Monday 4 July 2011

mini banoffi pies.....

If you have never tried banoffi pie you have no idea what you are missing, so, so good! Not only that it is easy to make too! The caramel or toffee that you use is known as dulce de leche in Ecuador which is where I first came across it, it is really good straight from the tin or if you want to be a bit more civilized, on freshly baked bread. YUM.

This is the bit that takes a long time. Take a tin of condensed milk, the ingredients should just be milk and sugar, if it has lots of other added stuff it might not work so well. If the tin has a paper label then take that off. Put the tin in a pan of water, it works bets if the tin is not resting on the bottom of the pan, I have this little steamer gadget that I got from the ¥100 shop. You don't need to cover the can but the water needs to be at least half way up the can and you need to put the lid on the saucepan. Bring the water to the boil and then let it simmer for 2 hours. DON'T LET IT BOIL DRY if you do, the can will explode, not only is that dangerous it will also make a bloody big mess! I like to set the timer for 30 minutes, that way I  can check the water level and not forget that it is still boiling! I have put the condensed milk in the microwave and cooked that way before but again you have to be careful not to burn yourself and it takes a lot more faffing around.


Second important thing LET THE CAN COOL COMPLETELY before you open it, if you don't the hot caramel will explode in your face, how do I know this? It happened to one of my best friends at uni, it took a long time for the scars to heal.
Top tip: boil several cans at once, then keep the others for a later date, if the can isn't opened it has a really long shelf life. Once the can is opened, it will be eaten before it has chance to go bad!
What you need:

(makes about 18 mini pies)
1 large banana or 2 smaller ones
1 packet of plain biscuits such as digestives
100g butter (ish)
prepared caramel/dulce de leche
whipped cream
melted chocolate or chocolate sauce

I haven't got exact measurements for you because the biscuit base depends much on the type of biscuit you use. First dump your biscuits in the blender (or a ziplock and smash them up) until you have crumbs. Melt the butter and mix into the crumb mixture, try it out, if it doesn't stick together then add some more melted butter.
Grease the cupcake tray with butter then spoon some of the mixture in, shape it using the back of a spoon. Pop it in the fridge for 10 minutes.
 Chop up the banana, you need one slice per pie.
Place a slice of banana in each mini pie case, then add a generous dollop of caramel on top. Put in the fridge until you are ready to serve them. Use a flat knife to get them out of the tin, they can be a bit tricky or maybe it is my old not-so-non-stick tray.
Usually you serve with a dollop of whipped cream and decorate with chocolate sauce but I didn't have enough cream to whip so I just poured it on. Delicious!
You will probably have too much dulce de leche/caramel do not panic! Put it in a jar and stick it in the fridge, it is lovely on toast or on ice-cream or you can use dollops of it in your zoku!

3 comments:

  1. Yum!!!! That's about a million calories just to look at!

    BTW I did a really lovely ice lolly yesterday. It was a small carton of orange juice with a big spoonful of yuzu cha blended together with a stick blender. It was a lovely yellow creamy colour and really zingy. Harry didn't like it which was fine by me! He had plain yasai juice.

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  2. Yep, Audrey and sister Mo are going to love this one. I am an American and have a silly question, what is a biscuit in this recipe? Looks like something we call graham crackers. Am I anywhere close?

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  3. lol biscuits are cookies but in British English cookies are a type of biscuit, I'm not sure what graham crackers are but it is the kind of base you would have with a cheese cake or similar dessert, home that helps! Oh yes, and that picture of Audrey with the chicken is hysterical!

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