On this pie, you are truly pulling out all the stops. Believe it or not, there are times when I look at a recipe and think, "I could use 1% milk here rather than whole," or "I could make do with vanilla extract, not waste time and money on a vanilla bean." And yeah, for a pie at a pot-luck, for everyday pie, you can get away with a couple of cost or fat saving techniques. But not this pie, not today.
A few years ago, my friend invited me to a fall festival. My wife and I were looking at info on the festival, and we realized they had a pie baking contest. I made pumpkin, maybe an apple, and was looking around for something else. My wife said, "I really want a pie that reminds me of my grandmother's banana pudding." And this pie was born.
When my wife and I were first married, she was teaching and I was working in a restaurant. I would get home late at night, still amped up from my shift, and my wife would be asleep. I started cooking and baking then. I still remember making banana pudding, layering bananas, vanilla pudding and store-bought vanilla cookie things, then topping it with a meringue. Our apartment was really small, and I tried hard not to wake up my wife, so I took a bowl of egg whites into the bathroom and beat them into snowy piles of meringue. It was the only place I could find that probably wouldn't wake her up.
My first innovation was to make the cookies for the crust myself. I have made it with those store-bought vanilla cookie things, and it just isn't the same. Then we layered bananas in the crumb crust with a white-chocolate pastry cream. Invest the cost into a real vanilla bean. Don't buy a vanilla bean from the grocery store, where you will end up paying way too much money for a dried up and nearly tasteless bean. I get mine from Boston Vanilla Bean Company, and I've never been disappointed. Get some good white chocolate. Don't skip it because you "Don't like white chocolate." The white chocolate isn't over-powering, it's just delicious. Finally we topped it with whipped cream. This time I'll pipe the whipped cream and make it look nice. In the pie contest, this one took second place. If we had to do it again, with some more learning and experience, I bet it would take first.
This recipe will take some time. Don't skimp, don't rush it. Do take the time to bake the cookies. Trust me. It's absolutely worth pulling out all the stops.
Vanilla Wafer Cookies
1 ¼ C. + 2 Tbsp. AP flour (about 6.5 oz)¼ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
½ C. shortening
¼ C. white sugar
¼ C. light brown sugar
1 egg
¾ tsp. vanilla extract
In a small bowl, mix the flour, soda, and salt. Set aside.
Cream together the shortening, sugars, egg, and extract. By hand, stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and form it into a log an inch in diameter. Chill in the refrigerator until the dough is firm.
Pre-heat your oven to 400°.
Using a sharp knife, cut rounds of dough from the log about 1/8" thick. Place these slices on a cookie sheet, at least an inch apart. Bake 6-8 minutes, until lightly browned.
For the pie, you should bake about 20 cookies. I generally bake the cookies for the pie a little over done, because I want them to dry out a bit. The cookies that I keep to eat, I bake a little less.
Crust
8 oz cookies from above
2 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. butter flavored shortening
pinch salt
1 Tbsp. water
1 Tbsp. light corn syrup
Pre-heat your oven to 375°
Process the cookies down to fine
crumbs. I like to use a food processor for this, but you could break them up with a rolling pin, or a hammer, or whatever you have handy.
Melt together the butter, shortening, and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together the water and corn syrup.
Mix the butter mixture into the crumbs, then mix in the corn syrup mixture.
Dump the crumb mixture into a 9-inch pie pan. Press the crumbs into the bottom of the pan to form a crust, then up the sides of the pan. Bake about 8 minutes. Let cool before putting the filling into the crust.
Pastry Cream
1
vanilla bean
1 C.
whole milk
½ C.
heavy cream
⅓ C.
sugar
pinch
salt
3
Tbsp. cornstarch
5
large egg yolks
2 oz
best quality white chocolate
1 ½
bananas
Split the vanilla bean in half lengthwise with a sharp knife. Put in a small saucepan with the milk and cream, cover and bring to a simmer. As soon as it simmers, remove from the heat and let the vanilla steep for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a larger saucepan, whisk together the sugar, salt, and cornstarch. In a small bowl whisk together the egg yolks.
Remove the vanilla bean, scrape some of the black seeds from the interior of the bean back into the milk mixture, discard the bean. Bring the milk mixture back up to a simmer. Whisk the simmering milk mixture into the cornstarch mixture. Heat the milk/cornstarch mixture over medium heat, whisking constantly, until it boils. (It doesn't need to boil much. Watch for a bubble to break the surface, set a timer for minute, whisking constantly. When the timer goes off, go on to the next step.)
Carefully drip about a quarter of the milk mixture into the eggs, whisking constantly. Pour the egg/milk mixture into the saucepan with the remaining milk mixture in it, whisking constantly. Cook over medium heat until the mixture boils. (Same as above, watch for a bubble then cook another minute.)
Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl, add the white chocolate and whisk until incorporated and smooth.
Slice a layer of bananas into your pie shell, top with half of the white chocolate pastry cream. Slice another layer of bananas into the pie shell, top with the remaining pastry cream. Cover with a piece of plastic wrap, pressing the plastic wrap down on top of the custard. (If you don't do this, the custard will form a skin.)
Whipped Cream
1 C. heavy cream
2 Tbsp. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
When you're ready to serve, put the heavy cream in a bowl and whip to soft peaks. Gently stir in the sugar and the vanilla extract, then continue whipping it until you reach a consistency you're happy with. I aim for stiff peaks, because I like it to hold it's form, but not be too stiff.
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