Banoffee Pie

Cooking method

1. Step 1:

   

   How do you make banoffee pie at home? First, get the listed ingredients ready. It's best to start with the crust. Sponge or sugar cookies work for the base. For the salted part, use salted pretzel sticks — they make the flavor more interesting. You can replace the pretzel sticks with the same amount of cookies.

2. Step 2:

   

   Melt the butter ahead of time and let it cool.

3. Step 3:

   

   Break the cookies into pieces and put them in a blender. Grind them into fine crumbs.

4. Step 4:

   

   Put the pretzel sticks in the blender and grind into crumbs. They can be as fine as the cookie crumbs, or a little coarser.

5. Step 5:

   

   Pour both kinds of crumbs into a bowl. Pour in the melted butter and mix to the texture of wet crumbs.

6. Step 6:

   

   Tip the crumbs into a baking pan (6–7 inches / 16–18 cm). It's best to line the sides of the pan with acetate film first (grease the sides with vegetable oil so the film clings tightly).

7. Step 7:

   

   Press the crumbs over the bottom and up the sides of the pan, forming tall walls about 1/4 inch (5–6 mm) thick. Refrigerate the pan for 1 to 2 hours. It's best to build the pie right on the serving plate.

8. Step 8:

   

   Now make the caramel. You can use cane sugar, like I did, or regular white sugar.

9. Step 9:

   

   Put the sugar in a saucepan and add the water. Set the saucepan over medium heat and cook until the sugar melts. Don't stir the sugar mixture with anything, or the sugar will crystallize — just swirl the pan. Once the sugar melts, turn the heat up to high and wait for the mixture to turn amber and thicken.

10. Step 10:

    

    Take the saucepan off the heat, add the butter and warm cream, and stir vigorously until smooth. The caramel should be fairly thick. If you like, add a pinch of salt while cooking to make salted caramel. What if the caramel turns very runny after you add the butter and cream? Put it back over low heat and bring it to a boil again, stirring constantly. Cook, stirring, until it thickens.

11. Step 11:

    

    Pour the caramel sauce onto the crust. You can cool it slightly first.

12. Step 12:

    

    For the filling you'll need 2 to 3 bananas. Use ripe but not overripe bananas, with bright yellow skin and no black spots.

13. Step 13:

    

    Peel the bananas and cut them into not-too-thick rounds.

14. Step 14:

    

    Arrange the banana rounds over the caramel in 2 to 3 layers.

15. Step 15:

    

    Now make the cream. Plain cream cheese with no additives works (Almette, mascarpone, Hochland, etc.). If you like, add a little powdered sugar to the cream.

16. Step 16:

    

    Whip the cold cream with a mixer to stiff peaks.

17. Step 17:

    

    Add the cream cheese and whip again until smooth. Don't whip too long, or the cheese and cream will separate.

18. Step 18:

    

    Transfer the cream to a pastry bag fitted with a closed-star tip.

19. Step 19:

    

    Pipe large rosettes of cream onto the banana layer. Refrigerate the banoffee pie for 1 hour.

20. Step 20:

    

    Before serving, remove the ring mold and decorate the pie with banana rounds and mint. Enjoy!