Ginger Banoffee Pie

It seems that September has turned my mood to food more than usual. I’ve been rather bored by my regular recipes and I’ve been poring over cookbooks to find new autumnal inspiration. In the process, I made a Banoffee Pie yesterday. I’m more of a pastry girl myself, but Badgerman loves his creamy desserts and I couldn’t remember the last time I made it. Also it would get some fruit into the girls, win! (every little helps, ok?)

It doesn’t get much simpler than Banoffee Pie, but there is also no end to the ways you can twist the basic recipe to your personal taste. The original Hungry Monk Banoffi Pie recipe, which was created just round the corner from where I live, calls for shortcrust pastry after all. I’ve combined their recipe with one from the GoodFood website to make my very own version. Instead of Hobnobs or shortcrust pastry, I use Ginger Nut biscuits to make the base and it adds a little warmth without overpowering the bananas or the cream. I like it!

I should add, decorated by the 4-year-old…

Ingredients

• 300g Ginger Nut biscuits
• 60g butter, melted
• 397g tin of Caramel (or Dulce de Latte, or, as the French call it, ‘confiture de lait’. Whatever you fancy calling it, I used Nestle Carnation because there’s nothing else available that I’m aware of)
• 3 bananas, sliced
• 350mls double cream (best use whipping cream if you’re in US)
• 1 tbsp golden caster sugar (or you can use icing sugar but it doesn’t taste as nice)
• half a teaspoon ground coffee
• a little unsweetened chocolate powder

Method

1. For the base: heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Crush the biscuits in a food processor then add the melted butter and combine well. Press the mixture flat into a tart tin (preferably one of those with a removable base). Move the tin to a baking sheet and cook for 10-12 minutes until lightly toasted and set. Leave to cool.
2. Caramel layer: once the base is cool, spread the caramel over the biscuit and put in the fridge for one hour.
3. Banana layer: arrange the banana slices over the toffee.
4. Whipped cream layer: whip the cream with the instant coffee and sugar until thick and smooth (which will happen, even with caster sugar). It should form soft peaks. Spread over the bananas and chill until ready to serve.
5. Just before serving, sprinkle the chocolate powder over the top.

Confession time: I was ‘a little’ heavy-handed with the instant coffee in the whipped cream; it was more of a whole teaspoon than half, but it doesn’t ruin the cream, if you like coffee that is…

That’s not soft peaks! Should have whipped the cream a bit more…

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Ginger Banoffee Pie Recipe

 

It seems that September has turned my mood to food more than usual. I’ve been rather bored by my regular recipes and I’ve been poring over cookbooks to find new autumnal inspiration. In the process, I made a Banoffee Pie yesterday. I’m more of a pastry girl myself, but Badgerman loves his creamy desserts and I couldn’t remember the last time I made it. Also it would get some fruit into the girls, win! (every little helps, ok?)

It doesn’t get much simpler than Banoffee Pie, but there is also no end to the ways you can twist the basic recipe to your personal taste. The original Hungry Monk Banoffi Pie recipe, which was created just round the corner from where I live, calls for shortcrust pastry after all. I’ve combined their recipe with one from the GoodFood website to make my very own version. Instead of Hobnobs or shortcrust pastry, I use Ginger Nut biscuits to make the base and it adds a little warmth without overpowering the bananas or the cream. I like it!

Ingredients

• 300g Ginger Nut biscuits
• 60g butter, melted
• 397g tin of Caramel (or Dulce de Latte, or, as the French call it, ‘confiture de lait’. Whatever you fancy calling it, I used Nestle Carnation because there’s nothing else available that I’m aware of)
• 3 bananas, sliced
• 350mls double cream (best use whipping cream if you’re in US)
• 1 tbsp golden caster sugar (or you can use icing sugar but it doesn’t taste as nice)
• half a teaspoon ground coffee
• a little unsweetened chocolate powder

Method

1. For the base: heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Crush the biscuits in a food processor then add the melted butter and combine well. Press the mixture flat into a tart tin (preferably one of those with a removable base). Move the tin to a baking sheet and cook for 10-12 minutes until lightly toasted and set. Leave to cool.
2. Caramel layer: once the base is cool, spread the caramel over the biscuit and put in the fridge for one hour.
3. Banana layer: arrange the banana slices over the toffee.
4. Whipped cream layer: whip the cream with the instant coffee and sugar until thick and smooth (which will happen, even with caster sugar). It should form soft peaks. Spread over the bananas and chill until ready to serve.
5. Just before serving, sprinkle the chocolate powder over the top.

Confession time: I was ‘a little’ heavy-handed with the instant coffee in the whipped cream; it was more of a whole teaspoon than half, but it doesn’t ruin the cream, if you like coffee that is…