Banana Bourbon Cream Pie
Layers of a crunchy graham cracker crust, bananas, pastry cream, more bananas, whipped cream, caramel bourbon sauce, and a few more bananas makes this a creamy crunchy treat with a twist of bourbon.
Servings
10
Servings
10
Ingredients
Crust
Pastry Cream
Topping
Caramel Bourbon Drizzle
Instructions
Crust
  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. Melt the butter down in a saucepan over low heat. Turn off the heat once butter is melted, or mostly melted.
  3. In a food processor, or very diligently by hand, blitz the graham crackers until they’re uniform-sized crumbs. Mix in sugar and salt.
  4. Stir crumb mixture into saucepan of butter. Transfer well-stirred mixture into pie pan, gently pressing the crust up the sides of the dish first, then firmly pressing in the middle.
  5. Bake the crust for 15-18 minutes, until golden brown. Remove to cool completely and set aside until later
Pastry Cream
  1. Bring milk to a light simmer.
  2. Meanwhile, whisk egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch together in a large bowl.
  3. While continuing to whisk the egg yolk mixture, very slowly stream in about a quarter of the scalding hot milk mixture. If you pour too quickly, you could end up with scrambled eggs. Slowly pouring in the mixture will temper the eggs so that they cook slowly and evenly. Continue pouring the remaining milk while continuing to whisk it all together.
  4. Pour the egg-milk mixture back into the pan over a low to medium-low heat. If you want to be extra diligent, you can pour it in through a fine mesh strainer.
  5. While stirring constantly, bring the mixture to a simmer until it becomes really thick, about a minute or two.
  6. Off the heat and quickly stir in the bourbon and vanilla.
  7. Using the fine mesh strainer, pour the mixture into a clean bowl. Stir in the butter. Once the butter has been incorporated, cover the mixture with plastic wrap, with the plastic wrap touching the top to prevent a skin from forming.
  8. Place the bowl in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours allowing it to cool and firm up.
Caramel Bourbon Drizzle
  1. Combine sugar and water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Be careful not to stir the mixture, but swirl the pot around regularly for roughly 15 minutes. Keep watching the mixture as it slowly turns from clear, to lightly amber, to darker amber shades. Once the color starts to darken, it happens quickly and you’ll want to off the heat before it goes brown (burnt). Have your cream and butter ready to go.
  2. Once the caramel is a dark amber, slowly add the cream and butter while stirring quickly and constantly.
  3. Bring pan back to a low heat and add the vanilla, bourbon, and salt, cooking for another minute.
  4. Pour the caramel into a small heat-proof bowl to cool. The mixture will thicken as it cools, but if it is still too runny, simply put it back in the pot and cook it over a low heat for a few more minutes so that some of the moisture cooks off.
Topping and Assembly
  1. Slice the bananas to about quarter inch thickness. Assemble a layer of bananas on the crust and up the sides of the crust.
  2. Pour the pastry cream over the layers of bananas, and smooth it out to create a nice even surface.
  3. Assemble another layer of bananas over the pastry cream.
  4. Whip the cream and sugar together until soft peaks form.
  5. Drizzle the cooled caramel bourbon sauce over the banana layer.
  6. Decoratively pipe the whipped cream over the top of the banana and caramel layer, or smooth it over the top with a dome in the middle if you don’t have the piping tips, time, or patience for piping.
  7. Refrigerate for about an hour before serving. Garnish with additional caramel sauce and leftover bananas. Enjoy!