Aadhi Potoba: Banoffee Pie for 4th of July!!

Banoffee pie (also spelt as Banoffi / Banoffy), is an English dessert made with bananas, biscuits, cream and dulce de leche (read toffee, made from condensed milk).

So without further ado, let’s get started with the recipe!

Items -

24 inch cake tin with removable base

1 Rolling pin (for crushing biscuits)

1 Freezer/sturdy plastic bag (for crushing biscuits)

1 Large bowl (for mixing)

Baking parchment - cut out the same size as the cake tin base

Ingredients -

2 tins of Condensed milk (sweetened)

1-2 tubs (small) of Whipping Cream

6 Bananas

500g of Plain Digestive Biscuits (like McVities)

2/3rd stick of unsalted butter -

1-1.5 tbsp pure Cocoa powder or some dark chocolate (chilled)

Method -

Preparing the toffee -

1) Take a deep pot and fill it with water to the level where the condensed milk tins remain submerged either upright or on their side.

2) Bring the water only to the boil.

3) Place the sealed Condensed milk tins in it and continue to boil the water for 2.5 hours (if the level of the water lessens, please keep adding more water to submerge the tins).

** Please make sure that the tins remain submerged under water at all times, otherwise you'll end up cleaning the toffee off your kitchen ceiling!

4) After 2.5 hours, remove the tins and leave them aside to cool (please don't open them until cooled completely) - this takes about an hour or so...so you can prepare the toffee the night before and leave it on the kitchen counter-top.

Preparing the base -

1) Place the biscuits in the freezer/plastic bag and crush them to an almost fine powder with the rolling pin (or anything else you can get your hands on!)

2) Melt the butter.

3) Place the biscuit crumbs in the bowl and add the melted butter.

4) Mix well so that the biscuit base become moist.

5) Line the cake tin with baking parchment and pour the biscuit/butter mixture into the cake tin evenly; press well to form a base.

6) Chill in the fridge for about 20 min.

Preparing the toppings -

1) Pour the cooled toffee over the chilled biscuit base and spread it evenly across the base (you may have to stir through the toffee before pouring it onto the base to avoid clumps).

2) Chill in the fridge for about 15 min.

3) Whip the cream in a blender/by whisk until firm (make sure you don’t whip the cream too much; it shouldn’t separate!)

4) Chop bananas into 1/4 inch round slices.

5) Remove the cake base from the fridge and arrange the bananas on top.

6) Spread the whipped cream on top and spread it evenly across the base and cover all of the banana slices (else the bananas will become black).

Garnishing -

1) Either place the cocoa powder into a sieve and garnish the cake or using a knife or vegetable peeler, make some chocolate shavings and garnish the cake with that.

2) Place the cake in the fridge until ready to eat!