Bannoffee Ice Cream Pie
Bannoffee pie is one of the great British exports, along with TK and my husband.
With all due respect to my very sweet husband, typical Bannoffee pie is even sweeter. In fact, for a country famous for reserved sensibilities, bannoffee pie—with its cookie crust, layers of caramel (aka ‘toffee’), bananas and piles of whipped cream—is the manic, in-your-face, strap-in-for-the-sugar-rush outlier.
Which is why I decided to tone it down, rearrange things and make it more obscene, but in a good way. You know: Americanize it.
For one, my bannoffee is an ice cream pie. The graham cracker crust is lined in salted dark chocolate to provide some much-needed contrast from all the sweeeeeeet, then filled with caramel ice cream (i used Haagen Dazs’ dulce de leche), topped with thinly sliced bananas and caramel sauce. Plus a wee bit of whipped cream to gussy it up.
My brother Paul would recommend Van Leeuwen’s salted caramel ice cream in place of the Haagen Dazs. Graeter’s has a nice salted caramel too. And the Graeter’s has their world famous gigantic chocolate chunks in it. If you go with salted ice cream, then choose an unsalted dark chocolate to line the crust.
Also: This is meant to be a simple, last-minute style recipe. You can buy all the elements from the crust (although I prefer the thicker one I make myself) to the caramel sauce (I splurged and used Stonewall Kitchens dulce de leche sauce. Heck, you can buy whipped cream in a can. No judgements. Enjoy yourself.
Bannoffee Ice Cream Pie
For the crust:
6 ounces graham crackers
5 tablespoons (2. 5 ounces; 85 grams) unsalted butter, softened and cut into cubes
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
For the pie:
6 ounces dark chocolate with sea salt (I used Lindt’s)
1 1/2 tablespoons shortening/neutral oil/coconut oil
2 pints caramel or dulce de leche ice cream
2 medium to large bananas
12 ounces good-quality caramel sauce or dulce de leche
whipped cream for decoration
How to Make the Pie Crust:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Put the graham crackers in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the crackers are finely ground.
Into the bowl, add the butter, sugar and salt. Pulse until the mixture is well-blended and will hold its shape when squeezed between your fingers.
(If you don’t have a food processor, just put the graham crackers in a zipper-top bag and bash the daylights out of it. Pour the mixture into a bowl, add the other ingredients until blended so it holds a shape.)
Pour the crust mixture into a 9-inch pie pan. Spread the crumbs evenly around the pan and up the sides. Press into place. You can also use the bottom of a measuring cup or glass to firm up the crust.
Bake the crust until slightly darkened, 15 to 20 minutes. Let cool on a rack.
How to Assemble the Pie
Melt the chocolate in the microwave or a double boiler. Add the shortening/oil and stir to combine. (This will make the chocolate stay softer in the freezer and make it easier to cut the pie into slices.) Pour the liquid chocolate into the cooled crust and gently spread around to coat the insides of the crust. Let set.
When the chocolate has set, soften the pints of ice cream (I give them each a 15-second blast in the microwave). Using a spoon, scoop a generous portion of the ice cream into your mouth while no one is looking. (Oh, c’mon! Like you weren’t going to do this. Who among us can resist softened ice cream?) Empty what remains of both pints into the crust and spread evenly. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze.
When the ice cream has re-frozen, peel and slice the bananas into 1/8” slices. Remove the pie from the freezer and working quickly, spread the bananas in a single layer on top of the ice cream. (Feel free to add more bananas if you wish, they freeze up creamy and delicious.) Drizzle the caramel over the top and carefully spread it over the top of the bananas, trying not to disturb the bananas too much. If you’re not ready to serve, wrap in plastic wrap. Before serving, decorate with whipped cream, banana chips, chocolate shavings…whatever inspires you.
To serve: Dip a knife into hot water and dry. Then slice the pie. Repeat the hot water trick between each slice.
