GLUTEN FREE BANOFFEE PIE

This pie is like a no-recipe dessert. You kinda can’t mess it up. She’s the chill sister to classic banana cream. It’s something you can make with a few pantry items, and without measuring, and it actually tastes better the day after and even better the day after that, if it lasts that long. It’s just so good. Which is what makes it an ideal holiday pie. Easy to throw together, and easy to make way ahead of time. Sorry the pics aren’t so great in this one, I used old bananas, and the cream got overwhipped, and I started eating it before taking pictures, but it’s still so freaking good.

It is essentially 4 components. Cookie crust, condensed milk, fresh bananas, and whip cream. I’m going to give you measurements because I would want to see the ratio of things, but you can totally eyeball this recipe.

*Also, this is a cold pie, so even though some of the elements are cooked, you need everything to come together once it’s cooled completely or you’re going to get a runny mess. While there are 4 components to the pie, I would say, the most important component is actually patience.

Tag me on Insta @sosandrapark if you make this and happy baking !

CRUST

Ingredients

• 300g Almond flour (2 small bags from Lidl)

• 70g Butter

• Salt

• Sugar (twice the amount of salt)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 175C/ 350F.

I made this particular pie gluten free because I had almond flour. Almond flour is just ground almonds, so it has a beautiful toasty nuttiness to it and great chunky texture. It would be just as easy to use graham crackers, speculaas, or whatever box of cookies you have in the pantry. Or you can make your own cookies and then crumble those. The beauty of almond flour is that you get the texture of a crumbled cookie base by just baking the ingredients together.

I made a basic almond cookie base by tossing ground almonds, 1 egg, a good slab of butter, a few pinches of sugar and a big pinch of salt together to make a dough. You can spice it up by adding cinnamon or nutmeg, brown sugar, vanilla or molasses. It’s really versatile. Just mix it until it comes together, press it into the parchment paper lined baking dish and bake it for 20 minutes.

Let it cool completely before adding anything to it.

CONDENSED MILK

Ingredients

• 1 Litre of milk

• Palm full of sugar (about 40g)

• Pinch of salt

Instructions

• Of course, you can just buy a can of condensed milk. But, being queen extra, I like to make my own. Also, this whole recipe got started one night when I went to put some milk in my tea, and it tasted on the edge. I had a whole litre of fresh milk and I knew it was good for today, but maybe not tomorrow, you know? So I just made condensed milk with it.

• Dump 1 litre of milk and a palm full of sugar and little bit of salt into a sauce pan and stir over a low/medium heat for what feels like forever. Like on a heat setting of 3 out of 6. At least until it is reduced by half and the color turns a warmer milky color and the consistency gets thicker, but not quite as thick as condensed milk. That’s because it will get thicker as it cools.

• Don’t walk away from the stove when there’s sugar cooking cus it will want to burn. Just sit and stir. I was watching the Crown Season 4 while stirring. Should take about the time it takes for your crust to cook, maybe a touch longer.

• Once it’s done, you want it to cool completely before adding it to the crust.

BANANAS

• 3-4 Large bananas

• Slice

WHIP CREAM

Ingredients

• 300ml of Whipping/ Double cream

• Drizzle of honey

• Potato starch

• Salt

Instructions

• Whip that cream until your elbow wants to fall off. Jon actually overwhipped the cream for this pie just a touch, which is why it looks a bit chunky, but it was still great.

• I added a drizzle of honey because the floral notes complements the banana and condensed milk beautifully without being too sweet. The whipped cream is the first thing you taste when you bite into the pie, and I personally love the hint of honey, but this is totally preference.

• Potato starch is to help stabilize the cream since I don’t ever use gelatin.

• Salt, a little bit, always, in everything

ASSEMBLY

• Add the cooled condensed milk to the cold crust

• Add the sliced bananas on top of the condensed milk

• Spoon on the whipped cream

• Enjoy!