Banoffee pie is a classic British dessert that you’ll find in any shop (you name it, from Tesco to Aldi). It’s a really remarkable dish. After living in England for a year, I had never heard of the dish until the girl I was dating mentioned that it was her favorite dish. So, on our next date I brought a dessert (we had a lot of picnics – absolutely stunning countryside, a great place for a picnic).
I had grabbed Sainsbury’s Banoffee pie. Which I thought was quite good, but she convinced me that I was wrong. She also pointed out that it was simpler to make yourself (and more cost effective – surprise, surprise). So, a few dates later, we made it ourselves. You know what? It was ridiculously simple to make. This is a treat that you can make quickly and doesn’t take too much effort. (This is definitely true in the UK, in the US we have to do a bit more work to make it have the same flavor profile.)
To me, this dish is special for a variety of reasons (including the one above). Banoffee pie is an incredibly simple dish that’s fast to prepare (if you have some dulce de leche on hand) that looks like you spent some quality time preparing it. I only really have one problem with this dessert, and its limited to America. Where can you find dulce de leche in America? I have spent many hours looking and have never been successful. Maybe I’m visiting all the wrong shops, but I cannot find it anywhere. (If you live in the US and have the same issue check out this blog. They make it out of sweetened condensed milk.)
That said, I’ve had a banoffe pie in the USA and the base was sweetened. I’d be shocked to see something that sweet in the UK! For instance, you’ll never find sweetened cream in England. You will always eat cream with something sweet, so why sweeten it?
Banoffee Pie: The Recipe
As I said before, banoffee pie is by far one of the easiest dishes to whip up. In a few minutes, you will have a lovely tasting dessert waiting to be devoured. With that, let us get ready to eat!
Ingredients
- 15 Digestive Biscuits
- 100 grams of Butter, melted
- 1 can (14 oz, 396 grams) of dulce de leche
- 2 large ripe bananas (sliced)
- 300 milliliters (10 fluid ounces) of whipping cream (whipped to soft peaks)
- 1 square of dark chocolate (shaved)
Method
1. Crush the digestive biscuits into breadcrumb sized pieces.
At some point, I’ll be adding my very own digestive biscuit recipe. It should appear here <– when it is finally online!
2. Stir the melted butter into the crushed biscuits.
If you look online and see recipes that call for sugar in the base, then that could be an indicator that it isn’t an authentic recipe. I noticed living in Europe that flavors balance better than they do in the US. If the base is sweetened, then it will attempt to overwhelm the sweetness of the dulce de leche. All things are balanced!
3. Press the mixture into the base of a pie pan. The thickness of the base should be consistent.
The base shouldn’t be too thick. You don’t want to bite into the pie to have a big crunch hidden inside. (That’s something I personally avoid when making desserts. Try to get the base as uniform as possible in order to ensure a nice base to filling ratio.)
4. Chill the base to allow the butter to cool.
5. Spread the dulce de leche across the pie base.
You can make a toffee too. Actually Banoffee does come from the words banana and toffee (it is a portmanteau combining the words), so toffee would be the ideal thing to use. However, toffee isn’t always available (soft toffee at least, it is easier to make the substitute in America.
6. Place the banana slices neatly across the surface of the dulce de leche.
7. Cover the bananas with the whipped cream.
8. Evenly distribute the shaved dark chocolate across the top of the banoffee pie.
I have seen cacao powder spread across the surface of the whipped cream (like you would with a tiramisu). I personally prefer the shaved chocolate (and I was introduced to it like that). It provides a nice change in flavor since the size of the chocolate is larger.
Well, that’s it! A nice quick recipe to update you all out there! Enjoy! 😊
