Banana Cream Pie ala La La Liz

This recipe, from everythingpies.com claims to be Elizabeth Taylor's favorite pie! As R. said, "This tastes like a pie Elizabeth Taylor would like-- something you eat after you break up a marriage, or to celebrate a marriage... a bit boozy, a bit extravagant, and over all over-the-top."

That about sums up this pie. Contrary to what the website says, the Robber thought the pie got better with age. We all wanted it to have a larger cream-to-custard ratio. I used my standard pie crust recipe, and substituted 1 tsp. each of artificial rum and almond flavorings for the liquors in the recipe-- and yet it still tasted boozy. I don't know that I will make this exact pie again. I liked the white chocolate-banana combination, but to be honest right now I am a little disillusioned with banana cream pies in general. I think I would be just as happy mixing up a bunch of bananas in plain whipped cream and putting it in a pie tin as I am with any custardy recipe. The Robber said I could stick with coconut cream pies, which may just be what I end up doing. But for anyone wanting to try something for the times and a little off the beaten path, I give you Elizabeth Taylor's favorite pie recipe:

http://www.everythingpies.com/elizabeth-taylor-banana-cream-pie-recipe.html

Ingredients:

Pastry dough - double crust

3 cups all-purpose flour

4 tablespoons sugar

1/2 ice cold water

1/2 teaspoon fine salt

1 1/4 cup (2 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter

1 teaspoon cold corn oil

Filling Layer One - White Chocolate Pastry Cream

1 vanilla bean, slit lengthwise

1 cup whole milk or half-and-half

3 large egg yolks

1/3 cup white sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

3 ounces white chocolate, chopped in small pieces

1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter

pinch of salt

Filling Layer Two - White Chocolate Whipped Cream

1 cup cold heavy whipping cream

4 medium ripe bananas

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 1/2 tablespoons banana liqueur or rum

1 1/2 tablespoons white creme de cacao or Amaretto

Garnish for top

5 ounces white chocolate curls for top

Unsweetened cocoa powder, for dusting top

Directions:

1. Prepare the pastry: Roll the pastry and line a 9-inch pie plate with the bottom crust. Chill the pastry for about one hour.

2. Pre-baked the pie crust shell in a 450° F preheated oven and set aside to cool.

3. Prepare Filling one: Warm the milk and the vanilla bean in a heavy non-aluminum pot over low heat. Mix in the white chocolate chunks. Stir with a whisk until the chocolate is melting. The mixture will speckle with white chocolate. Remove from heat.

4. Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar in a non-aluminum bowl. Mix until mixture is a pale yellow.

5. Add the cornstarch and salt to the egg mixture. Whisk it well.

6. Slowly pour the warm chocolate mixture into the yolk mixture while you are mixing.

7. Return the mixture to the pot and heat until it thickens. Continue to stir mixture while it is cooking. In about 10 minutes or more the mixture will start to bubble.

8. Remove it from the heat and stir until smooth, about 1 minute.

9. Pour the white chocolate filling into a glass bowl and smooth the top with a spatula.

10. Cover the pie filling with plastic wrap. Press the plastic directly onto the surface of the filling, to prevent a skin from forming. Let the pie filling cool in the refrigerator until cold and firm, 2-4 hours or overnight.

11. Whipped Cream: Chill a glass bowl. Beat the cream until it is stiff but not to grainy and refrigerate.

12. Thinly slice the bananas and toss with the lemon juice to prevent darkening.

13. Fold the bananas and the liqueurs into the chilled pastry cream. Be sure to remove the plastic. Carefully this mixture pour into your prebaked pie crust and level it with a spatula.

14. Gently cover the pie with the whipped cream. Fully spread it right to the edge of the crust.

15. Gently scatter some white chocolate curls over the whipped cream.

16. Very lightly dust the white chocolate curls with unsweetened cocoa powder.

17. Serve at once or chill up to 2 hours before serving.

Triple Coconut Cream Pie

(Adapted from Tom Douglas at Dahliah's Bakery in Seattle)

I found this recipe on pieloveyou.blogspot.com and decided to make it for Bob's birthday. I was a little worried it would be too hip for him. If it's all the rage in Seattle, it is probably a little avant garde for Bob's taste but why not try it?

In the end, he wanted just the regular old coconut cream pie. He liked this pie, but likes a saltier crust to offset the sweetness of the filling. I, on the other hand, enjoyed this coconut crust, the less sweet filling, and wanted to put white chocolate curls on the top were it not for Bob's preference otherwise (it was his birthday pie.) I think in the future I will mix and match this recipe-- maybe try the crust with another filling or the filling with a saltier crust. Or both together again, that would be just fine for me. After all, this was gloriously creamy, gloriously coconutty, and wonderful to the taste.

Ingredients:

Coconut pie crust


1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour


1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut


1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces


2 teaspoons sugar


1/4 teaspoon kosher salt


3 to 5 tablespoons ice water



Coconut Cream

2 cups milk

2 cups sweetened shredded coconut

1 vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise

2 large eggs

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened

Cream Topping

2 1/2 cups heavy cream, chilled (2 cups if probably sufficient)

1/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For Garnish

2 ounces unsweetened "chip" or large-shred coconut (about 1 1/2 cups) or sweetened shredded coconut

Chunks of white chocolate (4 to 6 ounces, to make 2 ounces of curls)

Directions:

Crust

1. Pulse first 5 ingredients in a food processor 6 to 10 times or until mixture is crumbly. Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, pulsing once after each addition, until dough holds together when pressed between fingers. (Dough will not form a ball or even clump together in processor-it will be loose.)



2. Turn dough out onto a large sheet of plastic wrap; press into a disc. Cover with plastic wrap, and chill 1 hour.


3. Roll dough to a 12- to 13-inch circle on a lightly floured surface. Fit into a 9-inch pie plate, trimming excess to a 1- to 11/2-inch overhang. Turn dough under along rim of pie pan, and flute edges. Chill at least 1 hour before baking.



4. Preheat oven to 400°. Place a sheet of aluminum foil or parchment paper in pie crust, extending over edges, and fill with dried beans, rice, or pie weights. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes. Remove from oven; discard foil and beans, and return pie crust to oven. Bake for 14 to 17 more minutes or until edges are golden brown. Remove from oven, and cool completely on a wire rack.

Coconut Cream

1. Make the coconut cream while the crust is chilling in the fridge. To make the coconut cream, combine the milk and coconut in a medium saucepan. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and add both the seeds and pod to the milk mixture. Place the saucepan over medium-high heat and stir occasionally until the mixture almost comes to a boil.

2. In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, and flour until well combined. Temper the eggs (to keep them from scrambling) by pouring a small amount (about 1/3 Cup) of the scalded milk into the egg mixture while whisking. Then add the warmed egg mixture to the saucepan of milk and coconut. Whisk over medium-high heat until the pastry cream thickens and begins to bubble. Keep whisking until the mixture is very thick, 4 to 5 minutes more. Remove the saucepan from the heat. Add the butter and whisk until it melts. Remove and discard the vanilla pod. Transfer the pastry cream to a bowl and place it over a bowl of ice water. Stir occasionally until it is cool. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pastry cream to prevent a crust from forming and refrigerate until completely cold. The coconut cream will thicken as it cools.


3. When the coconut cream is cold, fill the prebaked pie shell with it, smoothing the surface. In an electric mixer with the whisk, whip the heavy cream with the sugar and vanilla on medium speed. Gradually increase the speed to high and whip to peaks that are firm enough to hold their shape. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a star tip with the whipped cream and pipe it all over the surface of the pie, or spoon it over.

Garnish

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spread the coconut chips on a baking sheet and toast in the oven, watching carefully and stirring once or twice, since coconut burns easily, until lightly browned, 7 to 8 minutes. Use a vegetable peeler to scrape about 2 ounces of the white chocolate into curls.


Serve!