Banoffee Pie - Banana Caramel Pie

This delicious banoffee pie rich, creamy, banana-infused caramel in a buttery graham cracker crust, topped with whipped cream, drizzled caramel and chocolate curls.

This classic British dessert is a crowd-pleaser back home in and my easy banoffee pie recipe never fails to impress and delight. It's deceptively easy to make and yet has such incredible flavor. When I had my bakery, Banoffee Pie was the dessert of choice for almost every guy that came into the shop! Don't ask me why, but they couldn't get enough of Banoffee! Their choices were always either between that or my Tiramisu Cake. I've yet to meet a man that hasn't been made weak at the knees by this banoffee pie recipe! And I can't blame them, it's a winning dessert for everybody - male or female, kid or adult - bananas and caramel are a match made in heaven. You may say it's my secret weapon... and now it's yours too!

The fact that you add the bananas into the caramel while it's still warm means that the delicious banana flavor completely infuses into the caramel, so every bite has a wonderful, sweet banana flavor. I love using bananas in baking, whether they are a featured flavor like in my Nutella Stuffed Banana Muffins, or they are there to add substance and texture like in my Chocolate Banana Squares, bananas are a very versatile ingredient. This banoffee pie recipe really celebrates the banana flavor. It's one of those recipes you really just have to try to believe how good it is. The flavor of this delicious pie is really out of this world. It's hard to believe it tastes so good for such an easy recipe.

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• How to get the perfect consistency for your Banana Caramel Pie filling
• Recipe

Ingredients

• Bananas - Usually when I'm baking with bananas I want them to be as brown as possible because I'm going to mash it up. For this banoffee pie recipe you ideally want ripe bananas but not overly ripe - just as they are starting to turn brown, we don't want them too mushy as the pieces of banana still need to hold their shape within the pie.

• Sweetened Condensed Milk - The secret to what makes this recipe so easy is condensed milk! We're going to use this as a base for our caramel. You should be able to find this near the baking section in your local grocery store - just make sure you get condensed milk and not evaporated milk.

• Golden Sugar - Also known as Soft Light Brown Sugar, it's the kind that looks like wet sand.

• Graham Cracker Crumbs - If you're in North America you want Graham Crackers, in the UK you want Digestive Biscuits, or in Europe you want Leibniz cookies. Put them in the bowl of a food processor and blitz to make fine crumbs, or put them in a bag, think of your ex and whack them with a rolling pin until they are obliterated into crushed biscuits.

• Butter - Salted or Unsalted butter will work here, if you use unsalted though just add an extra ¼ teaspoon salt to the cookie crust as it really needs some salt to cut through the sweetness of the caramel.

• Heavy Whipping Cream - Or Double Cream or Heavy Cream - but definitely not half and half. You want a full fat cream that is going to be able to whip up into whipped cream.

Instructions

• Melt the butter in the microwave for 30 seconds or until completely melted.

• Pour the melted butter into the graham cracker or digestive biscuit crumbs along with the salt. If you have whole cookies instead of crumbs, now is the time to process or bash them (see above in the 'Ingredients' section).

• Mix together until the crumbs are totally coated in the butter, then press into the base and up the sides of your pie dish or tart pan until it forms a whole pie crust. I find it's easiest to use your hands to manipulate the biscuit mix into all the edges, and then use something small and flat like a flat-based cup measure to press on the bottom of the crust to make sure you have a nice even layer. This is a typical graham cracker mixture pie crust that you will find in many pie recipes and is one of the quickest and easiest pie crusts you can make.

• Next, chop the bananas into 1cm thick slices, and then cut each of the banana slices into quarters, so you have little banana chunks. I don't recommend doing this until you are just about to make your caramel, as we want fresh bananas to go into the banoffee pie, not browned ones!

• Melt the butter and golden sugar in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves

• Add the condensed milk and salt turn it up to medium heat. Bring to a rapid boil, stirring all the time until it turns into golden, thick caramel. Once the boil turns into thick bubbles bursting on the surface, boil for a further minute, then remove from the heat. It's important not to undercook it or the banoffee pie filling won't set properly. It shouldn't take a long time to reach this stage, so keep your eye on it at all times. Note, you want it to be golden, NOT amber, if it starts to turn amber it is starting to overcook so remove it from the heat immediately. If you're unsure about the colour, just pay attention to the bubbles, the thick, bursting bubbles that look kind of like primordial soup are the signal to watch for. See notes below on how to get the perfect consistency.

• Once you have boiled your thick bubbles for one minute, remove the caramel from the heat and immediately pour in the sliced bananas It's important to add the banana while the caramel is hot so the banana flavor can infuse into the caramel

• Pour the banoffee pie mixture into the pie crust and let cool down at room temperature before moving to the fridge to chill for at least two hours.

• Once your banoffee pie has cooled, it's time to make the whipped cream topping. You technically could use a scooshy cream canister for this, but I think it's always so much better to make homemade whipped cream as it's so easy to do and the difference in flavor is huge. It's easiest to whip the cream with an electric mixer if you have one. Normally I add a dash of icing sugar and vanilla to my whipped cream, but I really don't think this banoffee pie recipe needs it, as the toffee filling is so sweet that the cream kind of cuts through it and mellows it out. Add your whipped cream to a large bowl and whip until it reaches the desired consistency. If you want to spread your whipped cream on top of the pie, then soft peaks will do, but if you want to pipe your cream then you want to take it to stiff peaks. Both are great options, it's just down to personal preference.

• Decorate however you like, I piped my cream on top of the caramel, but the beauty of cream pies is that they look great even when done messily. You can just dollop it on top and spread it around with a knife and it will still look fantastic. I had some caramel sauce in the cupboard which I melted in the microwave briefly and then drizzled on top with some chocolate shavings, but you can use whatever you have lying around like melted chocolate, toffee bits, chocolate sauce or even just a dusting of cocoa powder. the real magic is what is inside that banoffee pie!

Tip: Make sure the pie is completely cool before adding your whipped cream, if you put whipped cream on top of warm banoffee pie filling, it will melt and you'll be left with a soggy mess.

How to get the perfect consistency for your Banana Caramel Pie filling

There is definitely an art to making this caramel. It's easy as pie (sorry, couldn't resist), but you just need to know what to look for. First of all, don't boil the butter and sugar at the start, just heat it until the sugar is dissolved, then add the condensed milk and salt.

You want to make sure you are stirring constantly throughout the entire process, otherwise, you'll burn the bottom of the caramel and get little burnt chunks in your filling.

What you are looking for is the caramel boiling into really thick, bursting bubbles - kind of like a primordial soup! Once it reaches this stage you want to continue to boil for another minute before removing from the heat and adding the bananas. If you remove the caramel too soon, it won't thicken properly and the banoffee filling won't hold together when you cut slices out of your pie. After a minute of this thick boiling, the caramel should be visibly thickened. If you run a wooden spoon across the bottom of the pan, there should be a split-second delay before it fills in the gap again.  

Recipe