Banana Cream Pie - The Best Crust Ever for Cream Pies

Banana cream pie is one of my lifelong favorites, enjoyed often at my Southern grandmother’s house. She made it with a regular flaky pie crust, but lately I’ve taken to making it with a slightly sweet, vanilla scented shortcrust pastry I came up with to hint at the vanilla wafers in a traditional Banana Pudding.

This pastry is going to be my go-to crust for any cream pie from now on, including Coconut Cream Pie and Chocolate Cream Pie. It rolls out beautifully and has a wonderful flavor and texture. The custard is thick and lovely, quite a nice color, no need for the yellow food coloring some people add.

This Banana Cream Pie is what the word luscious was invented for!

If I were topping the pie with meringue, I would make the custard with egg yolks and use the whites for the meringue. But since I prefer whipped cream, I make the custard with whole eggs so the whites don’t go to waste. (I really hate food waste! And I’m getting better, but not perfect, at avoiding it.)

What is your favorite pie? I’m really more of a fruit pie fan, though I’ve been on a custard pie kick lately. But I promise, I'll post something besides pie next week! 

Banana Cream Pie 

(Makes one 9-inch/23cm pie, 8 servings) 

The Pastry - Pâte Sucrée (a sweet shortcrust pastry) 

1 1/4 dip-and-sweep cups (6.25 ounces/177 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 packed cup (1 ounce/28 grams) unsifted powdered sugar 
1/4 teaspoon salt 
8 tablespoons (4 ounces/113 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, optional

The Custard

2 1/2 cups (20 fluid ounces/591 ml) milk
2/3 cup (4.67 ounces/132 grams) sugar 
1/3 dip-and-sweep cup (1.67 ounces/47 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
3 tablespoons (1.5 ounces/43 grams) unsalted butter, cold

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 tablespoon brandy or rum, optional

3 medium (about 1.5 pounds/680 grams) firm ripe bananas

The Whipped Cream

1 1/2 cups (12 fluid ounces/355 ml) heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

The Garnish

Fresh banana slices, banana chips or toasted sliced almonds

1 Add flour, powdered sugar and salt to work bowl of food processor; turn on for about 3 or 4 seconds to combine. Add chunks of butter; pulse to a crumb texture, leaving some visible chunks of butter. Add egg and vanilla extract; pulse until the dough starts clumping together. This is to be a crisp, more cookie-like crust, rather than a flaky pastry; so there's not quite the concern about over-processing. Flatten slightly into a 4- to 6-inch round disc, wrap in square of plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 to 60 minutes. Save the piece of plastic, you'll be using it again.

2 Very lightly butter a 9-inch glass pie plate; I usually just run the butter wrapper over it. On a lightly floured piece of parchment, roll out disk to a 13-inch circle about 1/8 inch thick. Place pastry in pie plate, being careful to not stretch the dough. Leave a 1-inch overhang of dough*. Crimp and flute the edge. (Sometimes you need to chill the pastry a bit before crimping.) Cover loosely with the reserved piece of plastic wrap and place in freezer for 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 425F/220C/Gas7.

* Don't throw away the scraps; they make wonderful cookies (I made 6 little 2-inch wafers, using ever scrap). Just press them out and throw them on the baking sheet next to the pie plate for the final 10 minutes of baking.

3 Fit a square of aluminum foil in the shell and fill with ceramic pie weights (baking beans). Set on a rimmed baking sheet (to catch butter drips). Bake the thoroughly chilled crust for 20 minutes, then remove the foil and pie weights, pop on the pie crust shield and bake for another 10 minutes.

Note: I use two boxes of the ceramic pie weights, and they just fit nicely into a 200-gram tea tin. If you're not a loose leaf tea drinker, though, a quart canning jar works.

4 Remove fully pre-baked pie shell from the oven; let cool completely before filling, at least 30 minutes or hours ahead, whatever suits your schedule.

5 Make filling while pie shell is cooling. In heavy-bottomed 2-quart saucier or 2- to 3-quart saucepan, heat milk just to a simmer. 

6 In 2-quart glass measure or bowl, whisk together sugar, flour and salt. Whisk in eggs until thoroughly combined. Gradually add hot milk, whisking constantly.

7 Pour mixture back into saucier and cook over medium-low heat, whisking constantly until thickened—just takes a couple minutes (well, several, but not as many as when starting with unheated milk), so don't get distracted—you don’t want scrambled eggs. (Food safety note: Any mixture with eggs should be cooked until it registers 160F/72C on instant-read thermometer.) Custard should be very thick, with the whisk leaving trails. 

8 Remove from heat. Whisk in cold butter and vanilla extract (and brandy or rum, if using) until butter is completely melted. Let cool at room temperature for 20 minutes, whisking occasionally, before pouring into pie shell. Spread 1 cup of custard across bottom of pie shell. Cut bananas into slices about 3/8 inch (1 cm) thick. Arrange the banana slices. Pour on and smooth out the remaining filling, pressing down to make sure all the spaces are filled. 

9 Cover and refrigerate pie for at least 5 hours or up to 24 hours before piping on whipped cream. Garnish with fresh banana slices, banana chips or toasted sliced almonds. I used 2 tablespoons (0.5 ounce/14 grams) sliced almonds, toasted in small dry skillet.

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Jean