Banoffee pie (aka Banamel pie)

This has to be one of the simplest desserts to make yet is always greeted with delight. If you can open packets and chop things, you can make an awesome banoffee pie. You don’t even need an oven!

I suppose you could make this into more work – if you really wanted to – by making your own caramel. I know you can do this by boiling a tin of condensed milk for several hours but I’ve heard stories about the tin exploding if you don’t keep it covered with water. I really didn’t fancy steam cleaning my entire kitchen this weekend so I bought my caramel!

The CCM (Caked Crusader’s Ma) declared banoffee pie to be in her “top two desserts”. When I enquired as to the other she admitted that she hadn’t thought that far ahead but felt she should leave some leeway for other great desserts!

My love affair with the crushed hobnob biscuit base continues – it works very well here giving some oaty crunch to an otherwise soft dish.

Whilst making this I pondered the name: banoffee. It’s a contraction of ‘banana’ and ‘toffee’ but why? The dish contains no toffee – it’s caramel. Why isn’t it called Banamel pie? Or Caramana Pie?

My extensive research (ok, so I googled it – that still counts!) revealed that toffee and caramel are different (see here if you’re interested) mainly because toffee contains no milk or cream. Banoffee pie only ever contains caramel. So why does toffee get the name check and steal the glory? The campaign to rename the dish starts here….

Ingredients

300g oaty biscuits (I used Hobnobs )
120g butter , melted
397g tin Nestlé Carnation Caramel (or any other caramel – I used Dulce de Leche) – save a little to drizzle over the cream
3 -4 bananas, sliced
350ml double cream
1 tbsp icing sugar
Chocolate to sprinkle over the top – I used 2 crushed Flake bars

How to make

- Crush the biscuits in a food processor or by placing them in a bag and hitting with a rolling pin.

- Add the melted butter and pulse to combine.

- Press the mixture into a 24cm tart tin or pie dish. No need to grease it – the biscuit base is buttery enough not to stick.

- Chill in the fridge until the base is set.

- Retain two tablespoons of the caramel and spread the rest over the biscuit base and return to the fridge until the caramel firms up – about an hour.

- Slice the bananas and arrange over the caramel.

- Whip the cream and icing sugar until you reach the soft peak stage then spread over the bananas.

- Drizzle the retained caramel over the cream.

- Crush the flakes and scatter over the top.

- Chill until you wish to serve

- Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have made.

- Eat.