Mrs.Fancypants Banoffee

Yesterday, my high school classmates and our families, had a picnic at Centennial Park. Getting set-up and finding a spot was a tad challenging, but we got there in the end! It was nice to be able to catch up with friends after the lockdown restrictions have eased. More than that, it was great to be at the park where we weren’t rushed to vacate the table for the next booking, or limited by set menus, or are anxious that the other table is too close to ours. We had space, time and unlimited menu selection.

I brought a creamy chicken & macaroni salad and banoffee. The banoffee was demolished, and I received plenty of compliments and questions, and of course, recipe requests. So I thought, yeah, it passed the test! The husbands loved it, the kids loved it, the ladies loved it, so I might as well make a post about it here and find out if you would love it too!

Banoffee, as far as I know, is an English dessert. The base is a biscuit base with fresh bananas & dulce de leche topped with whipped cream. Sounds uncomplicated right? Mrs.Fancypants version, the one that was demolished at the picnic, is similar. My banoffee is no-bake and I make it in a 9 inch springform not a pie plate. The crust is made from biscuit crumbs and can be chocolate or plain. I’ve tried both and I like it either way. I made the plain crust more interesting by using brown butter instead of normal melted butter. The filling is dulce de leche, whole fresh bananas and stabilised Chantilly cream. Stabilised Chantilly cream is basically whipped cream with vanilla, icing sugar and gelatine. It holds it shape for days, and holds up against the mound of honeycomb that I pile on top. Yes, I top my banoffee with honeycomb and grated dark chocolate. Now do you understand why it was such a big hit?

Watch this video to find out what brown butter is and how to make it. Then you can move on to printing off the recipe and trying my version of banoffee. I would love to see how you went, so snap a photo, tag and use #mrsfancypants on Instagram.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeaURfNiAOc

UPDATE: I’ve now published a video on how to make honeycomb. Feel free to watch it below as well!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CJs0IkqB0QB/
 
Difficulty: Easy

Mrs.Fancypants Banoffee

Makes 1 x 23cm springform tin

Ingredients

    For the crust: Option 1: Chocolate crust
  • Option 2: Digestive biscuits
  • For the filling:
  • For the topping:

Instructions

0/17 Instructions
    Dulce de leche:
  • Line the bottom of a medium pot with a small tea towel. Place the can of condensed milk in the pot on top of the tea towel, making sure the pot is tall enough so that you can fill it up and the water will be at least 2 inches above the top of the can. You can have more than one can, but you will only need one for this recipe. You can keep the rest for frosting cakes or using as spread. The tea towel will prevent the can(s) from making rattling noises while you cook your dulce de leche.
  • Bring the water to a boil then slow it down to a simmer and cover with a lid. Make sure that the water is only simmering, it has never happened to me, but the can might explode if the water evaporates rapidly.
  • Cook the dulce de leche for 2.5 hours then let it completely cool down in the pot. Set aside.
  • Pie crust:
  • While the dulce de leche is cooking, it’s time to make the crust. Crush Oreos or digestive biscuits until it resembles sand. Add the butter and mix with a spoon until it looks like wet sand.
  • Take a 23cm springform pan and grease lightly. Then start pressing the crumbs on the base and all the way up the sides of the springform. Put in the fridge or freezer to set.
  • Make the toppings:
  • Make sure you have everything ready before starting. Line a medium rectangular baking pan with parchment paper then grease lightly.
  • In a small sauce pot stir golden syrup, water and sugar together then put on a medium flame.
  • Leave the mixture on medium heat and bring it to the boil then clip on a candy thermometer, cook until candy thermometer registers 150C, about 10 minutes.
  • Take off the heat then sprinkle bi-carb soda and use a wooden spoon incorporate the bi-carb into the mix. This will make your honeycomb bubble. Do not over mix or you will not get aeration on your honeycomb.
  • Turn over onto your prepared baking pan and let set for a few hours then you can snap or cut it into small pieces.
  • Make the stabilised whipped cream:
  • Put the water in a small cup and sprinkle powdered gelatine on top. Let stand for 5 minutes to bloom, then blast for 5-10 seconds in the microwave until the mix is liquified.
  • Start whisking your cream then add the sugar 1 tbsp at a time. Add the vanilla then slowly pour the liquid gelatine mix in. Whisk to soft peaks or stiff peaks depending on your preference. Set aside.
  • Assemble:
  • Take the crust out of the fridge and line the bottom with the bananas. No need to slice the bananas, just keep them whole and trim them so they form 1 layer.
  • Cover the bananas with all of the dulce de leche.
  • Spoon the whipped cream to cover the dulce de leche and fill up you pie. Set in the fridge.
  • To serve:
  • Just before serving, take your pie out and decorate with the honeycomb. Once you put the honeycomb on the pie, you can’t put it back in the fridge.
  • Grate some dark chocolate to fill in the gaps on top. Now your banoffee pie is ready to be served.

Notes

  1. If you don’t feel like making dulce de leche, you can get a ready-made can of top & fill by Carnation from your local store.
  2. I use gelatine to stabilise the whipped cream and this means that you don’t have to worry about the cream collapsing or being too soft. This helps the cream keep its shape for up to 2 days and also hold well against the honeycomb piled on top. However, if you are serving the pie right away, you can skip the gelatine and water and just whip the cream and sugar to stiff peaks. This should hold for a few hours.
  3. Watch the video to find out what is brown butter.

Tags

#banoffee  #pie