I love the multicultural nature of our Thanksgiving. This year, I decided to do a take on a British-inspired, gluten-free dessert – Chocolate Banoffee Pie – – one of the most favorite chocolate cakes.
Banoffee, sometimes written as “banoffi,” is a mix of “banana,” “toffee,” and “coffee.” A traditional banoffee pie recipe is made of a crushed biscuit base, a layer of caramel, bananas, and a whipped cream topping. Whipped cream, in my experience, does not make for a particularly portable dessert, and since I had to transport my pie across London, it didn’t seem like a good option. So replaced the cream with a decadent chocolate ganache.
I know – chocolate, cream, caramel, butter… this is a sinful pie, but then diet food is not part of the Thanksgiving game plan, is it?
I have tried to make it a little less saccharine and a little more grown-up than the average banoffee pie – I added a little cocoa powder and cinnamon to the biscuit base, sea salt to the caramel, and praline pecans for the topping. I also used dark chocolate and no extra sugar in the ganache. Chocolate banoffee pie is always my favorite!
There was a small spillage of melted caramel, but otherwise, the pie survived its journey from North-west to South-east London more or less intact (If you want to avoid a melted caramel incident, don’t take the pie on an overcrowded, overheated tube!) – so the chocolate really did keep the pie covered. Despite everyone being filled with our host’s wonderful turkey and all the trimmings, this pie was demolished, which I’ll take as a good sign.
The combination of banana, toffee, and a buttery crust in banoffee pie pairs wonderfully with the sweet and salty profile of the Salted Caramel Martini. You can try this combination. This is how to make a simple chocolate banoffee cake:
Chocolate Banoffee Pie
Ingredients
- 250 g crushed gluten-free digestive biscuits
- 100 g melted butter
- 1/2 tsp cinammon
- 1 tsp cocoa powder
- 350 g dulce de leche caramel
- 2 large bananas sliced
- 200 g dark chocolate
- 200 ml double cream
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 8-10 large pecans
- 1 tsp icing sugar
- 8-10 dried banana chips
Instructions
- Grease and line the base of a round tin.
- Melt the butter in a pan and mix in a bowl with the crushed biscuits, along with the cinnamon and cocoa powder until it forms a rough dough.
- Press into the tin to cover the base. Chill for 10 mins.
- Make the praline pecans by toasting in a medium oven with a little icing sugar, cinnamon and a pinch of sea salt. Remove from oven when the sugar has melted. Set aside to cool.
- Stir the dulce de leche with the sea salt until smooth.
- Spread the chilled base with the dulce de leche and cover with the sliced bananas. Return to fridge.
- To make the ganache, finely chop the chocolate and place in a mixing bowl.
- Heat the the double cream in a pan over a medium heat until just at the boil.
- Pour the cream over the chopped chocolate and stir until smooth and glossy.
- Spread over the top of the bananas to create a smooth covering. Decorate with the praline pecans and banana chips.
