This Classic Banana Cream Pie has a silky, smooth lightened vanilla pastry cream, tons of ripe bananas, a sweet pastry crust and a generous whipped cream topping! It is layered with flavors and perfect for your next barbecue, dinner party or potluck.
I find it easier to prepare a double recipe here because trying to get this small of a batch smooth is challenging. This will also make it 1 whole egg, so that is nice.
Split and scrape the seeds from half a vanilla bean pod. Save the pod for another use or throw it in!
Heat milk, sugar and vanilla beans to a boil.
Whisk eggs and yolks with cornstarch until lightened. Slowly add the milk mixture into eggs while whisking constantly. Return to pot, turning heat to medium, whisk until it begins to thicken. Boil 1 minute while constantly whisking.
Pour out onto plastic lined baking pan, cover with another sheet of plastic wrap, poke holes and cool.
Prepare Crust:
Blind bake pie crust until a golden brown on the bottom. You won’t be baking it again, so you want the crust to be fully baked! You can dock the crust (poke it several times with a fork) to keep the crust from puffing in the oven. Docking allows the steam to escape from the baking crust, which allows for a move even rise and bake. If you forget, no biggie. It will still bake just fine.
Allow to cool before assembling pie.
Final Assembly:
Slice bananas in ¼ inch slices. You can further cut them into quarters if you prefer small pieces.
Whip the heavy cream for the filling to medium soft peaks. This is where the filling is just almost to stiff peaks but the cream will still slightly fold over at the tip when the whisk is pulled out and held straight up. I like to whip both the heavy cream for the filling and topping at one time, but this means you will need to use a kitchen scale to divide it.
Remove the whipped cream from the mixing bowl and reuse the same bowl to refresh your pastry cream.
Before you use pastry cream, you need to “refresh it” or “condition” it. All this means is you need to beat it so that it becomes smooth and silky. This won’t get any lumps out but it will create a more pleasant product to eat and work with.
Place pastry cream in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until smooth. You don’t want to beat it too long or it will loosen and the cornstarch with lose some of its hold and it will not firm back up when chilled. This can lead to loose, unruly fillings.
Beat in Rum.
Fold in a small portion of the whipped cream allotted for the filling. This small amount is to further loosen the pastry cream to make it easier to fold in the remaining cream. It is called “sacrificing” because you sacrifice the trapped air in a small amount of the whipped cream by folding it in aggressively. This causes it to lose most of its lightness, but it loosens the pastry cream.
Fold in the remaining whipped cream allotted to the filling.
Fold in the cut bananas.
Pour into prepared pie crust and smooth out.
Top with remaining whipped cream.
Refrigerate at least 2 hours to overnight. This allows the pastry cream to set and will make for a beautifully sliceable pie!
Optional Bruléed Banana Coins
Before serving top with banana coins or brûléed bananas. To make the brûléed banana coins, slice a few pieces of banana and place on a metal or heat-proof baking sheet or dish.
Sprinkle with granulated sugar and brûlée with a kitchen torch.
This needs to be done right before serving or the caramel will absorb the moisture from the bananas and liquify.