Banoffi Pie - British Pudding Day - 9th November 2014

Until recently I always thought Banoffi  Pie was an American dessert but it was actually invented by Nigel Mackenzie and Ian Dowding at The Hungry Monk restaurant in East Sussex in 1971 after a trip to Ians sisters where she demonstrated that you could create soft toffee by boiling condensed milk. Nigel and Ian thought this would go down a treat with some bananas and cream, tweaked a coffee flavoured cream pie and Voila! Banoffi Pie was invented.

Celebrate British Pudding Day with an original Banoffi Pie

After several supermarkets began to sell the banoffi pie as an American dessert, Nigel Mackenzie offered a £10,000 reward to anyone who could find a recipe pre dating 1971 for the banoffi pie to prove it's origins and there were no successful claims!

Here is the original Banoffi recipe by Ian Dowding as found on his website. We thought it would be a perfect dessert to celebrate British Pudding Day on the 9th November - iandowding.co.uk

To make the toffee:

Large Casserole - £36.00

1. Find a deep saucepan or casserole that will go in the oven.
2. Put into it as many tins of condensed milk as will fit (THE TINS MUST BE UNOPENED). It's worth doing several at a time to save on power. (You need 1.5 cans for the recipe below).
3. Cover the tins with water and bring to the boil.
4. Cover with a lid and transfer to the oven set to gas mark 1 / 140ºC (less for fan assisted)
5. Cook for 3.5 hours.

This way there is no danger of the water boiling dry and being in a more controlled temperature you get a more consistent result. Lift the cans from the water, cool and store.

Fluted Flan Tin - £9.98

For the base:

Ingredients:
250g / 9 oz plain flour
25g / 1oz icing sugar
125g / 4.5oz butter
1 egg & 1 egg yolk

Baking Beans - £3.98

Method:

1. Place the flour and sugar in a bowl, cut the butter into cubes and then rub it in the flour / sugar until it resembles fine bread crumbs.
2. Work in the egg to form a paste.
3. Chill for half an hour and then roll out to the thickness of a pound coin and line the flat tin.
4. Prick the base, line with parchment paper and weigh down with dry beans.
5. Cook for fifteen minutes then remove the beans and paper.
6. Put the pastry case back into the oven and cook until it is evenly golden.
7. Remove from the oven and cool.

For the topping:

Dualit Whisk - £48.75

Ingredients:
1.5 tins of banoffi toffee
5-6 ripe bananas
425ml / 0.75 pint of double cream
1 teaspoon of instant coffee
1 dessert spoon of caster sugar
A pinch of ground coffee


Method:
1. Carefully spread the toffee over the pastry base.
2. Peel and split the bananas lengthways and arrange them on top of the toffee, (see how they fit the curve of the pastry - that's why God made bananas curved).
3, Whip the cream with the instant coffee (if they are granules they will dissolve as you whip the cream) and the sugar until it just holds it's shape - take care not to over whip it.
4. Spread the cream over the bananas right up to the pastry edge then sprinkle sparingly with the ground coffee.
5. If you are not serving it immediately cover first with some baking parchment or greaseproof paper directly onto the cream and trim the edges then wrap in cling film. It does not lend itself to being frozen.

Equipment:
Large saucepan with lid or casserole - suitable to use in the oven
Kitchen scales
Mixing bowl
Rolling pin
Parchment paper
Baking beans
10" / 25cm deep fluted flan tin
Chopping board and knife
Hand whisk or electric whisk