Banoffee Pie

Below is an article about the English dessert known as Banoffee Pie: 


BANOFFEE PIE

While watching an episode of the British television series, "THE SUPERSIZERS . . .", one particular dish caught my attention for the first time - namely a dish called Banoffee Pie. The latter is a dessert pie made from bananas, cream and toffee from boiled condensed milk. The mixture is placed on either on a pastry base or one made from crumbled biscuits and butter. Some versions of the recipe also include chocolate, coffee or both. The name of the dessert is a construct from the words "banana" and "toffee" and is spelled "banofee".

The creation of Banoffee Pie is credited to Nigel Mackenzie (who passed away last year), owner of The Hungry Monk Restaurant in Jevington, East Sussex and the restaurant's chef, Ian Dowding. The pair claimed to have created the dish in 1971 or 1972 by changing an American recipe for "Blum's Coffee Toffee Pie". They created a soft toffee by boiling an unopened can of condensed milk for several hours. After trying other changes that included the addition of apple or mandarin orange, Mackenzie suggested they use banana and eventually, both realized they had made their dessert. 

The dessert proved to be so popular with The Hungry Monk's customers that Mackenzie and Dowding never took it off the restaurant's menu. Mackenzie and Dowding's recipe was published in their 1974 cookbook, "The Deeper Secrets of the Hungry Monk" and reprinted in their 1997 cookbook, "In Heaven with The Hungry Monk". Dowding has claimed that his "pet hates are biscuit crumb bases and that horrible cream in aerosols". The dessert was Margaret Thatcher's favorite dish to cook. The recipe for Banoffee Pie was adopted by many other restaurants throughout the world. In 1984, a number of supermarkets began selling it as an American pie, leading Mackenzie to offer a £10,000 prize to anyone who could disprove their claim to be the English inventors.

Below is a recipe for Banoffee Pie from the Epicurious website:


Banoffee Pie

Ingredients

2 cups canned sweetened condensed milk (21 ounces)
1 (9-inch) round of refrigerated pie dough (from 15-ounce package)
3 large bananas
1 1/2 cups chilled heavy cream
1 tablespoon packed light brown sugar
Special equipment: a 9-inch pie plate (preferably deep dish)


Preparation

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 425°F.

Pour condensed milk into pie plate and stir in a generous pinch of salt. Cover pie plate with foil and crimp foil tightly around rim. Put in a roasting pan, then add enough boiling-hot water to reach halfway up side of pie plate, making sure that foil is above water. Bake, refilling pan to halfway with water about every 40 minutes, until milk is thick and a deep golden caramel color, about 2 hours. Remove pie plate from water bath and transfer toffee to a bowl, then chill toffee, uncovered, until it is cold, about 1 hour.

While toffee is chilling, clean pie plate and bake piecrust in it according to package instructions. Cool piecrust completely in pan on a rack, about 20 minutes. Spread toffee evenly in crust, and chill, uncovered, 15 minutes.

Cut bananas into 1/4-inch-thick slices and pile over toffee.

Beat cream with brown sugar in a clean bowl with an electric mixer until it just holds soft peaks, then mound over top of pie.

Cooks' notes:
• Toffee can be chilled up to 2 days (cover after 1 hour).
• Toffee-filled crust can be chilled up to 3 hours.