Banana Cream Pie

“When you die, if you get a choice between going to regular heaven or pie heaven, choose pie heaven. It might be a trick, but if it's not, mmmmmmmm, boy.”- Jack Handy

As Dr. Carl Sagan, a world renowned astronomer said, "if you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe." It's funny how finicky, yet also easy, pies can be! We have two things going for us in this recipe- 1. This is not an apple pie. 2. This crust is easy!

This banana cream pie has such a delicious crust due to bananas added into the crushed graham mixture, and in my humble opinion, it made the pie. It also has a slight tang of sour cream in the bananas to balance out the sweetness of the custard and whipped cream. This pie was made by tweaking and adapting two recipes and I've posted my final below. Let's just say that after it was all gone, there were quite a few gentleman buzzing around the empty dish like flies, putting their fingers in the dish and licking them and the serving ware. I will definitely make it again!

The crust (adapted from Bon Appetit)

2 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (I used almost 2 because that's what I had)

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup mashed banana 

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Preparation for crust:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Stir graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and mashed banana in large bowl to blend. Add unsalted butter and stir to moisten evenly. Press onto bottom and up sides of 10-inch-diameter glass pie dish. Chill until firm, about 30 minutes.

Bake crust until set and pale golden, about 15 minutes. Cool completely. While chilling and baking, I started on the filling.

The filling (adapted from Bon Appetit)

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups whipping cream (I reduced to 1 cup)

1 1/2 cups whole milk (Increased to 2 cups)

3 large egg yolks

1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise (I did not have vanilla bean, so I increased vanilla to 2 tsps)

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (without bean, increase to 2 tsps)

Preparation for filling:

With burner off, whisk sugar, cornstarch, and salt in heavy medium saucepan to blend. Gradually whisk in whipping cream and whole milk, then egg yolks. Scrape in seeds from vanilla bean; add vanilla bean (skip if you are only adding vanilla extract). Whisk over medium-high heat until custard thickens and boils, about 6 minutes. Remove from heat. Whisk in unsalted butter and vanilla extract. Discard vanilla bean. Transfer custard to large bowl; cool completely, whisking occasionally, about 1 hour.

Stir custard to loosen, if necessary. Spread 1 cup custard over bottom of prepared crust (I spread about 1/2 cup).

Bananas- adapted from Bubby's Pie Company in NYC:

4 to 5 medium-size ripe bananas

1 1/2 tablespoons fresh-squeezed lemon juice

1/4 cup sour cream

Slice the bananas ¼ inch thick to get about 4 cups and immediately toss them in the lemon juice to prevent them from browning. Stir in the sour cream gently. Layer the coated bananas in the pie crust, and flatten them gently over the 1/2 cup pie filling.

Add the remaining custard, covering the bananas completely.

Chill banana cream pie until filling is set- I refrigerated for about 4-5 hours. Add whipped cream if desired (mixed cold with 1 tsp vanilla and about 1-2 tablespoons powdered sugar). You can add homemade caramel or chocolate sauce if that suits you (I'm a bit of a traditionalist). Cut pie into wedges and serve. I chilled mine in the freezer for about 20 minutes to keep cool while serving. Enjoy :) It won't last long!!