Classic Banana Cream Pie Recipe

This banana cream pie recipe is a year-round favorite and uses simple pantry ingredients to create a truly special treat. Along with Pappy’s Pie Dough, you will need staples like milk, flour, butter, eggs, heavy whipping cream, vanilla, and bananas to make this delicious pie recipe. Using a traditional custard recipe along with fresh bananas, this pie strikes a balance between smooth vanilla and the natural sweetness of bananas.

Why Traditional Custard Beats Pudding Mix

While there are plenty of recipes that use instant pudding for banana cream pie, our recipe uses simple ingredients to make a traditional homemade custard. The flavors that develop are rich, and the texture is perfectly creamy, something you just can’t replicate using pudding mix. Plus, the custard uses simple ingredients most bakers already have on hand and takes just a few minutes to come together. From-scratch vanilla cream custard blends so beautifully with fresh bananas. Then, top your pie with homemade whipped cream as the final touch. These few extra steps make a world of difference in the flavor of the pie.

Blind Baking the Crust

Because banana cream pie is a cream pie, you have to blind bake the crust. This simply means you bake the crust empty without the cream filling, then fill the baked crust with your custard, bananas, and whipped cream. Many bakers use pie weights when blind-baking their crust, but dry beans are a great alternative if you don’t have weights on hand. They provide the same stabilization and keep the crust pressed into the pie dish. After baking, make sure your crust cools completely before filling it with your cream filling. This will ensure your filling stays rigid and doesn’t melt. You want to be able to slice into your pie and pull out clean slices!

Recipe

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Banana Cream Pie

Yield: 8

Prep time: 20 MinCook time: 20 MinInactive time: 1 HourTotal time: 1 H & 40 M

This banana cream pie recipe is a year-round favorite and uses simple pantry ingredients to create a truly special treat.

Ingredients

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pods Pappy's Pie Crust Dough, thawed but still chilled
• 4 ripe but still firm bananas
• 2 cups milk
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 egg yolks
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the Whipped Cream Topping

• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons powdered sugar

Instructions

Prep the Crust

1. Gather your ingredients, ensuring the Pappy's Pie Crust Dough pods have been thawed but remain chilled.
2. Stack the 1/2 pod on top of the full pod on a well-floured rolling surface. Roll them out together into a 12-inch circle.
3. Transfer the dough to a 9-inch pie pan, ensuring an even amount of crust hangs over the edge of the entire pan. Trim and crimp the edges with a fork or your fingers.
4. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Chill the crust in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
5. After 30 minutes, remove the crust from the fridge and line the chilled crust with parchment paper. Then place pie weights or dry beans on top of the parchment paper, ensuring they are evenly distributed.
6. Bake for 20 minutes and remove from the oven.
7. Remove the parchment and the pie weights (or beans), and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
8. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Prepare the Custard

1. In a heavy saucepan, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, and milk. Place over medium heat and whisk constantly until the mixture starts to bubble. Cook and stir for 3 minutes, or until it forms firm mounds or peaks.
2. Beat egg yolks in a separate bowl. Stir in a small amount of the hot milk mixture to temper the eggs. Slowly stir the tempered eggs back into the saucepan with the rest of the custard mixture.
3. Cook for 2 more minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in the butter and vanilla.

Assemble the Pie

1. Slice your bananas about ½” thick, or to your liking.
2. Spoon in a small amount of the custard, then layer in bananas. Layer more of the custard mixture, then another layer of bananas until your pie crust is full and you have used all of the custard and banana slices.
3. Chill at least an hour in the fridge. You may cover the pie with a domed lid, but do not use plastic wrap or a lid that touches the top of the custard.
4. Once the pie is set, whip the heavy cream together with vanilla and powdered sugar until stiff peaks form. Spread or pipe the whipped cream on top of the pie. Place the pie back into the fridge until it is time to serve. Slice and enjoy!