Banana Cream Pie

I made a spectacular lunch Father's day lunch this year - grilled steel head trout, tequila chicken, herbed basmiti rice, roasted broccoli, homemade rolls and for dessert I made a blueberry pie.  Now you are probably wondering why I don't have a picture of blueberry pie at the top of this post.  The reason for that is that my blueberry pie really took a back seat to a banana cream pie.  I will share with you the story of how this pie came that started out as an afterthought, became the star of my Father's Day lunch.
I have tried a lot of pie crust recipes and I've finally found one that works beautifully - every time.  It never fails to produce a tender, flaky and buttery crust for my pies.  (If you are looking for a new recipe - you should check this one out.)  I like to roll my pie dough out extra thin so I usually get 3 dough's from one recipe.  I made my blueberry pie which left me with 1 extra dough.  Without having a real plan of attack, I decided that the dough was too nice to freeze so I rolled it out and fit it into another pie dish. 

I put the crust into the oven to bake and then realized that I needed to come up with a filling for this delicious crust.  I considered a traditional apple but June just didn't seem like the right time to bake an apple pie.  I even thought briefly about a canned fruit filling but there was no pie filling to be found in my pantry.

I was just about to give up on my idea of a fruit filling for this buttery crust, when I spied a couple of perfectly rips bananas sitting on the counter.  I had what Oprah would call a "light bulb" moment and got right to work on my banana cream pie.

 

Banana Cream Pie

¾ cup + 2 Tablespoons sugar       
¼ cup + 2 Tablespoons cornstarch      
1/8 teaspoon salt             
3 cups half & half               
3 egg yolks                 
2 Tablespoons butter, cut up        
2 teaspoons vanilla           
2 bananas                  

Combine sugar, cornstarch and salt in saucepan. 

Whisk in egg yolks and milk.  

Heat on medium 5 minutes or until thickened – stirring constantly.  Continue cooking 1 minute longer.  

 

Remove from heat and whisk in butter.  Add vanilla.  

 

Pour filling into crust and cover with plastic wrap.  Cool to room temperature.  (6 hours)  

 

 

Slice bananas on top.  

 

 

Top with whipped cream and refrigerate until serving.

This little banana cream pie ended up taking center stage on the dessert table.  I was surprised that when given the choice between the two pies, everyone chose banana cream over blueberry pie.  It was a huge hit.  It caused quite a discussion at the end of the day as to which of the fathers was going to actually end up with what little pie was leftover.
From now on, it will be banana cream pie at our family gatherings.  It requires a lot less work than a blueberry pie and it is overwhelmingly preferred.  Yea!

Ciao!

Banana Cream Pie

¾ cup + 2 Tablespoons sugar       
¼ cup + 2 Tablespoons cornstarch      
1/8 teaspoon salt             
3 cups half & half               
3 egg yolks                 
2 Tablespoons butter, cut up        
2 teaspoons vanilla           
2 bananas                  

Combine sugar, cornstarch and salt in saucepan.  Whisk
in egg yolks and milk.  Heat on medium 5 minutes or until thickened –
stirring constantly.  Continue cooking 1 minute longer.  Remove from
heat and whisk in butter.  Add vanilla.  Pour filling into crust and
cover with plastic wrap.  Cool to room temperature.  (6 hours)  Slice bananas on top.  Top with whipped cream and refrigerate until serving.