Allow me to present to you the BEST Banana Cream Pie EVER!! Bold statement, I know. But I am sure you will agree, should you decide to bless your beautiful tummy with some of this pie. It is almost guaranteed to give even the most ‘healthy food’ rejecting creature an intense mouthgasm. Multiple, at that. Cue the applause.
Personally, I feel that everyone should make this pie. As in, the making of this pie should be ‘a necessary task in preventing the world from imploding’ type-of-thing. I might be a wee bit biased though. Just a wee bit.
Also, I am going to be blatantly honest here and wilfully (wait.. that is a word, right?!) admit that the sole reason that I did not include chocolate in this recipe is because I managed to run out, lest you think my love affair with the super awesome stuff had abruptly ended (it didn’t). I woke up this morning with a hankering for a ginormous ‘Reese’s Pieces style’ chocolate and almond butter pie topped with pillows of wispy Coconut Whipped Cream, covered with a whole lotta homemade dark chocolate chunks, but -gasp- what shall before my little eyes appear, my precious baggy of raw cacao powder was empty. Empty, I tell you!!
I racked my brain, and eventually had to resort to asking my mum if she knew who the mysterious cacao thief was. Apparently, it was myself, and, get this- it ran out like 5 days ago or something like that. The number is irrelevant. What matters is that until my next shipment from amazon prime comes in (wait, you mean to tell me that I have to wait TWO more days for it?!) I will be miserable and without chocolate. Hmphhh.
This is a very emotional morning for me, you guys. I am now accepting virtual hugs and elaborate words of sympathy.
All jokes aside, I truly, believe that this pie will suffice- at least until I get my chocolate back- and is actually pretty darn delicious in and of itself. While what I truly wanted was a large chocolatey pie, lack of chocolate makes that difficult. I instantly decided that anything decadent and rich would do. Enter Banana Cream Pie.
Here, we have a cinnamon spiced, slightly baked crust topped with rich, creamy decadence that resembles caramel toffee so much that I decided to call it that (and rightly so). I then added a layer of sliced bananas, because, let’s face it, bananas are life too, and then made coconut whipped cream to finish it off.
In my head, I topped this bad boy with shaved bits of homemade chocolate, but ya know, as I previously stated, kinda hard to make CHOCOLATE without any CHOCOLATE. That last statement was very pointless and did not even make much sense, but the delete button feels so far away so I am going to go with it. Bear with me, please. I am jamming out to this totally groove-tastic (okay now I am just making up words) song whilst composing this entire post, so my writing style is slightly skewed. Not that it is ever not slightly skewed, but can we please change topics now?
Bananas. Pie. Whipped cream. No chocolate. My tears (not really, hehe).
This recipe is a little more ingredient intensive, as well as time-consuming, but rest assured, it is so worth it. I can guarantee you that upon feeding this to your mommy/aunt/cousin/friends/boyfriend/girlfriend/whoever else, you will instantly be met with large smiles, praises, and unwavering happiness. What could possibly be better?!
The flax seed egg was a last minute addition, as the pie crust without it was rather crumbly, and so I did some on-the-spot brainstorming and made two flax eggs, and the crust became the most perfect, doughy texture in the history of ever!
Please make this or just admire it or whatever it is you do when you visit a recipe blog. I cannot (and will not) judge your life, after all. Now, if you will excuse me, I am going to proceed to dance and sing around my kitchen to ease the cleaning process by precisely 102 percent!
Banana Cream Pie
Ingredients
For the base:
- ¼ cup coconut flour
- 2 cups oat flour
- ½ cup ooey gooey Medjool dates soaked in warm water for half an hour
- ¼ cup melted Coconut oil
- 2 Tablespoons of flax seeds soaked in 6 Tablespoons of water for a minimum of 15 minutes
- Dash of cinnamon
Caramel toffee layer:
- 1 ½ cups medjool dates
- ½ cup almond butter
- 1 cup liquid I used cashew milk, it was yummy for the tummy
- ½ teaspoon vanilla powder or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Banana layer:
- 1 ½ ripe bananas sliced into coins (save the other half for topping)
Whipped cream:
- 2 cans full fat coconut milk chilled in the fridge for 48 hours
- ½ teaspoon vanilla powder
- 2 teaspoons maple syrup optional
Instructions
For the Crust:
- Begin by first preheating your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Next, throw all of the crust ingredients, excluding the coconut oil, into a food processor and process for about 30 seconds before slowly streaming in the coconut oil. Once a big, doughy ball forms, you can stop the processor.
- Oil a 9-inch pie pan with some good ole’ coconut oil, and then spread the crust along it as evenly as you possibly can. Stick this in the oven for about 10 minutes, or until slightly browned (be sure you do not leave it too long, as it will begin to crack. I do not know this from personal experience). While this cooks, you can go ahead and make the caramel toffee.
For the Caramel Toffee layer:
- Blend all the caramel ingredients in a high speed blender until it is smooth, thick, and creamy. Nom.
- Once the pie crust is done, remove from the oven and allow it to cool for half an hour. Once cool, pour in the caramel toffee, and then layer (as evenly as possible) the sliced banana “coins”. Don’t forget to leave a little bit of banana for topping, unless you don’t care about how it looks. In which case, do as you please, please.
For the Coconut Whipped cream:
- Remove the coconut milk from the fridge and open up the can. The top should be completely solidified. Remove the solid part of the coconut milk (full fat, baby!) and place in a bowl along with the remaining whipped cream ingredients. Whisk until fully incorporated and stiff peaks begin to form.
- Spread atop the pie. Top with the remaining half of the banana, and whatever else your heart desires.
