Banana Cream Pie with a twist!

If you know me, you know I don't care for banana's much... they have to be a certain color, yellow but still slightly green for me to even eat one, and I don't like banana flavored anything! But this pie recipe looked way too good to not try!! It was awesome!! It's made with Sugar cones for the crust instead of graham crackers and you make the pudding from scratch!! I thought it would be hard and not turn out, but it's way easy!! I found the original recipe in my Food Network Magazine. They topped theirs with Meringue... but to me a pie (especially Banana Cream) isn't a pie unless it's topped with good old fashioned homemade whipped cream, so that's where I tweaked this recipe a bit and I added less salt and a bit more sugar to the crust than the original recipe. Plus, I also put a little shaved chocolate on the top for a garnsih. And this was good!! MMMMM..........
Banana Cream Pie with a twist!
For the Crust:
10 sugar cones
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons granualted  sugar
4 tablespoons butter, melted

For the Filling :
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons whole milk
4 egg yolks
3/4 cup granualted sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces

2/3 cups semisweet chocolate chocolate chips
2 bananas, sliced into 1/4-inch-thick rounds

1 pint heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup powdered sugar (more to suit your taste if necessary)
1 teaspoon vanilla


Directions:
Make the crust: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Break up the cones a little if they aren't already (good way to use up broken sugar cones) Pulse the cones, salt and sugar in a food processor until coarsely ground. Add the melted butter and pulse until the mixture looks like coarse sand. Press on the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch pie dish. Bake until golden, 8 to 10 minutes; let cool completely.

Make the filling: Bring 2 cups milk to a bare simmer in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk the egg yolks, 3/4 cup sugar and the vanilla in a large bowl  of electric mixer until smooth and pale. Whisk in the cornstarch.  Temper the egg mixture first by ladeling a spoonful of the hot milk into the eggs while the mixer is whisking, put a couple of ladles in then slowly whisk the rest of the warm milk into the egg mixture. Next pour this mixture back into the saucepan and return to medium heat. Cook, whisking constantly, until the custard thickens and begins to bubble, about 2 minutes. Turn off heat, then stir in the butter until melted. Strain the custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl (I didn't find this step necessary but if your custard is lumpy I recommend it); set aside to cool, stirring frequently.

Put the remaining 2 tablespoons milk and the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl; microwave 30 seconds. Stir until the chocolate melts,  (if necessary, microwave another 15 to 30 seconds) then let cool slightly.
Spread the chocolate over the bottom and up the sides of the crust. Press the bananas into the chocolate, then pour the cooled custard over the bananas. Cover and chill until set, at least 1 hour.

 

Make your whipped cream topping, but pouring the heavy whipping cream into a chilled mixing bowl (I place my mixer bowl and beaters in the freezer about 1/2 hour before I make my whipped cream so it's good and cold, this helps the whipping cream to whip up faster!)

Whip on high for about 2 -3 minutes, keep an eye on this, you don't want to turn your whipping cream into butter. When it forms stiff peaks, add the powdered sugar and vanilla (and the drop of coconut extract if desired) and stir just to combine.

You can spread the whipped cream on your pie, but I like to put mine in a decorator bag with a large tip and swirl on the top of my pie, then I garnished with a few shavings of semi-sweet chocolate (I had a piece of Hershey's Bliss dark chocolate and shaved pieces with my vegetable peeler, that way you get curls rather than just chips if you do it with a cheese grater)

Serve and enjoy!!!