Banoffee Pie

I made this dessert a few weeks back for a family BBQ. It was very quick and easy to make, mainly because it was more a matter of putting components together rather than baking, especially as I cheated slightly with the toffee sauce. I used Dulce de Leche rather than make my own, which saved time.

I did make my own pastry and used a third of the recipe given here for cinnamon hazelnut pastry as I thought these flavours would go well with the toffee and bananas. After the pastry had blind baked it was simply a matter of adding the toffee sauce, some sliced bananas, fluffy mounds of whipped cream and a light shaving of chocolate to finish the dish. You could speed up the process even more by using ready made pastry or even just a crushed biscuit base.

Banoffee Pie

Ingredients
400-500g shortcrust pastry
400g Dulce de Leche
200ml double cream
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 large ripe bananas
20g dark chocolate

Method
Roll out the pastry and line a 9inch/22cm fluted tart tin with it. Then place in the fridge to firm up for 15-20 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 200C.
Prick the base of the pastry and blind bake (with baking beans or a bag of rice) for 12 minutes before removing the baking beans and baking for 10 minutes more until crisp and golden in colour.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
Spread a thin layer of the toffee sauce over the base of the tart.
Slice the bananas into thick rounds and arrange over the toffee sauce.
Spread the remaining toffee sauce over the bananas until they are well covered.
Add the vanilla to the cream and whip until soft peaks forms. Spread over the filling and decorate the top with a little grated dark chocolate.
Refrigerate until required.


If you want to make your own toffee sauce, here’s how:
Ingredients
115g butter
115g light brown sugar
400g sweetened condensed milk
Method
Place all the ingredients into a pan and heat gently, stirring until all the sugar has dissolved and the ingredients well incorporated.
Turn up the heat and bring the mixture to the boil, stirring constantly until it changes to a deep caramel colour.
Remove from the heat and leave to cool before using.
DO NOT touch the caramel it will be extremely hot!