British baking wasn’t something I thought much about until I started watching The Great British Baking Show (or “Bake-Off” as it’s known in its mother country). Now all I think about is Swiss rolls and Hobnobs and soggy bottoms. Also I spend time wondering if the show’s stylist dresses everyone, including the contestants.
Anyhoo, I had some pals coming over for dinner on Wednesday this past week (one of them British!) and I pulled out one of my all-time favorite cookbooks — which happens to be by a British chef — April Bloomfield’s A Girl and Her Pig. Not only does this book feature the best curry I’ve ever made and the best chicken adobo; there’s also a whole dessert section that I’ve never used.
Shame on me for never using it: this recipe for banoffee pie is out-of-this-world, hit-it-out-of-the-ballpark incredible. Not only because the results are stupendous; but because there are so many cool techniques along the way.
Technique one — which is probably a well-known technique, but I’ve never done it before — you boil two cans of condensed milk for four hours (keeping them covered with water so they don’t explode) to make homemade dulce de leche. Wow, is that a fun, slightly stressful thing to do. And what a magic trick! To start out with a can of sweet, thick milk and have it become caramel.
The second cool technique? You make a tart dough, refrigerate it, and then grate it — that’s right, grate it — before pressing it into the pan.
Take it from someone who’s screwed up every tart I’ve ever made, this technique makes things a million times easier. And once you have your baked tart shell and your dulce de leche, you just have to assemble everything. Step one: lay in bananas (cut on a bias) in concentric circles on your freshly baked and cooled canvas.
Step two: top with all of that dulce de leche. It may look a little lumpy and grainy in parts, but that’s just an optical illusion. Trust me when I say it’s creamy and dreamy.
Smooth that out, cover in plastic, refrigerate. Then whip some cream with powdered sugar and vanilla beans (I used vanilla paste) and refrigerate too.
Then when everyone comes over, you can bit-by-bit put it all together. That basically entails adding one more layer of bananas then the whipped cream then grated chocolate.
Here I am at work, as photographed by Cup of Jo.
It’s sort of like a dessert Benihana’s: it’s dinner + a show! And when you serve this , people will go gaga for it.
I hope Paul Hollywood and Prue will believe me when I say this tart did not, by any means, have a soggy bottom. The Dulce de Leche layer was kind of thick, but who would complain about such a thing? This was so popular I offered to send people home with the rest — an offer that usually ends with “oh no, I could’t, I’m so full” — but everyone said “yes, please!”
Clearly this week’s star baker is… me!
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Make the caramelized milk: Put the cans of condensed milk in a large pot and cover them generously with water. Bring the water to a boil and boil for 4 hours (I covered the pot to prevent evaporation and lowered to an active simmer). Be sure the water is boiling and the cans are covered with water the entire time (this is very important, they can explode ) — add more boiling water to the pot if the water level threatens to get too low. Remove the cans from the pot and let them cool completely; keep them in the fridge until you’re ready to use them.
- Make the crust: Sift the flour into a food processor, then add the sugar, butter, and salt (I did this with my fingers, to save on dishes). Pulse until the mixture looks like fine bread crumbs. Add the yolks and pulse until a crumbly dough forms (again, I did this with my hands). Scrape the dough out onto a work surface and lightly knead just until smooth. Form the dough into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate it for at least 2 hours, or up to 2 days.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Cut the chilled dough into 2 or 3 large pieces and grate it on the large holes of a box grater. Use your fingers to press the dough onto the bottom and up the sides of the tart pan to create an even layer, the bottom about ¼ inch thick and the sides about ½ inch thick. Work swiftly—you don’t want the dough to warm up too much.
- Gently prick the bottom here and there with a fork, then pop the pan into the freezer for 15 minutes. Cut out a 13-inch circle of parchment paper and line the dough with it. Fill the tart shell with raw rice or dried beans and set the pan on a baking sheet.
- Bake the tart shell until the rim is light golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the parchment paper and the rice or beans and bake until golden brown all over, about 15 minutes more.
- Assemble the pie: Peel half of the bananas and slice them on the bias into approximately ½-inch-thick pieces. Starting from the outside and working your way to the center, arrange half of the bananas in concentric circles in the bottom of the tart shell, so each piece overlaps slightly. Gently dollop the caramelized condensed milk on top of the bananas, and spread it evenly over the slices. Cover with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge to chill, up to 2 hours.
- While the pie is chilling, combine the cream and the confectioners’ sugar in a bowl. Use a knife to scrape the vanilla bean seeds into the cream; discard the pod. Use a whisk or a handheld electric mixer to whip the cream to soft peaks. Cover it, too, and chill in the fridge.
- Peel and slice the remaining bananas. Add another layer of bananas. Give the whipped cream a good, brief whisk, then spread it over the pie so it completely covers the bananas. Sprinkle the grated chocolate over the top. Serve straightaway, when it’s still good and cold.
Leave a Reply