Banoffee Pie

Sherlock is back!*  I discovered BBC's Sherlock last winter and have been impatiently waiting for series 3 for what feels like forever!  What's so great about the show?  The acting, the writing, the mysteries, the chemistry, and of course, Mr. Benedict Cumberbatch himself.  ^_^

I read in an interview that his favorite dessert is banoffee pie, so I decided to try to make one to celebrate the return of Sherlock.  I've been intrigued with this dessert ever since I first saw Juliet offer it to Mark as a sort of peace offering in Love Actually.  With a crust made from crushed digestive biscuits, the pie is filled with layers of creamy toffee, sliced bananas, and lots of whipped cream.  The dessert is British in origin, like the sticky toffee pudding I made previously, and the name comes from an amalgam of "banana" and "toffee".

I couldn't find any digestive biscuits in my local grocery store, so I used good ol' American Nilla wafers.  In a pinch, you could probably use a prepared graham cracker crust.  Some of the recipes I looked up used sweetened condensed milk boiled for hours in the can (essentially homemade dulche de leche) for the toffee layer, but if you don't have hours, you can just make a quick filling using butter, brown sugar, and sweetened condensed milk.

This dessert kind of reminds me of Benny in that it's certainly not the prettiest dessert to look at, but once you've had some, it's irresistible.  ;)

Banoffee Pie (adapted from Saveur)
makes 1 pie

2 sticks unsalted butter
11 oz. box of Nilla wafers
½ cup packed brown sugar
14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
3 or 4 bananas
1 pint heavy cream
Powdered sugar, to taste
A pinch or two of espresso powder (optional)
Grated chocolate

Melt one of the sticks of butter in a small saucepan.

Crush the wafers in a food processor until you get a fine crumb texture. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the melted butter. Press into a pie pan. Chill the crust in refrigerator for at least one hour.

Melt the other stick of butter in a small saucepan. Stir in the brown sugar and melt over low heat. Add the condensed milk and bring the mixture to a boil for a few minutes, stirring continuously.

Pour the filling into the crust. Cool and chill again for at least one hour until the caramel is firm.

Slice the bananas and place them in a single layer on top of the caramel.

Start whipping the cream.  Sprinkle in some powdered sugar until the whipped cream is barely sweet (the rest of the pie is already insanely sweet).  Whip in the espresso powder if using.

Top the bananas with the whipped cream, sealing the filling in. Sprinkle the top of the pie with grated chocolate.

*Okay, I may or may not have already watched series 3 at the same time it aired in the UK since I just couldn't wait any longer, but for the majority of Americans, it'll be starting this Sunday on PBS after Downton Abbey!

Next:  Sarah Ruth's Saucepan Brownies
Previously:  Flower Pavlovas
Last Year:  Traditional Croissants
Four Years Ago:  Kalua Pork
Five Years Ago:  Mayonnaise Shrimp with Candied Walnuts

Coconut Whipped Cream and Coconut Dulce de Leche

I've mentioned coconut whipped cream a couple of times before so I thought I'd share a quick post on how to make it.  I first heard about it on Oh She Glows, and I love the idea because it uses a non-perishable can of full-fat coconut milk instead of whipping cream, which I rarely keep on hand, which means I can have whipped cream just about any time I want.  Well, except for the fact that you do need to put the can of coconut milk in the fridge for at least a couple of hours.

 
Angela flips the can before opening it so that the solid coconut cream is on the bottom, and you can easily pour out the translucent liquid.  Since not all cans are easy to open from the bottom, I've just put the cans upside down in the fridge and then opened them right side up.  Even if you forget to do this, you can still pretty easily scoop the solid stuff out of the top of the can, leaving the liquid at the bottom.  I usually save the liquid to make smoothies out of.

 
Now put all that nice, solid coconut cream into a large bowl and beat it with a hand mixer.  It helps if you've chilled the bowl and the beaters in the fridge or freezer beforehand, but I've done it without chilling them first and it still worked out okay.  I like to start off with the regular beater attachments and then if it's not getting fluffy enough, I'll switch to the whisk attachment.

 
After it's nice and fluffy, go ahead and add some sweetener (I used a tablespoon of sugar ground fine with some cardamon seeds) and vanilla extract if you like.

 
And that's it!  I use this on my magical pumpkin spice lattes, on ice cream sundaes, and anywhere else you'd normally use whipped cream.  You can store it in the fridge for up to 10 days in a sealed container, and if it gets too hard, you can always whip it again.

Now sometimes I open a can of coconut milk and find that the cream didn't rise to the top and harden.  Instead, I get a homogenous, opaque white liquid.  You can try pouring it into a sealed container and chilling it some more to see if it'll separate, or you can make coconut dulce de leche!

 
Coconut Dulce de Leche (adapted from Bon Appétit)
makes 1 1/4 cups

1 14-oz. can full-fat coconut milk
3/4 cup turbinado sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Whisk coconut milk, sugar, and coarse salt in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat until sugar dissolves.

Increase heat to medium-high and boil until mixture is reduced to 1 1/4 cups, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes.

 
Transfer sauce to small jars. Cool completely, then cover sauce and chill.

The coconut dulce de leche kind of reminds me of kaya (coconut jam) from Southeast Asia.  I've been stirring it into my (unsweetened) magical coffee in the morning and topping it off with coconut whipped cream.

Homemade Dulce de Leche and Dulce de Leche Ice Cream

Hola! Did you miss me? Sorry for the unexpected break, but the last month has been full of exciting happenings including bumping into the cast of Glee on a flight from Chicago to New York, racing in the Boston Dragon Boat Festival with The Boat for Kids Who Don't Paddle Good, and a vacation to Argentina and Brazil.

It was down in Buenos Aires that I fell in love with dulce de leche. I used my Marriott points to stay at the Marriott Plaza Hotel, and because I'm a Gold Elite member, we got to eat breakfast in the Concierge Lounge each morning. And each morning they put out little jars of dulce de leche to spread on the pastries. It was so good, I ended up putting some in my coffee, too! I just knew I had to try to make some at home, and luckily, there is a rather easy (and safe*) method. Basically all you do is put a can (or two or three) of sweetened condensed milk in a crock pot, fill it with water, turn it on low, and let it cook for 8 hours. That's it! Obviously, you'll want to wait for the cans to come back down to room temperature before attempting to open them, or else you'll risk having hot dulce de leche squirting out of the can.

I'll admit that it doesn't taste quite as good as the real thing, but for how easy it was to make, it's pretty darn close. Now my only problem was what to do with the dulce de leche. See, while it was great spreading it all over pastries and stirring into my coffee, I don't really have pastries just sitting around at home, nor do I usually make coffee at home. So I figured I'd look for a recipe to make dulce de leche ice cream. I came across this one on Epicurious with the following description: "This is not just the best dulce de leche ice cream we've ever had, it's one of the best ice creams we've ever had, period." With a testimonial like that, how could I not try to make it?

Dulce de Leche Ice Cream with Toasted Pecans (from Epicurious)
makes about 1.5 quarts

2 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 pound dulce de leche (this ended up being a little more than 1 can of homemade dulce de leche)
1/8 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup chopped pecans (2 1/2 to 3 oz), toasted

Bring milk and cream just to a boil in a 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, then remove from heat and whisk in dulce de leche until dissolved. Whisk in vanilla and transfer to a metal bowl. Quick-chill by putting bowl in a larger bowl of ice and cold water and stirring occasionally until cold, 15 to 20 minutes.

Freeze mixture in ice cream maker until almost firm, then fold in pecans.

Transfer ice cream to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden, at least 1 hour.

To be honest, I still think the passion fruit ice cream was the best ice cream I ever made. But this one is definitely high up on the list. The addition of the toasted pecans almost made it taste like butter pecan ice cream, but with a richer, caramelized flavor. Probably the hardest part of making this was making sure the pecans didn't burn when toasting them. I almost always end up throwing out the first batch because I forget about them and soon I'm left with blackened, useless pecans. So make sure you keep a careful eye on the pecans! The added flavor from toasting them is so worth the extra effort.

*Safe because the alternative way to make this is to add a can of sweetened condensed milk to boiling water and boiling it for several hours, which could possibly lead to exploding cans. One of my friends from Taiwan used to call this, "Danger Pudding" for that reason.