Banoffee Pie

From the kitchen of Carly

Banoffee pie is the ultimate toffee indulgence: homemade dulce de leche baked low and slow until it's deep golden, layered with fresh bananas and clouds of whipped cream in a buttery crust. Pure, unapologetic sweetness.

Banoffee Pie

Banoffee pie is a three-layer celebration, and it all starts with turning a can of condensed milk into deep-golden toffee in a water bath. The bottom layer of caramel lives in a crisp pie shell, then bananas, then clouds of brown sugar whipped cream. The payoff is the texture contrast, the sweetness tempered by salt, and the fact that you can build it hours ahead and slice it at the last moment.

Prep
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Cook
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Total
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Servings
4
Difficulty
medium

Ingredients

4 servings

  • 2 cupcanned sweetened condensed milk
  • 1round of refrigerated pie dough
  • 3 largebananas
  • 1 1/2 cupchilled heavy cream
  • 1 tbsppacked light brown sugar
  • 1a 9-inch pie plate

Instructions

  1. Position the oven rack in the middle and preheat to 425°F.

  2. Pour the condensed milk into the pie plate, then stir in a generous pinch of salt. Seal the plate tightly with foil, crimping it firmly around the rim. Set the plate in a roasting pan and pour in enough boiling-hot water to reach halfway up the side of the plate, keeping the foil above the waterline. Bake for about 2 hours, topping the pan back up to halfway with water roughly every 40 minutes, until the milk transforms into a thick, deep golden caramel. Lift the pie plate out of the water bath, scrape the toffee into a bowl, and refrigerate it uncovered until completely cold, about 1 hour.

  3. While the toffee chills, wash out the pie plate and bake the piecrust in it following the package instructions. Let the crust cool completely on a rack in the pan, about 20 minutes.

  4. Spread the toffee in an even layer across the bottom of the crust and refrigerate uncovered for 15 minutes.

  5. Slice the bananas into 1/4-inch-thick rounds and pile them generously over the toffee layer.

  6. In a clean bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the cream with the brown sugar just until soft peaks form, then mound it over the top of the pie.

Tips from the kitchen

  • When refilling the water bath during the 2-hour bake, make sure the foil seal stays intact above the waterline, or condensed milk can slip in and ruin the whole thing.
  • The toffee will thicken even more as it cools, so don't panic if it looks loose when you pull it from the oven. Let it go completely cold before spreading.
  • Slice the bananas right before assembly and pile them on quickly, they oxidize and brown fast, even with the toffee barrier below.

Variations

  • Swap the whipped cream for mascarpone cream, beaten with a little honey and vanilla, for a richer finish.
  • Use dulce de leche straight from a jar instead of making toffee from condensed milk if you're short on time, though the homemade version has better depth.
  • Layer candied bacon crumbles or crushed salted toffee bits over the bananas for salt and crunch.
  • Replace bananas with thin slices of fresh figs or pears if you want to move away from the original but stay in the fruit and toffee lane.

Make ahead and storage

Store the baked crust and cooled toffee layer separately in the fridge for up to 2 days. Assemble with bananas and whipped cream no more than 2 hours before serving, or the crust will soften and the bananas will weep into the cream.