Banana Cream Pie

My pie baking craze continued with another cream pie. (Next week I will bring you a non-pie recipe, promise, though this isn't my last pie.) Inspired by my friend Vishal, who loves all things banana I made a banana cream pie. Too bad Vishal couldn't be here to try a piece. For saying I eat bananas on an almost daily basis, I don't really love them. They are convenient to pack in my lunch, filling for a fruit, and of course, are nutritious, so I eat them. But I find them pretty gross visually, as they have brown spots, are mushy, and they have to be just the right amount of ripe to not taste gross. This is probably why I have never made banana bread, I love it, but haven't had the guts to go through the process of seeing gooey bananas. So now that I have your tummy's rumbling with my descriptive introduction (kidding) on to my process recipe! I don't remember why I chose it, but I used Epicurious.com's recipe as the foundational recipe for my pie. I omitted the vanilla bean, because I couldn't find one and used half and half, instead of whole milk since it came in a small carton, like the whipping cream - I didn't want to buy more than I needed. Additionally, I used no sugar in the crust, only half a banana, and of course, halved the sugar in the custard - to taste, it was plenty sweet for me, especially knowing how sweet bananas are naturally. Vishal would have added extra sugar, so maybe it's good he didn't taste mine. Before we get to the good news, I will first tell you the bad news. The first batch of custard was divine, silky, smooth, tasty, creamy all things wonderful. I poured it into it's dish to cool, and added the butter and vanilla, as the recipe said. Within seconds, the whole batch had curdled. I called in Jack, who whisked, whipped, mixed the custard, but there was no way it was coming back into form. We tried cooling it, heating it, nothing worked. I got very frustrated, and it was getting late. Since I used all but one cup of the dairy products mentioned above, I whisked together the remaining liquids and added the buttermilk powder we have on hand for such occasions. Thankfully, the repeated process was going smoothly, and the custard tasted wonderful, without butter or vanilla, so I stopped there, not wanting to risk the problem repeating itself. I decided I didn't have the patience to let the custard cool, so I layered the sliced bananas (Jack cut them for me, 3.5 in total), poured in the custard, and let the pie sit over night. Thankfully, my pie, now complete, only had one issue, browned bananas, which I guess was bound to happen when bananas are sliced and in the fridge overnight. The browning didn't interfere with the taste, and the pie was a hit! I'm glad to have found a cream pie, which still full of fat, is low on the sugar I try to avoid. If you have a recipe which incorporates the banana into the cream, please send it my way - I might have to try that method next time. Crust 2 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (since I have a large pie pan, I just kept adding crumbs until I had a thick crust) 1/3 cup sugar (I omitted this) 1/4 cup mashed banana (I just used half a banana) 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted (I might have ended up using the whole stick so I had enough for all of the crumbs?) Filling 1/2 cup sugar (I halved this) 1/3 cup cornstarch 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 cups whipping cream 1 1/2 cups whole milk 3 large egg yolks 1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise (didn't have one) 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter (omitted round two) 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (omitted round two) 5 ripe bananas (about 1 1/2 pounds total), peeled, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices For crust: Preheat oven to 350°F. Stir graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and mashed banana in large bowl to blend. Add unsalted butter and stir to moisten evenly. Press onto bottom and up sides of 10-inch-diameter glass pie dish. Chill until firm, about 30 minutes. Bake crust until set and pale golden, about 15 minutes. Cool completely. For filling: Whisk sugar, cornstarch, and salt in heavy medium saucepan to blend. Gradually whisk in whipping cream and whole milk, then egg yolks. Scrape in seeds from vanilla bean; add vanilla bean. Whisk over medium-high heat until custard thickens and boils, about 6 minutes. Remove from heat. Whisk in unsalted butter and vanilla extract. Discard vanilla bean. Transfer custard to large bowl; cool completely, whisking occasionally, about 1 hour. Stir custard to loosen, if necessary. Spread 1 cup custard over bottom of prepared crust. Top with half of sliced bananas, then 1 cup custard, covering bananas completely. Repeat layering with remaining bananas and remaining custard. Chill banana cream pie until filling is set and crust softens slightly, at least 8 hours and up to 1 day. Cut pie into wedges and serve. via cooking with a stud, http://www.cookingwithastud.com/2013/05/banana-cream-pie.html

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