi pie and I am dying to make it. I have boiled the condensed milk in the can - it can be very solid when boiled too long.

Anonymous said...

i was looking for this recipe ten years. In my country a restaurant named it tofana pie and i tried this name. Thank you so much!

Unknown said...

I love this recipe. I have eatten it 10 years ago in a restaurant in my town in Greece and i was trying to find it after the restaurant closed. I am so happy! Try it, is delicious!!!

Anonymous said...

I first got to know this pie from a friend and took the recipe... My family loved it.. I didn't use any whipped cream or chocolate though but used double the amount of toffee with banana slices on top for the decoration! Enjoy!