Easy Banoffee Pie: Level-Up Your Favorite Banana Pie

Take your favorite Banana Pudding Pie, swap in luscious Dulce de Leche for the pudding, sprinkle in some chocolate toffee candy, and you get Banoffee Pie. That you can make this pie completely no-bake is even better, especially when outside temperatures are melting your thermometer.

Taste	Texture
Caramel, banana, toffee	Creamy, sticky

Active time	Total time	Yield	Difficulty
10 minutes	20 minutes	8 large slices	Easy

I’d never come across a Banoffee Pie until watching the Great British Bake Off. The combo of caramel filling with bananas on a graham cracker crust with whipped cream was obviously a good idea, so I filed it away for a hot day when baking in the oven was something to be avoided.

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What is Banoffee Pie?

Banoffee Pie is a British reinterpretation of a dessert from the San Francisco recipe for “Blum’s Coffee Toffee Pie. The original pie had no banana, but when Nigel MacKenzie and Ian Dowding of East Sussex’s The Hungry Monk added banana to a pie filled with milk caramel (like Dulce de Leche) proved to be a popular addition in 1971.

Banoffee is a portmanteau of banana + toffee. Banoffee pie uses a crumb crust (made of digestive biscuits or graham crackers), sticky milk caramel filling, sliced bananas, and whipped cream topping. You can also add in chopped toffee candy if you’d like for more texture and flavor.

The Toffee in Banoffee Pie is Different Than American Toffee

The toffee in banoffee pie is not the brittle crisp buttercrunch candy you’d find in a Heath bar but rather a smooth, sticky caramelized filling. There are no nuts in this “toffee”, and the filling is not candy at all, but something more like a thick caramel sauce.

To look at a banoffee pie recipe, I’d never call the filling toffee, but I don’t make the rules. I’ll likely never not think of toffee outside of the tins of Enstrom’s toffee that show up ubiquitously here in Colorado around the holidays, but this is probably a potato potatoh situation.

As for me, I’m sneaking in some local chocolate pretzel toffee into my pie for extra flavor and crunch. I doubt too many Brits would object.

Why You’ll Love Banoffee Pie

1. No-bake: If you use a store-bought graham cracker crust, this pie is entirely no-bake. As it is, I bake my Homemade Graham Cracker Crusts in my toaster oven in the summer. It keeps the kitchen cooler since it’s so small.
2. Flavor/Texture Contrasts: The creamy whipped cream and luscious Dulce de Leche filling up against the soft bananas and crunchy graham crackers make for a comforting kind of texture that’s ultra homey yet still light for summer. This may not be the most elegant dessert, but it sure is good.
3. Genuinely Easy: You can assemble this pie in minutes. You don’t need any fancy equipment or skill to make this pie. You can make it as a regular 9″ pie or an easy to cut tart from a rectangular tart pan

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   and you’ll get the same, delicious results either way.

How to Make Banoffee Pie

1. Make a graham cracker crust:
   Follow the recipe for a Graham Cracker Crust if you’re not using a store-bought crust. You can either make the crust in a rectangular tart pan

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   (makes for easy slicing) or a traditional pie plate

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   .
2. Spread the toffee filling: Spread the dulce de leche in the bottom of the graham cracker crust. If the graham cracker crust is warm from the oven, cool down the toffee and crust in the fridge before finishing the pie.
3. Chop the toffee candy: If you’re using it, chop the toffee candy into rough bits.
4. Layer in the bananas: Cut up enough bananas to cover over the dulce de leche. Sprinkle about half the chopped toffee candy over the bananas.
5. Whip the cream: Microwave the jumbo marshmallow in a small dish just until it inflates –about 15-20 seconds. Pour the heavy cream and the marshmallow and a spoonful of dulce de leche in a stand mixer or a bowl for a hand mixer. Whip the cream until it holds its shape easily.
6. Finish the pie: Smooth the whipped cream over the top of the pie and sprinkle it with the remaining toffee candy. You could also pipe dollops of cream to cover over your pie.

Tips for Making the Best Banoffee Pie

1. Bake your crust in a toaster oven: If you forego a store-bought crust and want to make your own graham cracker crust for this recipe, pop it in the toaster oven to bake. The smaller oven will keep your house cooler and you’ll get the crust done in 10 minutes flat.
2. Make sure the dulce de leche is thick: I will always advocate for making your own dulce de leche for this pie. It has more flavor than canned, it’s mostly hands off, and it’s cheaper than the can. If you do make your own milk caramel filling, be sure to reduce the filling until it can sit on a spoon without falling off. If you blend it and it’s still runny, pour it into a non-stick skillet and keep cooking until it is a thicker consistency. If you don’t, the caramel will run all over the pie, making it impossible to slice. It will still be delicious if your caramel is runny, but the pie will be more like a pudding.
3. Cover over the bananas: Bananas, like all fruit will oxidize after cutting. Once covered with the toffee and the cream, they’ll be okay. If you want to garnish the pie with more banana slices, do that just before serving.
4. Use a tart pan for the cleanest slices: Because this pie has a very sticky filling, you’ll find its easier to cut slices from a rectangular tart pan. With their removable bottoms, you won’t have to unearth the first slice from the pie plate

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   . You can cut rectangular pieces from a tart pan or cut them at an angle for more traditional pie shaped pieces.

Easy Ways to Upgrade Banoffee Pie

1. Use Coffee Caramel: I love this sauce! It’s a little firmer than dulce de leche but it is packed with flavor that will make the bananas sing.
2. Switch up your graham crackers: I made these pies with Annie’s chocolate chip bunny grahams. The added chocolate is a nice upgrade, but really, any flavor of graham cracker is good.
3. Use digestive biscuits: For a more English touch, bake your graham cracker crust using crushed up digestive biscuits. Plain McVittie’s biscuits are great here. I see McVittie’s once in a while, but they tend to be expensive. Kedem tea biscuits are an easier to find, less expensive alternative that make wonderful crumb crusts for pies.

More Banana Desserts Recipes

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  Banana Pudding Pie: Sheet Pan Dessert For A Crowd

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  Mini Banana Breads: Customize Your Favorite Mix-Ins

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