Mother in Law's Birthday!


On Sunday I went to my mother in law's house for dinner. It was her birthday, but she insists to cook! So, I decided to make her a cake. I thought about making something a bit different, a banana cream pie. This is the first time I made a banana cream pie so I was a little scared that it was not going to turn out right. I used a recipe from Elinor Klivans "The Essential chocolate Chip Cookbook". The recipe seemed pretty straight forward since it used a graham cracker crust. The one hard thing about it was the cream custard filling. I had to make the filling twice, the first time it turned out I had the temperature too high and made scrambled eggs! The second, I was more careful and had the stove on lower and took the filling off faster. Although, the picture does not do the pie justice, because it was very good! Here is the recipe:
Crust and topping:
2 1/4 cups of grahm cracker crumbs
2 tablespoons of sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 cup of melted butter
1 cup of semisweet chocolate chips (mini)
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Filling
1 1/4 cups whole milk
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons unbleached flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

whipped cream topping:
1 cup cold heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon powered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 bananas sliced about 1/4 inch thick

Make the crust:
preheat oven to 325
butter a 9 inch pie pan and baking sheet
In large bowl: mix graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and cinnamon. Mix melted butter until crumbs are evenly moistened. Add mini chocolate chips
In the pie pan, evenly press 2 1/4 cups of the mixture. Put the rest on the baking sheet form a circle. bake for 6 minutes and let stand for 45 minutes to completely cool.

Put the 1/3 cup of chocolate chips in a heat proof bowl and melt. Drizzle over the extra toppings from baking sheet.

Make the filling:
In medium saucepan, heat milk on low until it hits 150 on a instant read thermometer. At the same time, in a medium bowl, whisk eggs and yolk, and sugar until smooth. Whisk the flour until its smooth. Add the mixture to the milk, and stir constanlty with wooden spoon. Just until it thickens. Reduce from heat and cook at a gentle boil for about a minute.
Pour cream mixture through a fine stainer and add the vanilla. Refrigerate for a least two hours, with plastic wrap directly over the mixture. Remember to poke holes in plastic.

Make Topping:
Beat whipping cream, sugar, and vanilla together until cream becomes stiff and there are peaks to the whipping cream.

Assemble pie! First add the banana layer, pastry cream and then whipping cream layer. Add the topping of crumbled crust and chocolate.
YUM!

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