He would have been 61 today. May 5th was his birthday and I remember he loved Banana Cream Pie. Today would have been Hubby’s Dad’s birthday. So I wanted to make a special Banana Cream Pie. One that he would have loved. Hubby was touched by this delicious dessert. He said from now on he will carry on the tradition and I will now make him Banana Cream Pie on his Birthday as well.
I found a recipe for a flaky pie crust and I had some sliced almonds left over for salad toppings sooooo, long story short I ground up the almonds in my food processor and then topped up the rest with flour. I think I had just over a half cup of ground almonds. It added a nice flavor to the crust.
Pete’s Banana Cream Pie
with Almond Crust & Chocolate Ganache
The Almond Crust
Ingredients:
2 1/2 C. all purpose flour, plus a bit more for rolling
(I used about 2 cups flour and 1/2 cup of ground almonds)
1 C. butter, almost frozen or very cold in small 1/2 inch cubes
1 t. salt
1 t. sugar
8 T. ice cold water
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F
In a food processor mix flour, (ground almonds) salt, & sugar
Add cold butter cubes and pulse about 8 times till it resembles coarse meal with small pieces of butter.
Add the ice cold water by the tablespoon until it starts to stick together. Don ‘t over do it. It should stick together if you squeeze it.
Dump the dough on a clean counter and flatten with the palm of your hand
Seperate in half and form to flat discs
wrap each disc in plastic wrap and chill for an hour
Remove discs from the fridge and let soften for about 10 minutes
Roll out dics on a lightly floured surface
Should be about 12 inches wide and about 1/8 inch thick
Place dough in a pie plate and pierce with a fork all over.
Freeze the pie crust before baking for about an hour, otherwise your crust will melt and slip down the sides
Bake for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown
Let cool
Chocolate Ganache
Ingredients:
1 225 gram box Baker’s Semi Sweet Chocolate chopped in 1/2 inch cubes
2/3 C. Light Half & Half
Directions:
Cubed chocolate in a bowl
Heat the cream in a double boiler so it doesn’t scald until it begins to boil
Pour boiling cream over chocolate and mix till smooth
Let stiffen
Filling:
Ingredients:
2 x 135g boxes Jello Banana Cream Pie cooked pudding mix
Directions:
I’m in the middle of reno’s so I had many things to do today so although I wanted to make my own filling, I cheated and used my back up boxed version. Bad Haleykins, spank me!
Follow directions on box. Should be 3 cups of milk per box so 6 cups of milk and pudding mix, bring to a boil while stirring, let cool stirring twice. Let cool for just a bit
3 sliced bananas
whipping cream
Now the assembly
I should say this makes 2 x 9 inch pies.
After the pie shells cool
pour half the ganache onto the bottom of one pie crust and the remaining half on the other
cover with sliced bananas
Pour half the pudding mix over top of one and the remaining on the other
Chill in the fridge for a few hours
Garnish with whipping cream and chocolate decorations made by yourself by melting a Hershey’s chocolate bar and piping onto wax paper. Let stiffen and lay on a cookie sheet and freeze. Super easy and fun.
Thanks for visiting. 🙂
Haleykins
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HALEYKINS JONES 