The Best Banana Cream Pie (Caramel Banana Cream Pie)

Pie crust

1. Follow my Graham cracker flour pie crust recipe to make a single pie crust. The linked recipe makes a double crust, but the ingredients listed in this recipe card above are for 1 crust.
2. Once the dough is made, roll it out and line a 9 inch pie plate with the dough. Trim the edges and flute the edge of the pie crust, and chill the dough in the fridge for at least 1 hour while the oven preheats.
3. To preheat the oven, place a baking tray or pizza stone on the lower rack and preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C.
4. When you have preheated the oven for at least 45 minutes, blind bake the graham cracker flour pie crust. Follow the detailed instructions for blind baked pie crust in the same recipe.
5. Once the crust is baked, remove it from the oven and let it cool to room temperature.

Banana cream pie filling

Banana milk

1. Slice the ripe bananas and place in a saucepan. Add the milk and heat over medium heat while the saucepan is covered. When the milk starts to simmer, turn off the stove and remove the pot. Let the bananas infuse the milk for about 2 hours in the fridge, or up to overnight. (Allow the milk to cool down before putting it in the fridge.)
2. Place a sieve or strainer over a large bowl and pour the banana and milk into the sieve to separate the milk and banana slices.
3. Allow the bananas to sit in the sieve, over the bowl, for a few minutes, so that the milk can fully drain from the banana.
4. You should end up with at least 1.5 cups of banana milk. If you have less milk, top it with regular milk until you have 1.5 cups.
5. The banana slices can be used to make smoothies, or added to muffins or quick breads. Or you can freeze them for later.

Banana flavored custard

1. Bloom the gelatin – For leaf gelatin : Fill a large bowl with cool tap water. Submerge the gelatin leaf and let it completely soften - at least 10 minutes. Before adding the gelatin to the custard, remove the softened sheet from the water and squeeze out excess water. For gelatin powder : If you're using gelatin powder, place the 4 tbsp water in a small bowl. Sprinkle the gelatin powder and mix using a toothpick. Let the gelatin absorb all the water - at least 10 minutes. With powdered gelatin, you can add the entire amount of bloomed gelatin + water to the custard.
2. Place the banana milk in a saucepan. Heat the milk over medium high heat and bring it to a simmer, almost to a boil.
3. While heating the banana milk, place the sugar, vanilla, egg yolks, cornstarch, cloves, and salt in a bowl. Whisk until you have a thick, smooth mix. Place the bowl with the egg mix on a towel or napkin (to prevent the bowl from slipping while whisking in the next step), and set aside until the milk is heated.
4. As soon as the milk starts to steam or simmer, remove it from the heat. Slowly pour about half of the hot milk in a thin stream into the egg mix, WHILE CONSTANTLY WHISKING to temper the egg mix. When the eggs have been tempered, add the egg mix back into the remaining hot milk in the saucepan.
5. Heat the custard base over medium / medium-low heat, while vigorously whisking until it starts to thicken – this should take about 1 – 2 minutes depending on the heat of your stove and size of your saucepan. Make sure to reach the corners of the saucepan so that the custard does not catch at the bottom of the pan.
6. If the milk is heating too quickly and is setting at the bottom of the pan without evenly thickening, remove the pan from the heat and whisk it well to distribute the heat evenly and make the custard is smooth. Lower the heat of the stove to continue cooking the custard.
7. Whisk the custard continuously, while stopping for a few seconds at a time to check if the custard is boiling. Look for big bubbles breaking the surface of the custard (in big "bloops").
8. Cook the banana custard for a further 1 – 2 minutes after you see the first bubble break the surface, and make sure to whisk constantly.
9. Remove from the heat and add the butter and bloomed gelatin. Whisk in the butter and gelatin, until completely mixed in.
10. Pour the custard into a bowl and immediately cover the surface with plastic wrap, making sure the plastic wrap is touching the whole surface. This is to prevent a custard skin from forming on top. You can also choose to pass the custard through a sieve to remove any lumps.
11. Let the custard cool down to room temperature. You can also store the custard in the fridge overnight if you'd like to, but it’s better to use the custard after it has cooled down to room temperature.
12. The banana custard will "set" if it's chilled in the fridge. So it's important to whisk the pastry cream to make it smooth again before using (if chilled in the fridge).

Banana pudding filling

1. When the banana custard has cooled down to room temperature, whip the heavy cream to fold it into the banana custard.
2. In a chilled metal bowl, place the chilled heavy cream.
3. Whisk the heavy cream with a stand mixer or hand mixer on medium speed.
4. When the cream starts to froth, add the sugar in a steady stream.
5. Whisk the cream until you have soft to mid peaks.
6. Whisk the banana pastry cream with a hand whisk until it’s smooth.
7. Fold in ⅓ of the whipped cream into the banana pastry cream. Mix it in to lighten the pastry cream base.
8. Add the rest of the whipped cream and fold it in until there are no more white streaks.
9. Break the vanilla wafers into smaller pieces, but do not crush it into fine crumbs.
10. Add the wafers into the banana pudding filling and fold them in, to evenly distribute them.
11. Use immediately.

Caramel layer

1. Place the cream and corn syrup (if using) in a microwaveable bowl or jug. Heat for a few seconds and keep it warm until it'll be used.
2. In a stainless steel pot, sprinkle the sugar in an even layer. Make sure that the pan is clean and dry before adding the sugar. The pot should have high sides, as the caramel will bubble up when liquid is added later.
3. Heat the sugar over medium heat. When the sugar starts to melt, start moving the sugar around in the pan using a clean and dry spoon or spatula.
4. The sugar will form lumps, but keep stirring and breaking up the lumps (as much as possible) to evenly cook the sugar.
5. The sugar will melt and start to caramelize. Keep the warm cream and corn syrup close to you.
6. As soon as the sugar caramelizes and turns dark amber in color, add the cream mixture into the sugar in a stream (do not dump it all in one go), while mixing. The caramel will start to bubble and release a lot of steam, so be careful!
7. Keep stirring the caramel to completely dissolve the sugar in the cream mixture.
8. Add the vanilla, butter, salt, and stir to mix.
9. Bring the caramel back to a boil and cook until the caramel reaches 240°F / 115°C.
10. Remove from the heat and pour the caramel into a bowl. Allow the caramel to slightly cool down.
11. While the caramel is still warm, pour it into the pie crust bottom and spread it out in an even layer. If the caramel is too thick, you can warm it up in the microwave (for a few seconds) and then pour it into the crust.
12. Allow the caramel layer to cool completely to room temperature, before adding the other components.

Heavy cream whipped topping

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the sugar and ClearJel / instant pudding mix. For gelatin – see recipe notes below.
2. In bowl, place the chilled heavy cream. Whisk with a stand mixer or hand mixer on high speed.
3. While whisking on high speed, stream in the sugar and ClearJel mixture into the cream. Make sure to mix in the sugar mix immediately as it's added to the cream to prevent clumping.
4. Once the sugar is added, lower the speed to medium speed and add the vanilla extract. Whisk until you have mid peaks. I prefer to whisk until the cream reaches soft peaks and then manually whisk the cream until mid peaks are formed.
5. Use immediately.
6. Spread and/or pipe the whipped cream over the pie after the banana cream pie has been filled.

Assembling the banana cream pie

1. When the blind baked pie crust has cooled down, pour the warm caramel sauce into the base. Let it cool completely until it reaches room temperature.
2. Cut the bananas into slices. About ¾ cm thick.
3. When the caramel layer has cooled down, place a layer of the sliced bananas on top of the caramel.
4. Spread half of the banana pudding filling (with the crushed wafers) over the caramel/sliced banana layer.
5. Place another layer of banana slices on top, and spread the remaining amount of banana pudding filling over that.
6. If you're serving this pie within a few hours, top the pie with the whipped cream topping and refrigerate until ready to serve.
7. If you're serving it the next day, cover and refrigerate the banana cream pie. Top the pie with the whipped cream a few hours or immediately before serving.
8. Decorate with more sliced bananas and vanilla wafers.