Banana Cream Pie

Fantastically delicious, but the presentation is a little tricky on this one.

In the MSBH, this Banana Cream Pie recipe is a variation on the Coconut Cream Pie. Essentially, whole milk is used in lieu of coconut milk and banana slices line the bottom of the pâte brisée rather than chocolate.  And of course, banana slices top the whipped cream rather than coconut curls.

Banana cream pies get all their banana flavor from actual banana pieces in the pie.

The custard filling is traditionally flavored only with vanilla (if at all).

My cream filling cooling in an ice bath

Banana slices line the bottom of the pre-baked pie crust.

After pouring the custard over the banana slices, I put the pie in the fridge to cool and set up topping with the vanilla whipped cream.  I always do the whipped cream just before serving. Letting the plastic wrap lie right on top of the custard keeps it from forming a gross skin.

Then the MSBH’s recipe for vanilla whipped cream goes on top.

And the pie is finished with a layers of thin banana slices.  As you can tell from the first photo in this post, I’ve got some work to do in the thin banana slice department.  I kept looking at the photo in the MSBH trying to figure out how they got such wide slices and just could not figure it out. Obviously they used giant bananas. And no mater how hard I tried to fan short banana wedges around like the MSBH photo, I kept ending up with piles of bananas slices.

Here's the picture in the MSBH of what it should look like.

And this is what I ended up with! Gah!

Another bummer – my custard didn’t fully set!  It tasted great but was far too soft and spilled out once the pie was cut into slices.

Sooooooooo…. I think I need to attempt this one again.  I fully believe it’s my own fault it didn’t turn out, as the Coconut Cream Pie I made with practically the same recipe turned out beautifully.  I just need to pay more attention while cooking my custard and perhaps take a different approach to the banana slice topping.  Luckily, it tastes so good I don’t mind taking another go at it.

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