So I was very excited to make the week’s recipe, which was Banana Cream Pie. This was my first banana cream pie and it was totally delicious.
I decided to make this pie in stages since I had some time issues this week. I made the pastry cream first, which I completed with no incident. It is a standard pastry cream flavored with brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Yum!
Then I set out to make the dough. I opted not to use the previous failed Pie Dough. I have made it before and I prefer an all butter crust with my pie, or to be more accurate, I prefer crusts without shortening. I do have a go to shortening free crust. Unfortunately, this crust requires more time than I had available. So I picked a simple pâte brisée recipe. That did not work out well. So I made a last minute Nilla Wafer crust, like a graham cracker crust, but with Nilla Wafers. Delicious! As well as easier and cheaper. I would have saved myself alot of time and butter if I had thought of that first. It also reminded me how much I like Nilla Wafers.
I also made the whipped cream topping a few hours ahead. I was worried about it deflating, so I stabilized it with some gelatin and it worked beautifully. I had never done that before, but will definitely remember this nifty trick in the future.
This pie was easy to assemble and after a quick chill in the fridge I served it to a bunch of beer drinking men who were watching the 25th anniversary of Wrestlemania on PPV. (side note – have you ever watched this WWE stuff? It is out of control funny and ridiculous. I never knew!) Everyone seemed to really like the pie. I think this recipe is a keeper, and the crunchy Nilla Wafer crust with the creamy bananas was superb.
I was in a rush to get these pictures before my light was gone for the day, so these are not top quality, but they’ll do.