Raising The Bar On Banana Cream Pie

I love to create versatile dessert recipes that can be put together quickly for the family or slightly tweaked to follow a more elegant meal.  One that fits resoundingly well in this category is something you may not have considered – banana cream pie. You may be more familiar with this type of dessert in a pie shell or a trifle dish, but the fragrantly fermented fruit also lends itself beautifully for more elegant presentations.

Make sure to use the well fermented bananas because they go so well with dark chocolate, brandy, cognac or rum. I used 1 fermented banana (for 4 ramekins) cooked quickly with some caramel rum sauce, and layered that between some dark chocolate custard and pre-baked, buttered graham crackers. After putting them all together, I let them chill and topped them with some Italian meringue. If you prefer to add sweetened whipped cream, that would be even more luxurious.

Chocolate Banana Cream Pie (makes 12 individual ramekins)
½ recipe of chocolate custard
12 large graham crackers
1 stick butter
½ recipe rum caramel sauce (or use 4 tablespoons pre-made caramel sauce)
3 fermented bananas, mashed
1 recipe Italian meringue (or use sweetened whipped cream in place of meringue)
**cocoa powder, optional

Melt the butter and set aside. Finely grind the graham crackers and combine with the melted butter. Place in a preheated 350°F oven and bake until golden brown, about 10 minutes.

Remove and allow them to cool. Prepare the rum caramel sauce and set aside. Mash the bananas and place them in the pot with the rum sauce and bring them to a boil, stir for about 2-3 minutes and then remove. This will cook out some moisture from the banana and is important to do. Once this is finished, set this aside also.

Prepare the chocolate custard and set aside to cool slightly. Prepare your ramekins with a few spoons of cooled graham crackers at the bottom of the dish. Then add a few spoons of chocolate custard, but don’t use it all at this point – make sure to only use half. Next, spoon out all of the banana filling evenly between the 12 cups, and then top this evenly with the remaining graham crumbs. Finish off by adding the remaining chocolate custard over all of the ramekins then cover with plastic and allow them to cool.

Once cooled top the ramekins with meringue or whipped cream and dust with cocoa powder.