Nostalgic Banoffee Pie

Well hello all! It’s been quite a gap since I last posted, for which many apologies: I’ve been sorting things out around my column and my ever-increasing array of part-time jobs!

One of the only things I’ve managed to cook outside my column and catering jobs in the last couple of months has been banoffee pie, that delicious (and rather addictive) blend of toffee, banana and whipped cream. There’s not a huge amount to say about it: banoffee is a compound word reflecting the dessert’s two main ingredients, and it’s supposed to have been invented at The Hungry Monk restaurant in the 1970s. Since then, though, it’s become a British classic, beloved of Mums everywhere for its easy method and popularity with the younger generation.

My banoffee pie uses a crushed biscuit base – for which I apologise to the original creators, who were apparently pastry purists. You can use either, but I prefer the biscuit base because it’s easier to make and I like the flavour combination with the banana and toffee. If you do want to use pastry, just blind-bake a sweet pastry base (you can easily find a recipe on the internet) then build the rest of the pie as described below.

I made my pie for one of my housemates – it’s her favourite dessert, and I have to say it’s probably one of mine as well. It’s unbelievably easy to make, and for me is always rather nostalgic too – the pudding of childhood parties or special occasions.

It also has more recent, painful associations, from when a friend and I were on a catering job a few years back and sharing the workload. One day it worked out that I did the starter and the main course and he did the pudding – and they’d asked for banoffee pie. He knocked one out pretty quickly while I worked away on the soufflés and full roast for the rest of the meal (uneven workloads? Maybe...) When the meal was over the client popped their head around the kitchen door to say that that was the best banoffee pie they’d ever had, ‘you should package and sell that stuff’. Did they mention my starter or main course? They did not.

Despite that crushing blow, I did steel myself to make another one, for my housemates’ sake. And here’s the recipe:

Ingredients

250g plain digestive biscuits

100g butter

2 small tins condensed milk

4 big bananas

A bit of lemon juice

1 pint double cream

1 tsp sugar

Small block of dark or milk chocolate for grating

Method

First of all, punch a hole in the top of each tin of condensed milk with a skewer. Put them into a saucepan of water so it nearly but not quite covers them. Simmer very gently for 2 ½ hours. When you open the tins the condensed milk should have turned to a dark golden-brown caramel. Alternatively, you can buy tins of ready-simmered condensed milk in the supermarket – it’s labelled ‘dulche de leche’, which is just another name for caramel made from condensed milk.

Melt the butter over a gentle heat and crush the digestive biscuits up really small (the best way is to seal them up in a large freezer bag and give them a good bash with a rolling pin). Mix the butter and crushed biscuits thoroughly and press the mixture into a large tartlet tin. Put it into the fridge – it will solidify as it cools.

Once the dulche de leche is ready and the base has cooled, slice the bananas to around 1cm thick and toss the slices in a little lemon juice to stop them browning. Pour the dulche de leche into a bowl and beat it until it’s smooth and even, then spread it evenly over the base. Cover this with a layer of sliced banana (place the slices on rather than pouring them over, so they form an even layer).

Finally, whip the double cream and spread it over the bananas, then grate over some chocolate to finish. Try not to eat it all at once!