We recently held a “Comfort Food” evening with friends. I have mentioned in a past post just how much I love comfort food. The evening was inspired by the frigid temperatures that were occurring for over a month here in the Philadelphia area. It was the perfect type of food to serve, we had many classics, but the best part was the dessert. That is always the best part of the meal, right?
Kyle made the dessert for Comfort Food Night – we would want no one else to do it. He views Banana Cream Pie (and its distant cousin, Banana Pudding) to be an iconic comforting dessert; although he takes one major issue with the classic dish. When it comes to Banana Cream Pie, the sliced raw bananas can occasionally develop a slimy, unappealing texture when layered with the cream filling. Kyle set out to fix this issue using the influence from another dessert favorite: Bananas Foster. Cooking the bananas in some brown sugar and brokering them with rum helped fix the textural issues. Cooking the fruit intensified the banana flavor on the finished dessert.
This recipe is yet another Franken-recipe cobbled together from a few recipes for the various components of the banana cream pie. The base layer, discovered on Epicureous, featured mashed bananas in the crust. This seemed like an idea that was too fascinating not to try, but, alas, the remainder of the recipe left a bit to be desired. It received poor reviews due to the pie’s tendency not to set. So, Kyle decided to use a traditional pastry cream recipe from his culinary school days as an alternative.
Instead of mashing the bananas and incorporating them into the crust as the recipe instructed, he simply pureed them with some gluten free vanilla sandwich cookies in the food processor to streamline the process. The finished crust tasted like a giant sugar cookie on the bottom of the pie, and the banana within the crust really heightened the banana flavor of the whole pie.
Cornstarch was used as the thickening agent in the pastry cream, rendering it automatically gluten free. During his research, Kyle found a few recipes that incorporated cream cheese into the pastry cream to counterbalance any sweetness and give the pastry cream a firmer texture. He was slightly paranoid after reading the negative reviews of the Epicureous recipe, so anything that enhanced the overall flavor AND helped the pie set was a winner.
The next step was to whip up the heavy cream and fold about half of it (it doesn’t have to be exact) into the chilled pastry cream to give it an airy, mousse-like texture. The rest of the whipped cream was piped on top of the pie to make it all fancy-like. BUT – you do not need to pipe the whipped cream, you can easily just spread it over the top of the pie. It will still look great and taste delicious.
The Bananas Foster portion of the dessert was adapted from Alton Brown, whose scientific eye and attention to detail produce excellent recipes. There was no banana liquor on hand, but with all the other banana flavors in the recipe, Kyle didn’t feel like the finished pie was missing out. Kyle apparently does not trust himself with fire at home, so this means he didn’t ignite the rum in the recipe. Instead, he just let it reduce down slowly and safely over low heat.
The whole pie was assembled in a springform pan. Being able to view each layer of the pie before slicing made for a more dramatic presentation. In order to ensure that the pie doesn’t get destroyed after releasing the sides of the pan, just run a butter knife around the edge of it.
Another helpful tip: To get cleaner slices, you can pop the entire pie in the freezer about 15 or 20 minutes before serving. This will ensure the pie will be beautiful and yummy all at the same time, as it should be….
There are quite a few components to the recipe, but you can make everything a day or two ahead of time, a definite perk! The amazing thing is that the pie is actually better when it is allowed to set in the fridge overnight. After you have made this pie, you will be able to check off many of the steps that may have been on your culinary bucket list. Pastry cream-check! Bananas Foster-check! Non-traditional pie crust-check!
The feeling of accomplishment after creating this phenomenal dessert cannot be denied. After that, all there is to do is to dive right into the pie with your fork! You will be impressed, and so will anyone you serve it to, I promise!
Adapted from Bon Appetit and Alton Brown.
- For the Crust:
- 2½ cups crumbs from gluten free vanilla sandwich cookies (from one 10-ounce package)
- ⅓ cup sugar
- 1 medium sized banana
- ¼ cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
- For the Bananas Foster
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- ½ cup (1.75 ounces) dark brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
- 4 under ripe bananas, sliced in quarters
- ¼ cup dark rum
- For the Pastry Cream:
- 2 cups whole milk
- ½ cup granulated sugar, divided
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- 3 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
- 1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream
- ¼ cup sugar
- For the crust: Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine cookie crumbs, sugar, and banana in food processor to blend. Add unsalted butter and pulse until evenly combined. Press onto bottom and of 10-inch-diameter springform pan. Bake crust until set and pale golden, about 15 minutes. Cool completely.
- For the Bananas Foster: Melt butter in a 10-inch heavy skillet over low heat. Add brown sugar, allspice and nutmeg and stir until sugar dissolves. Add bananas and cook for 1 minute on each side. Remove bananas from pan. Bring sauce to a simmer and carefully add the rum. If the sauce is very hot, the alcohol will flame on its own. If not, Alton Brown recommends using a stick flame to ignite the sauce (I don’t trust myself around fire, so I just let the sauce cook down for a few minutes without igniting it). Cook for another minute or 2 until sauce is syrupy in consistency. Add the bananas and sauce to the prepared crust.
- For the Pastry cream: In a small saucepan over medium heat, heat the milk and ¼ cup of the sugar until steaming. In a medium bowl, whisk the rest of the sugar with the cornstarch and eggs until thoroughly combined. While whisking constantly, slowly stream the hot milk into the cornstarch-egg mixture. Once combined, return the mixture to the saucepan and continue cooking over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture starts to bubble. Cook for at least one minute, while stirring constantly, until mixture becomes thick in consistency (it will look like pudding at this point). Remove from heat, then stir in butter, vanilla, and cream cheese until thoroughly combined. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until pastry cream is thoroughly chilled, at least 1 hour.
- While the pastry cream chills, whip heavy cream and ¼ cup sugar in a stand mixer until stiff peaks form. Gently fold about half of the whipped cream (it doesn’t have to be exact) into the chilled pastry cream until thoroughly combined. Layer the pastry cream over the bananas foster, then spread remaining whipped cream over the pastry cream layer. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours - but preferably overnight - until the pie is thoroughly chilled and set. To serve, run a sharp knife around the edges of the pie, then remove the ring of the springform pan. Slice into wedges and serve.
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