Banana Pudding Pie: easy generous sheet pan dessert
What’s better than banana pudding? How about a Banana Pudding Pie with a peanut butter cookie crust, layers of vanilla pastry cream, whipped cream frosting, and of course, bananas? You can cut it into at least 20 generous slices, making it perfect for backyard BBQs or Summer potlucks. Just add fireworks, and you have basically the most perfect July 4th dessert you’ve had in a while.
| Taste | Texture |
| Peanut butter banana vanilla pudding | Creamy, soft |
| Active time | Total time | Yield | Difficulty |
| 25 min | 4 hrs 45 minutes | 20 slices | Easy |
Why banana cream slab pie should be in heavy rotation in your Summer baking queue
- Cozy flavor: If you love peanut butter and banana sandwiches, this pie is pretty much a dream. Add in a little cinnamon to tie all the flavors of vanilla pudding, banana, and peanut butter together, and the overall feel of this dessert is about as homey as it can get.
- Less sogginess: Without the sogginess regular banana pudding can have, the peanut butter cookie crust makes this dessert easier to serve and makes for prettier looking slices.
- IT FEEDS SO MANY: Cutting this pie into 20 slices gives you very generous portions. You could cut it into even smaller pieces to feed more. You’d be hard pressed to feed this many people with a regular banana pudding recipe or a banana cream pie.
- No pastry: Most slab pies eat up a whole lot in the way of pastry dough because of the area you need to cover. The cookie crust gets made up with less fuss and more flavor that tastes much more interesting with banana anyhow!
Ingredients for Banana Pudding Pie
Peanut Butter Cookie Crust
- Butter, at room temperature
- Brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Smooth peanut butter
- Eggs
- Vanilla paste or vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour
- Quick oats: quick oats have a finer texture here than old-fashioned
- Baking soda
- Ground cinnamon
- Salt
Vanilla Pastry Cream
- 1 batch of vanilla pastry cream
Whipped cream frosting
- Heavy cream
- Powdered sugar
- 3 jumbo marshmallows
Finishing the pie
- Bananas
- Cinnamon
Equipment needed
- 1/2 sheet pan
- parchment
- Large offset spatula or dough scraper
- Sheet pan covers (see DIY solution below if you don’t have these)
How to make banana pudding pie step by step
- Make the peanut butter cookie crust: Beat the butter and the sugars, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt until smooth in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer. Add in the peanut butter, egg, and vanilla and beat until smooth. Add in the flour and oats and mix just until the flour disappears.
- Press the crust into the pan: Scoop the peanut butter cookie dough in the middle of a parchment -lined sheet tray. Use a large offset spatula or a dough scraper to press the dough into the bottom of the sheet tray. Cover the dough with a piece of plastic wrap and bring the crust up the sides of the pan to leave room for the filling. Freeze the crust for 15 minutes.
- Make the pastry cream: While the crust is baking, make a batch of vanilla pastry cream.
- Bake the crust: Poke the crust all over with a fork. Bake the crust at 350 F for 18-20 minutes until it feels set and the edges are beginning to brown. Press down on the crust with another sheet tray to flatten the crust slightly.
- Assemble: Place a bowl for whipping the cream in the freezer while you assemble the pie. Slice bananas to cover the peanut butter crust. Smooth the pastry cream to cover the bananas. Warm up the marshmallows in a small cup for about 30 seconds in the microwave–long enough for the marshmallows to expand but not harden. Place the marshmallows, cream, powdered sugar and vanilla in the chilled bowl and whip everything until the cream holds its shape.
- Finish the top of the pie: Smooth the whipped cream over the pastry cream. Add a few more sliced bananas over the top of the pie and sprinkle the whole thing with cinnamon. Cover the pie with an upside down sheet tray and place in the fridge to chill for at least 4 hours before serving.
Tips for making crave-worthy banana cream slab pie
- Easy portioning: When I’m finishing the pie, I like to place 1 piece of sliced banana in the middle of each portion for visual reference. 20 pieces is a good serving, though you can cut your pie into bigger or smaller pieces, of course. Cut in between the slices all the way through the crust for serving.
- Scoop under!!: I always line my slab pies with parchment to make serving as clean as possible. Still, be sure to scoop under the crust as sometimes crust is grumpy and doesn’t want to help you out by releasing itself from the pan. You’re the boss here. Make that pie know just that!
- DIY pan cover: If you have nifty plastic sheet pan covers for your pans, this will keep any air out of your pie, keeping the bananas up top looking fresh for at least 2 days. If you don’t, cover your pan with an upside down sheet tray. I’ve wrapped these double stacked sheet tray pies in plastic wrap for easy transport. This solution is not as slick as sheet pan covers , but it works. Plus it looks like a flat robot, which is always a bonus.
Banana Pudding Pie
- Total Time: 4 hours 25 minutes
- Yield: 20 large slices 1x
Description
Classic banana pudding gets a revamp in this sheet pan pie made with a homey peanut butter cookie crust. It has all the big generous charm of old school BBQ desserts you’d get at proper gas station barbecue joint in Texas or at a Midwest cafeteria. What ever happened to those places?!
Ingredients
Scale
Peanut Butter Cookie Crust
- 2 stick of butter (227 g), at room temperature
- 1 cup brown sugar (213 g)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar (100 g)
- 1 cup smooth peanut butter (256 g)
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoon vanilla paste or vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (260 g)
- 1 cup quick oats (80 g)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Filling
- One recipe vanilla pastry cream
- 7 or 8 bananas
Topping
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar (40 g)
- 3 jumbo marshmallows
Instructions
Make the peanut butter cookie crust
- Beat the butter and the sugars, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt until smooth in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer.
- Add in the peanut butter, egg, and vanilla and beat until smooth.
- Add in the flour and oats and mix just until the flour disappears.
Press the crust into the pan
- Scoop the peanut butter cookie dough in the middle of a parchment-lined sheet tray.
- Use a large offset spatula or a dough scraper to press the dough into the bottom of the sheet tray.
- Cover the dough with a piece of plastic wrap and bring the crust up the sides of the pan to leave room for the filling. Freeze the crust for 15 minutes.
Make the pastry cream
While the crust is baking, make a batch of vanilla pastry cream.
Bake the crust
- Poke the crust all over with a fork. Bake the crust at 350 F for 18-20 minutes until it feels set and the edges are beginning to brown.
- Press down on the crust with another sheet tray to flatten the crust slightly.
Assemble the pie
- Place a bowl for whipping the cream in the freezer while you assemble the pie.
- Slice enough bananas to cover the peanut butter crust.
- Smooth the pastry cream over the layer of bananas.
- Warm up the marshmallows in a small cup for about 30 seconds in the microwave–long enough for the marshmallows to expand but not harden.
- Place the marshmallows, cream, powdered sugar and vanilla in the chilled bowl and whip everything until the cream holds its shape.
Finish the top of the pie
- Smooth the whipped cream over the pastry cream. Add a few more sliced bananas over the top of the pie and sprinkle the whole thing with cinnamon.
- Cover the pie with an upside down sheet tray and place in the fridge to chill for at least 4 hours before serving.
- To serve, cut the pie into rows of slices. 20 slices (5×4 grid) makes for good-sized portions.
- Keep any leftovers covered in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Notes
On banana ripeness: The best bananas for this are ones that aren’t dead ripe, like the ones you’d use for banana bread. Ideally for the best texture and flavor, bananas that are fully yellow or yellow with a few dark spots are the best here. Personally, I love the firmness and less sweet green bananas, and if you do, you are my people!
Chocolate banana cream pie: Swap out the vanilla pastry cream with chocolate pastry cream.
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- + 4 hours chilling time:
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Pies
- Method: Baking, Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
