Banoffee Pie: An Indulgent No-Bake Dessert
A crunchy base, sticky caramel, soft banana and unctuous cream makes this banoffee pie a very indulgent recipe. It’s a highly popular dessert and is bound to please most, if not everyone, that tries it. Although there are a few steps involved, there’s no baking required, so it’s particularly good for the summer months.
The month has galloped away from me – again. Luckily, I realised just in time that I needed to get on with my Random Recipe for Dom at Belleau Kitchen. This month he tasked us with picking a book using our birthday date. OK that bit was easy. It’s number eight for me.
But where to start? My books are scattered all over the house. Not so randomly perhaps, I started with a shelf of baking books. No. 8 got me Eric Lanlard’s Home Bake. As CT wasn’t around, I used a random number generator to give me the page 191.
I took a tentative peek. You just never know what you might get. I was neither relieved nor horrified. Bananas are not a favourite fruit in this household, although we’re not averse to a good banana cake and what I’d got was banoffee pie.
What Is Banoffee Pie?
Banoffee pie is a layered no-bake dessert. It has a biscuit base with a toffee-like layer of dulce de leche or caramel. Sliced bananas sit on top of the caramel and finally the whole thing is topped with whipped cream. It’s a relatively recent invention. And it’s an English one. The name banoffee is a combination of banana and toffee.
You might expect a no-bake dessert pie to come from the United States, but you’d be wrong. Nigel Mackenzie, owner of the The Hungry Monk Restaurant in East Sussex and his chef, Ian Dowding created it in 1971. The dish was so popular with customers that they had to keep it as a permanent fixture on the menu.
A foot note to the origins of this now famous no-bake dessert. The original recipe had a baked pie crust and not a biscuit one.
Banoffee is so well known as a word now that people use it to describe anything that smells or tastes like a combination of banana and toffee. Which is why I also have a recipe for banoffee shortcake.
Banoffee Pie
Well okay, at least this wasn’t going to be difficult – phew! I’ve not had banoffee pie in many a year and I’ve certainly never made one. So time to see what I think of it these days.
I followed Eric’s recipe, more or less. However I only used two ripe bananas rather than the three under ripe ones stated. And I used a lot less cream. Five hundred millilitres seemed rather excessive. Oh! And I added some chocolate chips, although only to sprinkle over the top.
Chocolate makes so many things better and it certainly worked atop this banoffee pie.
The crunchy base, sticky caramel, soft banana and unctuous cream made for an indulgent dessert. It was very sweet, but I still managed to consume my first slice very happily.
Later in the day, I happily consumed a second slice too. The bananas gave a nice flavour, but didn’t overwhelm and their texture was hidden by the other ingredients.
Using chocolate hobnobs is a good way of incorporating chocolate to create a particularly toothsome base. Even CT with his avowed banana aversion struggled manfully and scoffed several slices. It actually lasted us a few days, so kept us off the chocolate bars.
Banoffee Pie: Top Tips
It’s fine to swap the chocolate hobnobs for chocolate digestives if you prefer or graham crackers if you’re in the US. You don’t have to use chocolate biscuits at all, but they do add a nice touch.
Don’t be tempted to take a break when you’re stirring the caramel. I did and the mixture caught, creating unintended bits of hard caramel to the mix. It’s meant to be soft and unctuous rather than chewy.
If you’re making our banoffee pie in one go, it’s best to cool the caramel layer in the fridge whilst you whip the cream and slice the bananas. Otherwise, just leave in a cool place to set and add the cream and bananas just before you’re ready to serve.
For a freestanding banoffee pie, swap the flan dish for a tin with a removable base.
Other No Bake Pies You Might Like
- Bailey’s chocolate banana pie
- Chocolate cashew pie
- Chocolate key lime pie
- Coconut cream pie
- Lime chocolate cheesecake surprise
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this banoffee pie, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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Choclette x
Banoffee Pie – The Recipe
Banoffee Pie
Ingredients
Biscuit Base
- 75 g unsalted butter
- 300 g plain chocolate hobnobs can use chocolate digestives
Toffee Layer
- 100 g unsalted butter
- 100 g dark brown sugar
- 397 g condensed milk (1 standard-sized tin)
Topping
- 300 ml whipping cream can use double cream
- 2 large ripe bananas
- 1 tbsp dark chocolate chips or sprinkles
Instructions
Biscuit Base
- Butter a 23 cm (9 inch) flan dish.
- Melt the butter in a pan over a low heat.75 g unsalted butter
- Place the biscuits in a large bowl then bash them into crumbs with the end of a rolling pin. Or use a food processor to do it instead.300 g plain chocolate hobnobs
- Pour in the butter and mix well.
- Press the crumbs into the base and around the sides of the dish with the back of a metal spoon.
Toffee Layer
- Melt the butter in the same pan you used earlier.100 g unsalted butter
- Keeping the pan on the heat, add the sugar and stir until incorporated.100 g dark brown sugar
- Add the condensed milk and stir.397 g condensed milk
- Continue to stir whilst slowly bringing the mixture to the boil. The stirring is crucial here as you don’t want the mixture to catch and burn.
- As soon as the mixture comes to the boil, remove from the heat and pour it onto the biscuit base.
- Leave to cool and set. If you’re in a hurry, place it in the fridge.
Topping
- Whip the cream until it peaks, but isn’t too stiff.300 ml whipping cream
- Slice the bananas and lay over the cooled caramel.2 large ripe bananas
- Spoon or pipe the cream over the top of the bananas.
- Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top.1 tbsp dark chocolate chips
Wow delicious.. looks super tempting.. Thanks for linking this is to my event..
I’ve bookmarked this one Choclette. I love Banoffee Pies but I’ve never tried to prepare it at home. Now it’s the time.
Go for it Rita 🙂
I’ve never made this but it is a favorite when we go out to eat. Yours looks delicious!
Thank you Stacy 🙂
Banoffee pie is fantastic! There’s something just so perfect about the bananas and caramel, and the ever so slightly salty biscuit base. This looks really lovely – yum!
Thanks Ruth, I think this has won me over 🙂
Now this deserves a WOW! This banoffee pie looks so heavenly & tempting with chocolate! Ya, agreed with Ros, I can eat the whole pie too. This is making me hungry! LOL
Well I now know what to make when you lot come for supper 😀
I love banoffee pie! This looks delicious particularly with your chocolate hob nobs (great idea!) – I’d happily scoff most of your pie 🙂
If only I’d known Ros, I’d have left you a slice or two 😉
Yummy! I need to bookmark this and make it sometime. I love bananas. I love pie.
Also, I just started a new roundup on my blog called Pantry Party. I hope you’ll join us!
http://lawstudentscookbook.wordpress.com/2012/11/27/introducing-pantry-party/
I’m not an expert on banoffee pie, but this seemed like a good one.
Bannoffee pie has a very special place in my heart. I know it’s super sweet but it’s *so* good – could probably eat that whole dish there 🙂
Haha, over the space of a week maybe 😉
Oh dear, this will make me sound like a real killjoy, but I can’t find it in my heart to love banoffee pie. I’m not sure why – I love cream and caramel and bananas, but the three of them together? No thanks. Funny, isn’t it? Chele’s comment about the topless pie did make me laugh though (and I agree, it looks amazing). Go on then, I’ll have a piece…
Well Lucy, I must say my heart sank a bit when I got this one, but I’m glad I did it because I liked it a whole heap more than I thought I would.
I have been living in England for long time and never tried banoffee pie yet! I am intrigued to try making this one! Looks gorgeous!
It’s certainly worth trying Alida – once at least 😉
A absolutely love this dessert and first tried it 23 years ago where they invented it at The Hungry Monk in Jevington. I simply had to buy their recipe book where it tells you to boil a tin of condensed milk for about 6 hours and not to let the pan boil dry (unless you want an explosion). I have never made one and maybe this Christmas would be a good time to do so – thank you for posting your version, it’s so much easier now that Dulce de Leche exists!
Now that is something I didn’t know Camilla – you are a true pioneer.
Banoffee pie never disappoints – I think it’s a great example of something being so much more than the sum of its parts. Yours looks great.
Thanks CC – I was slightly dubious about the combination, but it was good – phew!
Oooh, yum, I love banoffee pie – it’s been years since I had it. My mum used to make a complete cheats version by buying a pastry case (don’t know why because she can make perfectly good pastry), using a tin of carnation caramel and then slicing banana on top followed by whipped cream. It was good, but your homemade version sounds even better!
Thanks Caroline. You did well, I never had such a treat as banoffee pie when I was young, but I suspect it hadn’t been invented then ……..
This recipe looks so good, as do the photos! I think if it was me making this, I would of ate it all before I got round to putting the cream on!
Bella x
Thanks Bella, the toffee bit was so sweet, it really needed the cream to tone it down!
I love your step by step approach blog post to random recipes this month. I think I even held my breath a little waiting for the recipe… I always think you’re going to hate me every time! But I must say… Banoffee pie is one of my faves but like you I haven’t had it in ages and have never made it. It would make a great ice cream methinks… Lovely entry to random recipes. Thank you x
I only hate you every other time Dom! Banoffee ice-cream is a brilliant idea, banana ice-cream with bits of biscuit and toffee. I’m going to have to try that out sometime – maybe when the weather is a bit warmer.
It does look lovely, even though I always fmd it overly sweet, but I do like bananas so not too and at all! Glad if kept you and CT off the chocolate bars! Karen
Yes, I’m with you on the sweetness thing Karen, any chocolate bars we eat are way way healthier 😉
You have picked one of my all time childhood faves here. In fact, I still love it and given the chance I would make it on a regular basis. If I did though, I would eat way too much of it. The caramel layer pre-dates the dulce de leche which is so popular now. Chocolate hob nob base is so good. I am surprised they feature in a book by Eric Lanlard. Just shows you how many good things we have here that the French have succumbed to using!
That made me laugh Laura, this is definitely not something to eat too much of, certainly not on a regular basis. And yes, the French have cracked some things, but when it comes to puds, we have loads to teach them.
Looks tempting! Must admit, have only a few times had banoffee pie (somehow banana puts me off) but this does look seriously good.
Don’t let the banana put you off, I wrinkled my nose when I found out what I was going to make, but I found the banana was fine in amongst all that biscuit, caramel and cream.
Looks luscious and I love the chocolate decoration on top. Nothing quite beats a bannoffe pie. Pertect pud x
Thanks Miss C 🙂
Looks fabulous and very indulgant. You are good to stick to what comes up randomly. Not had banoffee pie for years
Thanks Katie, indulgent it most certainly was. Sometimes the temptation to cheat is quite strong, but I’ve managed to hold back so far :-S
Why is it I never have bananas in the house when I need them. That looks really delicious. You were randonly lucky with that … at least I would.
Thanks Chris, no emergency stock of bananas? I was lucky, I do worry sometimes just what I might be landed with for RR. We’re not banana fans, but we both liked this one.
I do love a banoffee pie! They’ve fallen out of favour a bit.
You’re right, you used to see them everywhere.
Great random recipe, you couldn’t have picked better 🙂
You’re right Jac, it was a good one to do and made me realise I quite like homemade banoffee pie 😉
This banoffee pie looks very rich and creamy. I baked the banoffee cheesecake earlier this week for my guys.
Your cheesecake looks scrumptious Galina
Now that is a mega Banoffee Pie. Its looks a real stunner and I love that photo of it ‘topless’ (i.e. before the cream goes on. Total food porn!!
What are you like Chele?