When I told you
about my trip to Sint Maarten last month, I neglected to mention one little
thing. My mother, my brother, and I ate two whole pies in a span of six days.
We went to a
local grocery store on the island to pick up some staples. Some things were very, very expensive.
Like a papaya for ten dollars, or a filet of salmon for forty. But
some things were darn cheap.
Like pie.
The market had a
table full of homemade pies. They were baked in foil plates, labeled with
handwritten tags, and heavy with fruit. They had apple and plum
varieties, but it was the banana pie for $4.99 that got our attention.
This was not
banana cream territory we were wading into. This was a double-layer crust
filled with fruit. We took the five-dollar gamble. And things
worked out pleasantly for us and our pastry. So we went back a few days
later for another round.
So well, in fact,
that the memory of banana pie lingered longer than our tans. My brother
researched and tested a recipe he found through an online query, substituting our Grandma Lee’s world-famous crust along the way. It was close.
Very close. But the bananas were sliced a bit too thick. So,
naturally, we had to bake another.
Which we did when
we recently got together again to meet our new niece Olive. It was quite
the weekend. Olive is an absolute dream. The famed Grandma Lee
served us blueberry pie after our eggs on Saturday morning. And then we
nailed—and I mean nailed—our banana number after dinner.
So consider a
world where banana gets soaked in pineapple, spiced with cinnamon, dotted with
butter, and encased in dough. A world where you don’t have to add tapioca
or cornstarch. Where the fruit filling thickens on its own. As
nature intended.
Now consider
adding some coconut-spiked whipped cream.
Precisely.
I should also
mention I find April in New England is a terrible time for fruit. Citrus
is waning. Apples have been around since September. And the promise of
local rhubarb and strawberries has not been fulfilled. As such, the
global banana gets called into duty.
And here is its
shining opus. A composition so good, in fact, that I made another last weekend.
Which brings my official banana pie count to four for the month. And the
collective’s to five. And I don’t feel the least bit sorry about any of it.
As nature
intended.
Banana Pie with Coconut Rum Cream
Ingredients:
for the crust
2 cups
all-purpose flour
½ tsp kosher salt
¾ cup salted
butter (see note), cut into 1-inch pieces
~¼ cup water,
ice-cold
for the filling
6 cups sliced
banana, ¼ inch thick (about 8 large bananas)
¾ cup pineapple
juice
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp flour
1 to 2 tbsp
butter (salted or unsalted is fine)
for the whipped topping
1½ cup heavy
cream
~1 tbsp powdered
sugar
2 to 4 tbsp
coconut rum
Instructions:
In a large bowl,
mix the flour and salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until
rough, pea-sized pieces form (you want to see uneven chunks of butter in the
dough). Sprinkle 2 tbsp ice-cold water over the mixture and toss lightly
with a fork to moisten. Proceed with 2 more tbsp of water, or until the
dough holds together, minimizing your handling of the dough and only adding
just enough water so it holds together when pressed.
Pour the dough
out onto an unfloured counter top and gather into a shaggy ball; wrap in
plastic wrap and flatten to a thick disk; chill it in the fridge, ideally for an
hour or so.
About 15 to 20
minutes before you are ready to assemble your pie, set your oven to 425 degrees
and remove the dough from the fridge. In a large bowl, toss the banana slices with
pineapple juice. In a small bowl, mix together the sugar, cinnamon, and
flour. Set both mixtures aside (the banana should sit in the juice for 15
to 30 minutes).
Divide the dough
in half. Flour your work surface and rolling pin and roll half of your dough into
a circle. To do this, start in the middle of the dough and roll outward,
giving it a quarter turn every so often to evenly roll it out. Once the
dough is roughly 2 inches larger than a 9-inch pie plate, roll the dough over
your rolling pin and transfer it to your pie plate; ease it in and trim any
uneven edges, leaving most of your overhang. Repeat the same process to
roll out your top layer of dough.
Strain all but 3
tbsp of pineapple juice from the bananas.
Toss the bananas, 3 tbsp reserved juice, and sugar mixture
together. Pour into your pie plate
and evenly spread. Dot with butter
in four or five places. Roll the
top half of your dough over your rolling pin and transfer it to cover the
bananas. Crimp the edges together. Cut four slits in the center of your
pie to allow for venting during baking.
Bake for about 40
minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Meanwhile, whip the heavy
cream in a stand mixer or by hand.
Once soft peaks form, slowly add in the powdered sugar and then the
booze, to taste.
Cool the pie
before serving. Top with dollop of whipped cream.
Serves 8 to 12
Notes:
-By mistake, I
used salted Land O’Lakes butter the first time I made the pie and actually preferred
it to the unsalted version. I
would suggest if you are using unsalted butter you should add another ½ tsp
salt to the dough (This is based on the amount of salt in Land O’Lakes. In general, there is roughly 2400 mg
sodium per tsp of salt.)
-The pie should
keep a day or two at room temperature. If you plan on having it lasting
longer than that, refrigerate after cutting into it.
-You can
absolutely leave the whipped cream off, but it adds a nice tropical note.
-I make some of
the ugliest pies known to man. So
please excuse the frumpy pie you see before you.
