A little Three Stooges, but yummy
Posted by: Liz | From: November 09, 2006
Real Girl was spot on:
Though, to be fair to Corie and Ryan, someone was supposed to bring cookies and there was a big ol' tossed salad. This was the first time I'd made a banana cream pie since about 7th grade, when I'm sure I mixed a package of vanilla pudding with some bananas, dumped it into a store-bought crust, threw some cool whip on top and called it a day. Oh, how my culinary snobishness has grown. Actually, I don't have anything against store-bought crusts, but I thought for cooking club, I should roll out the real thing. I got the recipe from my bible, The New Best Recipe by those Cooks Illustrated people who know everything about everything. I should warn you before you make this, that it is a bit of a time consuming recipe. All told, I had to spend three nights on it to get everything done. There are all these fussy steps about making sure everything is the right temperature because of little scientific facts about frozen gluten strands and browned bananas and all that. But it turns out, if you follow the recipe verbatim, you get one luscious pie with a crisp crust, thick vanilla/banana filling, and golden bananas.
Crust!
1 1/4 C. flour
1/2 t. salt
1 T. sugar
3 T. vegetable shortening, chilled
4 T. cold butter, cut into bits
4-5 T. ice water
1/2 C. graham cracker crumbs
Mix flour, salt, and sugar in food processor until combined. Add shortening and process until the mixture has the texture of course sand, about 10 seconds. Scatter the butter pieces over the flour mixture; pulse for one second bursts, about 10 times. There shouldn't be any pieces bigger than a pea. Turn mixture into a medium bowl and sprinkle 4 T. of ice water over the mixture. Using a rubber spatula, use a folding motion to mix. Add an additional T. of water if needed just until it comes together. Flatten into a 4-inch disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for an hour or so.
Sprinkle the work surface with some graham cracker crumbs and roll out dough , using more crumbs on top so dough is entirely coated. This will keep the crust from getting soggy! Genius! Roll dough into pie dish and make a fancy edging if you want. Technique like so. Refrigerate about 40 minutes, then freeze for about 20 minutes (gluten strands!).
Line the crust with foil and weigh down with beans, rice, or pie weights to keep the crust from bubbling up. Bake in a 375-degree oven for about 25 minutes. Remove foil and weights and cook an additional 5-6 minutes until golden.
Filling!
1/2 C. plus 2 T. granulated sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/8 t. salt
5 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
2 C. whole milk
1/2 C. evaporated milk
1/2 vanilla bean, about 3 inches long, split lengthwise (you can substitute extract here, but you'll miss out on the little seeds in the filling and a super rich flavor. I really recommend going for the real bean here)
2 T. butter
1-2 t. brandy (I'm pretty sure the brandy my dad pulled out of the liquor cabinet is older than me. I don't know how necessary this ingredient is. I only used a teaspoon, so I wouldn't go out and buy a bunch of brandy only for this recipe.)
2 medium bananas
Whisk sugar, cornstarch and salt in medium saucepan. Add yolks, then immediately but gradually whisk in milk and evaporated milk. Drop in the vanilla bean. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently at first, and then constantly as mixture starts to thicken and begins to simmer, 8-10 minutes. Once mixture simmers, continue to cook, stirring constantly for 1 minute longer. Remove pan from heat; whisk in brandy and butter. Remove vanilla bean, scrape out seeds, whisk them back into filling.
Pour filling into shallow pan (another pie pan works well). Put plastic wrap directly on surface to prevent a skin from forming; cool on the counter until warm, about 30 minutes. (At this point, you can put your palm on the covered surface and jiggle it around a little...it feels weeeird. Like some hot liposuctioned fat. Or something equally appealing.) Do not let it get cold! That will result in lumps and grossness. Hot will brown your bananas. Warm is the key here. Pour 1/2 of the warm filling into pie shell, slice the bananas over filling, then top with second half of filling. Once again, place sheet of plastic wrap directly on surface. Refrigerate until completely chilled, at least 3 hours.
Topping!
1 C. chilled heavy cream
2 T. sugar
1 t. vanilla extract
Whip that shit up. I might have used 3 T of sugar. Top pie with cream. I decorated with some white chocolate curls, but you can bring your fancy any way you like it.
Um, when are you sending me a slice? I gots no tiiime for baking that biznass.
Posted by: Krista at November 10, 2006 12:45 PM
Whoa. I am so impossibly jealous of your pie. Beth Martin and I were discussing Thanksgiving plans and pies and such and I said something about how I'd take a good old banana cream over pecan any day... Beth suggested a peanut butter pie and I'd never heard of that--is there a recipe for one of those in your new cookbook?
Posted by: ahe at November 10, 2006 11:45 PM
I love that you make reference to the Three Stooges in the title!
I'm glad you ate it instead of throwing it.
What an incredible amount of work and catering to the whims of gluten strands!
Posted by: Rozanne at November 11, 2006 12:59 PM
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I was all--yay! I got it!--until I realized that Liz and all her baked goods are so very far away now. That pie looks soooooooooo good.
Posted by: Real Girl at November 9, 2006 10:46 PM