No-Bake Banana Toffee (Banoffee) Pie

Pie or pudding, whatever you call it, this banana toffee (banoffee) pie is very close in taste to the famous banana pudding they sell by the buckets (not literally) in Magnolia Bakery. Although they use vanilla wafers and pudding in their dessert, this one tasted amazingly similar.

So anyway, let me start by apologising to you for shoving this sinfully indulgent pudding / pie in your face so soon after your new year resolutions took effect. This is our challenge for this month's A Sweet Punch and I must say the real challenge was not finishing it all off in one sitting.

You need 5 ingredients for this pie. There's no need for baking and it all comes together in 5 mins if you have all the ingredients in hand! Dulce de Leche is important so if you live in a place where you can't buy any, please make some. You can do this ahead of time.

No-Bake Banana Toffee (Banoffee) Pie
Makes a 7" pie
Serves 4
Adapted from Swapna's Cuisine

Ingredients:
8 graham crackers / digestive biscuits / marie biscuits
1 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup dulce de leche
1 ripe banana
1/2 cup whipping cream
A piece of chocolate (optional)

How I Made It:

1. Pulse the biscuits with the melted butter until they form crumbs. Press this to the bottom of a pie dish firmly. You can make it in a 160C oven for 10 mins but this step is optional.

2. Layer the dulce de leche over the biscuit base evenly. If you are using dulce de leche from out of the fridge, warm it gently in a microwave until loose and then spread. Don't heat it, just warm.

3. Next, cut the banana into discs and layer over this. My banana was a bit over-ripe, so ignore the black portions.

4. Transfer the whipping cream into a bowl and beat until thick. Be patient, it takes about 3-4 mins for the cream to thicken.

5. Layer this over the bananas and spread evenly.

6. Optionally, you can sprinkle some cocoa powder or add some grated chocolate over the cream layer. I used one piece of Valrhona chocolate with 70% cacao. (Sidenote: if you own a microplane, grate chocolate with it and fall in love all over again!)

That's it! Your banoffee pie is ready.

It's a super easy and delicious dessert for large parties because it comes together in a jiffy and you can refrigerate it until it's time to serve dessert. Non-fussy and easy!

Notes:

- If you plan to store this in the refrigerator for a couple of days, make sure your banana is not too ripe. Otherwise, it will continue to ripen and taste weird in the pie when you serve it. You can store this in the refrigerator for up to 3 days if it lasts that long!

- Use the quantities of ingredients as a guide only. You can adjust them according to taste. I have used lesser cream than what the pie usually calls for because to me cream is just tasteless calories! Also, my version has more dulce de leche - because that's delicious calories ;)

PS: Special thanks to Sharmi for the lovely linen pieces she gave me. The one I've used in the pics above are from her. If not for her, you would have been subjected to a picture of the bowl over my cutting board ;)

PPS: I have OCD about the different lighting tones in my pics above but sadly, my kitchen has very little natural light so there's no other way for me to take and post step by step recipes and I'd rather post the steps than omit them because the pics are not nice. Bear with me, won't you?