Banoffee Pie

Ah, Ambassador, with this Banoffee Pie you are spoiling us (and making us incredibly fat) or something to that effect...

Banoffee Pie is Mr M's favourite dessert and I rarely make it, actually scratch that, I never make it. It's so unbelievably easy however perhaps I don't make it because it's so unbelievably unhealthy too! But, man it is good.

It was only reading some blogs recently that I discovered that in the US, outside of Keira Knightly in Love Actually, Banoffee Pie is pretty much unknown as it's an English creation. I was pretty surprised! I mean, imagine not being aware of this delicious biscuity, banana, toffee, cream dessert? It made me wonder what I could be missing elsewhere! Is it possible that there truly scrumptious desserts out there that have evaded me? I do hope not.

Anyway this recipe for banoffee pie is pretty standard and foolproof. I mean, there's not much that goes into a banoffee pie and I've cheated by using tinned caramel. Let me tell you, I value my kitchen ceiling far too much to mess around with boiling cans of condensed milk when Carnation make the job a lot easier for you.  If you want to make your own caramel then be my guest, you need to boil it for about 2.5 hours but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, make sure that you keep it topped up with water at all times - the cans need to be completely covered or else you'll end up pebble-dashing your kitchen with caramel. You have been warned.

Okay, now that's over with, this pie serves about 8-10 portions. Maybe. It's very sweet, little portions are fine and there is of course about 9,423 calories in each portion. Enjoy.

Banoffee Pie

Ingredients

300g packet of Hobnobs

70g butter

1 tin of Carnation Caramel

3 large bananas

300ml double cream

1 tbsp icing sugar

1 Cadburys Flake

Method

Preheat the oven to 180c/gas mark 4.

In a food processor, grind up the Hobnobs into crumbs.

Melt the butter (either in a pan on the hob or in the microwave) and add to the crumbs. Blend in the processor until you have a soft sand mixture.  Take a pie dish and smooth the mixture into the dish to make a pie crust. Bake in the oven for around 10 minutes and set to one side to cool.

Once the pie crust is cool, tip the caramel into a dish and mix to loosen it a a little. Spread the caramel over the base of the pie crust. 

Slice the bananas and lay on top of the caramel. You don't have to be to neat with this, just schlep them on. 

In a mixer (or with a hand whisk if you're a masochist) whip the cream and icing sugar on high.  Spread the cream over the top of banana, covering completely. Crumble half of the Flake over the top of the pie (eat the other half) and pop the complete pie into the fridge for at least two hours. 

And you're done.

Simple, huh.

Quick Note; if you're whipping the cream in a KitchenAid it does whip quite quickly - there are three stages of whipped cream so keep a quick eye on it. For this pie you want it at the 3rd stage, the stiff peaks type of whipped cream.

Enjoy. I take no responsibility for the need to purchase trousers with elasticated waistbands after eating this pie.