Made with bananas and caramelized condensed milk, this super rich dessert is such a yummy combination of flavours, you wonder why noboby thought of it before 1972... :-)

”It's Dulce de Leche, or Milk Jam!”

Somebody mailed me about the cans of Russian condensed milk that I had used in my Russian Caramel Pie: she wrote that the caramelized condensed milk in America is known as Dulce de Leche. She gave me a link to a Wikipedia entry, and from there I discoverd Banoffi Pie! Made one last week and fell in love; and although it's probably unwise because of the calories involved, I did one again this week :-) This pie is so famous - it's rumoured that it was Mrs Thatcher's favorite - there's even a row going on about where it originated... I say it's British, of course. See links at the right.

Base: blind bake or biscuit crumbs?

When you've got the time, do this the proper "original" way and blind bake a pie base. I did so last week and yes, a fresh crisply baked cookie bottom is an asset to any Bannoffi pie. But the cookie crumb version (see pic above) is terrific as well, so here's how-to with a quick biscuit crumbs base.

To the bottom

Prepare the tin with a bottom and sides of baking paper - this way you can remove the pie more easily later on.

Put the broken-up biscuits in a food processor and turn them into fine crumbs. Add the melted butter and mix well. Put the crumbs mixture in the tin and spread out over bottom and sides with the back of a spoon. Press into shape with your fingers.

Then fill it

Now when you are in proud possession of pre-caramelized condensed milk tins (see my Moloko tale), all hail and an easy lifestyle to you! All you do now is spoon the contents onto the base, slice the bananas on top of the caramel and put it in the fridge to firm up while you whip up the cream.
Alternatively, you boil your standard condensed milk tins in lots of water for about 4 to 5 hours - after which time you wait till the morning to open the tin for fear of explosion and hot caramel scalding.

(warning: I read they used to call the cooking of closed cans of milk "Suicide Pudding" :-)

Whip up the cream with a bit of sugar and firming agent. The original recipe has coffee powder in the cream - I don't like that, it adds too much to the richness and reminds me of those awful 70ties sponge cakes with mocca cream (ergh) and family birthday visits. Turns out this Banoffi Pie has its roots in a coffee-toffee pie, which sounds good too; maybe I'll re-engineer something in the near future - but it'll be without that awful mocca cream...

a proper dessert needs no main course to distract from it

This tops it all

Where I live, there's a shop that sells a wicked "ski gateau" - a cake with cherries and cream topped with merengue slabs and powdered sugar to simulate a snowy landscape, probably in honour of our 30 m high "mountain ridge". (Yes, I live in the Dutch mountains :-) So I imitated that and put small merengue chunks and toasted almond flakes on top of the cream. This is terrific and a keeper: the crunch of the topping is perfect with the soft filling.
Let's keep evolving this great British invention called Banoffi Pie! I love it!