Toffee Banana Cream Pie - Pie Pilgrimage

So, here is my first installment on my year-long Pie Pilgrimage for 2012.  It was hard to pick the first pie of the year.  I have so many recipes stored up and when it's the first of many for an entire twelve months, it can be a bit daunting to know where to begin.

I sorted through all of my clipped recipes that are stored in one of my binders (Yes, one of; there is more than just one.).  And I went through some of my favorite cookbooks.  You know, the ones that have earned a spot on my counter rather than stored away in one of the cupboards (Yes, there is more than one cupboard full of cookbooks.  It's a sickness.)

I was sold on the one I chose because it allowed for a few shortcuts if I so chose (which I did) and it combined a couple of flavors I hadn't experienced together before.  In the end, this pie did not disappoint, even though is didn't set up well enough for me to get a good picture of just one slice. 

Was it soup in a pie tin? 

No, it wasn't. 

I just couldn't get a nice, clean slice served up.  So, the pictures you will see of it are a couple of step-by-step shots with really bad lighting (sorry folks - I'm no photographer!), the mile-high whipped cream and my oldest son drooling over the prospect of dessert-to-come!

Toffee Banana Cream Pie

Here's What You Need:

1 prebaked 9-inch pie crust or a 9-inch graham cracker crust

Custard:

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 cups milk

4 egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 Tablespoon butter

Banana Filling and Topping:

5.9 ounce pkg. vanilla or banana instant pudding, prepared per package and chilled

2 cups whipping cream

2 Tablespoons powdered sugar

1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows, divided

2-3 ripe bananas, peeled and sliced in 1/2-inch slices

1/4 cup toffee bits

1 cup coarsely crushed vanilla wafers

Here's What You Do:

I want to first share with you that I found this recipe in "A Passion For Baking" by Marcy Goldman. 

Love.  Love!  Her books.  Buy one.  Get one from the library.

I bought a graham cracker crust to use.  I should have made it myself.  So much cheaper.  But, I wanted to save a bit of time.  You could also purchase Cool Whip in place of the whipping cream and powdered sugar.  It was nice to have the real thing though. 

Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a small bowl and whisk to blend.  In a heavy saucepan, over low heat, stir half of the milk with egg yolks and add the flour mixture.  Increase the heat to medium and add the rest of the milk and vanilla, stirring constantly.  Bring it to a low boil and when the mixture begins to thicken, add the butter and keep on stirring.  Turn the heat down and simmer until the custard coats a spoon and is thick.  I'm wondering if I didn't get it thick enough.  I sure thought it was but I can't explain why the pie didn't set up better.  Anyway, pour the custard into a bowl and cover with plastic wrapping making sure the wrap touches the top of the custard so a skin doesn't form on it.  Chill for one hour.

Did I mention this pie takes some planning, time-wise?  I had hoped to make this pie a week earlier but every time I went to make it I realized I didn't have time for everything to chill in between steps!

For the Banana Filling, after you have prepared and chilled the pudding, whip the powdered sugar and whipping cream in a mixer bowl until stiff peaks form.  Gold the whipped cream into the chilled pudding and stick it back into the fridge to chill for another hour.  Lots of chillin' going on!

Remove the chilled mixture from the fridge.  Fold 1/2 cup of miniature marshmallows into the custard.  I misread the instructions and folded them into the pudding mixture.  I doubt that caused the problem I had.

To assemble the pie, spoon half of the custard into the pie crust.  Place a layer of banana slices on top.

Next, add half of the toffee bits and crushed vanilla wafers.

Spoon the rest of the custard on top and then sprinkle the remaining toffee bits.  Put down another layer of vanilla wafers and another layer of banana slices.  Now, you top the whole thing off with the banana pudding-whipped cream mixture.  At this point, I am realizing that I am going to have some heavenly whipped banana pudding!  There was no way all of this was going to fit in this dinky little 9-inch pie plate!  Just look at how high I have this piled up!  And I didn't use all of it.  There was at least a whole measuring cup's worth of it leftover.

Refrigerate the pie for 1-3 hours or overnight.  This may have been a problem for me.  Mine was in the fridge for about 1 1/2 hours, so perhaps a little more time in the fridge might have helped out some.  Who knows?!


Have I mentioned before that Evan loves pie?!



The instructions give one final step which I chose to omit.  It said to preheat the oven to 400 degrees and top the pie with the remaining 1 cup mini marshmallow and bake on the top oven rack just to brown the marshmallows.  Remove and serve at once.  I'm sure the browned marshmallows would have added to the toffee-like flavor, but I just didn't feel like it was necessary.