"banoffi pie"
Hi, I'm a chef at the Hungry Monk where this pud was invented. The recipe is on our website "HungryMonk.co.uk", but as I make and serve 2 or 3 of these on a Saturday night I'll tell you how we do it.
First of all, we boil our toffee for 5 hours. You might not need to do it for so long because obviously we're cooking lots of tins at the same time. If I was just cooking a couple at home I would probably opt for 4 hours - but do be careful, if you let the pan boil dry you could get exploding tins, not nice at all, and I have seen it happen.
Ok, so we have our toffee nicely cooled down. On to the pastry base.
You need a fairly strong, crisp pastry. We use 12 oz of plain flour and a packet of butter. Whizz these in a food processor and when it looks like coarse breadcrumbs add 2 eggs. Whizz again until it starts to come together. Wrap this in cling film and refrigerate for at least half an hour.
Roll out your pastry and line a large flan dish. Prick the bottom of the pastry and put it back in the fridge for another half an hour to rest.
Blind bake the pastry case. Use tin foil and baking beans or dried beans. How long this will take will depend on your oven (ours are much hotter than domestic ovens), but you'll know its nearly there when you can smell it cooking. When you think its done remove the foil and beans and put it at the bottom of the oven to dry out. When cooked it should be golden and crisp and will have shrunk a little so that it will move in the dish when you shake it. If it doesn't move put it back in the oven for a little.
Carefully spread 2 tins of the toffee on the pastry base. You're less likely to break the pastry base if you warm the toffee first. I just put it in a warm place int he kitchen for a while. Slice about 6 good size bananas lengthwise and arrange them in a circular pattern covering the toffee.
Now for the cream. You'll need a good pint and a half of fresh double cream (note, not whipping cream or long life cream) for a 10 inch pie dish. Start with a teaspoonful of instant coffee in your bowl and add a tiny bit of boiling water to dissolve it, then pour on your cream and whisk it. Now this is where it sometimes goes horribly wrong! There's nothing worse than sloppy cream running everywhere or overwhipped cream.
Think "Mr Whippy" ice cream. Thats the consistency you're aiming for, and when you are there and its holding shape just as if its come out of the ice cream machine, just give it a couple more whisks. Spread the cream, completely covering the bananas, and don't smooth it down too much, it looks so much nicer in swirls. Its also possible to overwhip it if you fiddle too much spreading it about.
The final touch is a pinch or two of fresh ground coffee sprinkled over the top. If you're eating it straight away just enjoy it. If you need to keep it for a few hours make a cartouche (a greaseproof paper disc) to cover the top and stop the cream from going brown) then wrap in cling film and regridgerate.
Make this and you'll be able to tell everyone that this is the original "Hungry Monk" Banoffi Pie!
Good luck.
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