TWD Banana Cream Pie

Today's TWD recipe Banana Cream pie was picked by Amy of Sing for Your Supper. As luck would have it, I actually had a reason to make a whole pie this week. My sister and her boyfriend Ben came to Boston for the Red Sox's opening game. Luckily (for me), the game was rained out; so they had to stay another day.

I have to admit, up until about a year ago; I wouldn't touch banana cream pie. The idea of pastry cream, bananas and whipped cream never did it for me. It wasn't until I worked at the Charles Hotel that I discovered how good banana cream pie can be. There we made a pie with pastry cream that was lightened with a rum caramel sauce and whipped cream. We then folded in bananas, put that in a pie shell, topped with whipped cream and drizzled more rum caramel sauce on top. It was so good. The pie crust was just salty enough to add a bit of complexity to the whole pie, it was just delicious.

Due to my relatively new found love of banana cream pie, I was psyched to make this recipe. I made Dorie's good for almost anything pie crust, which I've made before and liked. This time I was in a bit of a rush, so I made it, put in my blast chiller (i.e. freezer) for 30 minutes. Then I rolled it out, put it in my pan and put it back in the freezer while the oven was preheating. Once the oven was warmed up, I docked the pie dough, put in a piece of foil and some beans, and baked it according to the recipe. I was a bit worried the pie might shrink or fall because I rushed it, but it came out perfect.

The pastry cream was easy to make. The flavors in the pastry cream were nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla. I added a teaspoon of rum since rum and bananas go together so well. I found the pastry cream to be a bit on the "eggy" side.



On its own it reminded me of pumpkin pie which I'm not a fan of (gasp), so I lightened it up by folding in about ½ cup of whipped cream. Once the pie and pastry cream were completely cooled, the pie was fast to assemble.



In the pie shell you put a thin layer of pastry cream down, top that with half your sliced bananas, more pastry cream, more bananas and then the rest of the pastry cream. Next you top the pie with the whipped cream mixture. I whipped my cream to stiff peaks, added the sour cream and whipped it a bit more because I wanted to pipe the whipped cream on.

All ingredients combined, this is a delicious pie. The "eggy" flavor was no longer noticeable with the addition of the whipped cream and bananas. All four of us cleaned our dessert plates (Joe grabbing another serving), so it was a success. While eating dessert my sister told me that banana cream pie is my father's favorite pie. I had no idea. Next time I go to Vermont to visit my parents; I'll have to make this pie again.