Monday, 22 July 2013

Messy Salted Banoffee Pie And A Giveaway!


Never attempt homemade chocolate curls in 30 degree heat. Please.

Never expect a banoffee pie filling to firm up in 30 degree heat. Pretty please. Even in the freezer. 


Never EVER add an extra half tin of dulce de lech to a pie, its not clever, don’t do it, I beg you!

If you should follow any advice from this pathetic, egocentric, conceited baker let it be this: always stick to the recipe, especially if it gave birth in Leith’s kitchen.

Of course, there has to be some leeway. After all, that chocolate was never gonna set whilst the walls were sweating. In this case: make super simple chocolate shards, all it takes is some hand action to create sharp spikes of chocolatey goodness.


Something else I learned: don’t even bother photographing this conjealed bananery mess, you’ll end up with filling on the floor (if you over filled the pie that is) and limp chocolate shards in half an hour.

It was in my favour that this pie was gobbled up by my aunts, uncles and cousins after a mouthwatering Mediterranean inspired barbeque, in the garden, at 11pm, in complete darkness.


Lets skip to the fun part. Leiths School of Food and Wine was kind enough to send me over 2 copies of their esteemed Baking Bible, one for me and one for you!  

Seriously guys, its not called a bible for nothin’. 

This thing covers every angle within the broad spectrum of baking, it’s thick and full of knowledge, tarts, breads, Pecan Tassies, Raspberry Rugelach, chocolate almond squares (yum!) and a digestive encrusted banoffee pie…

That’s just a tiny taster of what entails within the bible of all bibles.  Obviously, the recipes are no fail, you only have to take one look at my overflowing pie to know that I got greedy and had a tin of dulce lying around.

As a way of saying THANK YOUUUUU to my readers, for every comment written, every recipe made, I am giving away one copy of Leiths Baking Bible. The giveaway ends on 5 August, you can enter as many times as you like & the winner will be selected randomly via Rafflecopter and then contacted by email as soon as you can say 'pie'.



The giveaway is open to UK residents only (sorry!), if you wana get your hands on ‘The best friend you can have in the kitchen’ according to ol’ Nigel Slater, enter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
The Recipe: Banoffee Pie by Leiths Baking Bible (with my alterations in red)







For the crust:

170g digestive biscuits (185g)
85, unsalted butter, melted
1 tbsp caster sugar
For the filling:
115g butter
115g light muscovado sugar
400g tin sweetened condensed milk (+ half a tin of Dulce De Lech - although I strongly advice against this moronic decision for obvious reasons!)
1 tsp sea salt
1 large banana, sliced (pulverised in a hand blender) 
1 tsp lemon juice
For the topping:
200g dark chocolate
150ml double cream (300ml)
1 tbsp icing sugar (omitted)
Half tsp vanilla essence (omitted)

Note: Blend the banana if you're not too keen on large chunks of bananas in the pie. Blending will add subtle notes of banana flavour evenly throughout the filling instead of big hits of banana every now and again. 

The Method:

For the crust, place the digestive biscuits in a food processor and blitz to make fine crumbs. Gently pour in the melted butter and sugar whilst still blitzing. Press into a 23cm | 9 inch pastry case. Chill for 10 minutes. 

Heat the oven to 200 degree C | 400 F. 

Bake the crumb crust for 10 minutes or until browned. 

For the filling, place the butter, sugar and condensed milk into a saucepan over a low heat and warm until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves. 

Turn the heat up to boil the mixture, stirring until it becomes a golden caramel. Dip the base of the pan into a sink of cold water to stop the cooking. Remove from the water and leave to cool. Stir in the sea salt. 

Melt the chocolate in a banmarie. Spread 2 tbsp of chocolate over the pastry base then leave the remaining chocolate to cool until it slightly thickens. Spread into a thin-ish layer over parchment paper. For chocolate curls, let it stand until nearly set, then scrape a thin sharp knife through the chocolate at a 45 degree angle to produce long curls. For chocolate shards, place the chocolate in the freezer for 20 minutes. Using your hands, crack the chocolate into long and small shards, leave in the freezer until needed. 

Toss the banana with the lemon juice then stir the sliced banana into the caramel mixture. Alternatively, hand blend the banana and lemon until smooth and fold into the caramel mixture, along with the half tin of dulce de lech (for an overlowing pie). Spread into the pastry case. Chill (freeze) until set. 

For the topping, whip the cream  with the icing sugar + vanilla (if using) until medium peaks form. Pile on top of the pie and decorate with chocolate curls/shards. 

So. Many. Pictures! 

Love Em xx

I am really sorry but all comments for this post have been lost in Blogger's system/archive/brain somewhere and I cant retrieve them! Please forgive me x

No comments:

Post a Comment

Template by Pink + Lola