A traditional banana cream pie made special with an oatmeal cookie crust.
Author:Kate Wood
Prep Time:30
Cook Time:30
Total Time:1 hour
Yield:10
Ingredients
For the cookie crust
6 ounces of crunchy oatmeal cookie crumbs (I used GMommas Buddascotch Oatmeal, but another crunchy oatmeal cookie could be substituted)
1/4–1/2 teaspoon salt (depending on salt preference)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons butter, melted
For the filling
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon table salt
1 cup of heavy cream
5 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups milk (2% or whole)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons butter
2 large bananas
For the topping
1 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
To prepare the cookie crust
Preheat an oven to 350 degrees.
In a food processor or by hand, finely chop cookies/crumbs into a coarse consistency, adding the remaining crust ingredients towards the end. Mix to combine. The mixture should resemble wet, coarse sand.
Press the crust in to a standard 9″ pie plate. (There will not be enough crumbs to coat a deep dish plate)
Bake until the crust begins to firm up, about 8-10 minutes. Allow to cool.
To prepare the filling
Whisk the sugar, cornstarch, and salt together in a medium saucepan.
Whisk in the egg yolks, followed by the heavy cream and milk, until the mixture is smooth.
Over medium-low heat, bring the mixture to a simmer, whisking constantly. The mixture will slowly thicken to a loose pudding consistency. Be sure to whisk constantly while mixture thickens, otherwise you will have clumpy pudding as opposed to a uniformly smooth pudding.
Remove the pan from heat and stir the pudding through a fine mesh strainer to remove any clumps.
Return the mixture back to the pan, but off the heat, and gently stir in the butter and vanilla.
Allow mixture to cool slightly, stirring once or twice a minute, for about five minutes.
To assemble the pie
Thinly slice (about 1/8th”) a layer of bananas over the bottom of the pie crust. I used about 3/4 of a banana for this.
Spoon half of the pudding mixture on top of the banana layer.
Repeat the layering of banana slices once more, topping with the remaining pudding.
Smooth the top and place a piece of Saran wrap directly on top of the pudding. Allow to cool in the refrigerator at least for 4-5 hours, but preferably overnight.
When ready to serve, whip the remaining heavy cream with a hand or stand mixer, starting on low speed and increasing to high.
Add sugar along the way and turn the mixer off when stiff peaks have formed.
On low, stir in the vanilla until combined.
Keep pie refrigerated until ready to serve and garnish with extra banana if desired!
Notes
Cooking your filling enough is really important. You’re looking for a consistency similar to a loose pudding. It will thicken slightly as it cools, but you don’t want to quit the cooking process while the filling is still soupy.
Try to avoid over-stirring the filling after it has been cooked. This can cause it to loosen up.
Before decorating, I sliced the remaining banana slices and put them in a bath of one cup of water and the juice of half of a lemon. This will slow the browning process and allow you to decorate with bananas a little ahead of time. Note that bananas will still brown slightly given enough time.