TWD #14: Banana Cream Pie

This week’s recipe is Banana Cream Pie, chosen by Amy of Sing for Your Supper.   If I had to sing for my supper I would starve and you’all would do worse than gag.

I had never had, much less made, banana cream pie.  Banana bread, yes, banana pudding, yep.  I’ve eaten more than my share of banana laffy taffy’s, scooped up greedily at parades before tiny toddlers could toddle over to them.  (Because they are choking hazards, of course!)   I even made Dorie’s banana cake with Spork or Foon’s banana ice cream last week.  BTW, both were fabulous!

So I felt ready for the banana pie challenge.  Except for the pie crust.  I’ve never made pie crust.   Shocking, right?  I bake almost everyday; it’s not JUST that I am intimidated (but I am, Oh, I AM) by pie crust, but that I, well, I don’t really like pie crust.

Please, don’t leave my blog in protest!  Because I’m really not that picky, here’s a list of things I do like:

wet willies

fingernails on chalkboard

gum smacking

being put on hold

waiting in line

teenager eye-rolling

greengrocers’ apostrophes

and bunnies, I <heart> bunnies.

But, back to pie crust.  To bake the pie crust or not?  To sub in a graham cracker crust, or not?  I also considered trying to make a graham cracker/tradition pie crust hybrid.  Using graham flour?  Does graham flour exist, or did I just make that up?

Inquisitive, I queried the peeps at Tuesdays with Dorie P & Q, some encouraged me, “Take the leap!  Make the crust!” or, maybe I misread, and that was “Take a leap!”  as in a flying one?    Anyway, others said they thought a graham crust would be great.

So, which did I choose?

 

 

 

 

 

(The scroll down is building up the tension, I’m sure…)

 

 

 

 

 

 

(I bet you’re thinking, get on with it already!)

 

 

 

 

Okay, I made the:

 

Traditional Pie Crust!  (And my scuffed up kitchen table!)

 I’m proud!  It actually turned out really great.   

I liked the filling, too, a pastry cream made with brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg, layered between banana slices.    I, unfortunately, am not good at “eyeballing” measurements and ended up using only two small bananas in my pie, rather than the three medium called for in the recipe; I sliced them too thin and I think it would have been better with the correct amount of banana.    The topping was a really lovely mixture of  whipped cream, powdered sugar, vanilla and just a bit of sour cream.   The sour cream was a really great addition and kept the pie from being too sweet.

Despite my weird banana issues (it’s all about the texture!) I really liked this pie and, best of all, I’m no longer intimidated by pie crust.    Now we just need a recipe that combines public speaking, great heights and spiders and I’ll be phobia-free!