Homemade banana cream pie in less than fifteen minutes?
Yes, it’s possible.
And I don’t mean the kind you make with instant pudding (though that’s entirely acceptable). I mean the homemade hand whisked vanilla custard and graham cracker crust kind. Sounds completely impossible, or at least like I’m exaggerating, doesn’t it?
Well, it’s not. When you’re sixteen year old son gets home from school inspired by the pile of bananas on the counter top and asks you to make one, anything becomes possible. Plus, I’ll take any chance I can get to bond with my teen age son. Anytime there’s a “put me to the challenge” opportunity, I can’t resist the voice inside my head that mockingly says: “See if you can actually do it before you need to pick up your eight year old from the bus.” Under these circumstances, I’ve got enough adrenaline pumped into my body to do anything. Of course I had a little help from my sous chef son whom without, the banana cream pie pictured wouldn’t have been possible in fifteen minutes. So he stood over the stove whisking while I measured, separated eggs and speedily assembled the crust. We were a determined mother and son team. And. . . results? Not only did I make it up to my 8 year old’s bus, but the pie was amazing!
It was so good that I promised my middle school students we’d make individual banana cream pies next week in class.
Enjoy!
For the crust (from the back of the Honey Maid box):
1 ½ cups graham cracker crumbs
5 tablespoons melted butter
½ cup sugar
Mix all ingredients together well and then press into an 8 inch pie dish.
For the vanilla custard:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 heavy cream
5 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
1 ½ cups 2 % milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons melted butter
In a medium sized pot, over medium heat, stir together the sugar, salt, corn starch and heavy cream. Add the corn starch and begin to whisk. Add the rest of the milk, vanilla and egg yolks and whisk constantly until the mixture thickens and becomes pudding like. This will take no more than ten minutes. Turn heat off, mix in the melted butter and cool for a few minutes. Spread the mixture into the prepared pie dish over the crust.
At this point, cover the pie with plastic wrap and cool until ready to serve. When ready to serve, slice bananas over the pudding mixture and cover with a heaping amount of whipped cream.