Banoffee pie is an English dessert for any occasion. It is an easy no bake pie, rich and delicious! You can find this luscious cream pie in almost every restaurant or cafe in London, but you can enjoy this homemade British dessert in any part of the world.
This simple dessert is made with bananas and toffee, which represents the name. Banoffee pie is topped with homemade whipped cream, decorated with tempered chocolate and hazelnuts. Perfect to pair with a cup of English Breakfast tea!
If you are looking for a no bake banana cake, treat your family with this easy and delicious English dessert pie!
I actually can’t imagine a person who doesn’t want a slice of banoffee pie. Crunchy biscuit base, thick caramel with hidden banana slices, pillow cream and crunchy chocolate and hazelnuts on top. Winning combination!
Are you ready? Salivating maybe? Well good news are that it is so easy to make and maybe almost all ingredients are already in your pantry.
This is a simplest way to make delicious banoffee pie! The decoration is up to you, but to me, dark chocolate looks good in contrast to the white pillow of cream and perfect to accompany all the ingredients.
How can you go wrong with biscuits with bananas and whipped cream?
How to make banoffee pie
You will need just few ingredients like biscuits, butter, condensed milk, bananas and heavy cream.
Make the biscuit crust
Classic banoffee pie is made with home-baked pastry, but this no-bake version is easier and also delicious!
To make a crust, crush biscuits. Put them in a bag and crush with rolling pin or pulse few times with a food processor. Mix with melted butter, until the texture reminds wet sand. Add more melted butter, if needed. Then press wet crumbs into the bottom and sides of the cake pan.
To make a cookie crust, use Graham crackers or any other biscuits that are not sweet.
Need a gluten-free pie? Choose gluten-free biscuits for the base.
Fill with Dulce de Leche or toffee
If you can’t find Dulce de Leche in store (it should be in a baking aisle or near the milk), you can boil a can of sweetened condensed milk for a hour in pot with water. It will caramelize and get its thick toffee-like texture.
The thickness and taste actually varies from brand to brand. By the way, if you can’t find Dulce de Leche in regular grocery store, you can order it online or visit specialty store.
If you open a can of boiled condensed milk and it looks too runny, you can place it in a pot and cook on a low, frequently stirring until it thickens. If you like the creamy texture more than thick and chewy, you can leave it like that! However, your banoffee pie may slide a little, when it is cut.
Classic recipe varies from solid center of banoffee pie to less firm and more creamy. It’s up to your taste!
Filling banoffee pie
After that you need to cut bananas and place the rounds around in the toffee. Top it with big clouds or soft peaks of whipped cream! I love to put a lot of cream so it looks like a rock or cloud!
Whip heavy cream for about 2-3 minutes on a high speed. Check it constantly, so you don’t over-whip it. It should be light and hold its shape. Add just a little bit of icing sugar, because the pie is so sweet on its own.
I like to add cream stabilizer, so it holds it shape perfectly, even the next day!
Decorating banoffee pie
I have a step-by-step video on tempering chocolate in this Black Pearl recipe. You can do it yourself, using thermometer and good quality chocolate. After chocolate is cooled cut the shards and insert it in the whipped cream. Shred a little bit of chocolate on top, too. I love to finish it with crushed hazelnuts.
You can also just shred hazelnuts and and chocolate on top and that’s it!
As you can see, banoffee pie recipe is very easy to make.
How to make banoffee pie ahead of time
I would recommend making the crust and fill it with caramel. You can store the base like this up to a week in the fridge.
Also you can make chocolate shards and crush hazelnuts ahead of time. Store the decoration at room temperature.
Cut and arrange bananas on the day you plan to serve the cake. After that whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks and top the cake. This way bananas won’t be brown and cream will be fresh and tasty!
Also you can whip the cream 1 day beforehand and store it covered in the airtight container. To make it fluffier you can slightly whip it just before serving.
Few question that you may have about banoffee pie:
How long can you keep homemade Banoffee pie?
Store the leftovers in the fridge up to 3 days.
Who invented Banoffee pie?
The owner of the restaurant “The Hungry Monk” Nigel Mackenzie and his chef Ian Dowding. As Ian writes on his blog: nobody ever invents dishes – they evolve.
They’ve tried different variations like apples were quite good and mandarins were bad to taste. But the banana was perfect! This pie became so popular on their menu.
Where does the name Banoffee come from?
They struggled with the name, as there were a lot of banana pies, toffee pies..So Nigel came with the name Banoffi as a combination of banana and toffee.
Interested fact that they never made a trade mark from the name. But we are so thankful for the recipes that evolve!
Banoffi turned into Banoffee in English language, describing a filling made with bananas and toffee.
Can I freeze a Banoffee pie?
You can freeze the crust with condensed milk. But I don’t recommend freezing whipped cream and decoration. Serve thawed pie with freshly whipped cream or make whipped cream 1 day ahead of time, as I mention above.
However, defrosted bananas may change the texture and become soggy or mushy.
So my advice would be, freeze the crust with condensed milk, wrapped in plastic. Then thaw it overnight in the fridge, and add bananas and freshly whipped (or made ahead of time) cream on the day you plan to serve.
If you’re looking for other caramel desserts, you should check our Caramel Apple Trifle and delicious no-bake Irish cheesecake.
Banoffee pie is a sweet English dessert for any occasion. It is an easy no bake
pie, rich and delicious!
- 230 g plain biscuits
- 150 g butter melted
- 1 can dulce de leche 397 g
- 2 big bananas
- 300 ml heavy cream 1 1/4 cup
- 1/2 tsp vanilla flavored instant coffee
- 1 pack cream stabilizer 15g
- 90 g dark chocolate for decoration
- 1 tbsp crushed hazelnuts
- For the pie base, crush biscuits with in a food processor and combine with melted butter until it resembles wet sand.
- Transfer to the spring form pan ( 8 inch / 20 cm), layered with parchment paper in the bottom. Gently press crumbs to the bottom and the sides of the pan. Transfer in the fridge for an hour or more until it is set.
- Melt the chocolate on a double boiler - a pot with simmering water and a heat-proof bowl placed on top. Make sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water.
- After your water is boiling, reduce the heat to low and add 3/4 of crushed dark chocolate to the heated bowl. When it is almost melted, remove the bowl from heat and add remaining chocolate. Stir until melted and cooled.
- Transfer to the tray, layered with parchment paper and let it cool completely. Cut different shapes and leave aside.
- Remove the crust from the fridge and add an even dulce de leche to the bottom of the pie.*
- Peel bananas and cut them in thick rounds. Place them around in the dulce de leche.
- Whip cream with stabilizer and coffee until stiff peaks (about 2-3 minutes). Check every half of the minute, it should be fluffy like a cloud.
- Place the whipped cream around the pie. Insert chocolate shards, add shredded chocolate and add sprinkle hazelnuts on top.
- It is ready for serving!
- Place in the fridge until ready to serve (better on the same day). Store leftovers up to 3 days.
Recipe Video
*If you can’t find Dulce de Leche in store, you can boil a can of condensed milk for a hour in pot with water. It will caramelize and get its thick toffee-like texture.
I’ve never tried this before and it looks delicious!
You definitely need to try it! It can become your family staple dessert 😉
What a beautiful dessert! But I do see fruit and dairy so can I eat this for breakfast right? 😉
Absolutely, bananas and cream is such a classics, combined with crunchy base – perfect to pair with morning cuppa!
Looks lucious! The chocolate shards are calling my name.
Haha, that’s true! You need to try a slice!
I am totally drooling over the creamy dulce de leche in this pie. These are all of my favorite flavors and textures in one dessert. Thank you for your super detailed instructions. I was intimidated a bit by the steps until I saw how easily you’d broken them down.
Thanks so much, Alyssa! I hope I’ve assured how easily it can be made for your next special celebration 😉
This looks simply amazing! I was able to finally visit England last year, and I have to say that everything I ate was amazing – especially the desserts!
Ha, have you tried Banoffi desserts? We love British cuisine, too. You need to check this easy Pudding Recipe, too.
What a delicious cake! This will actually be perfect for my sister’s birthday which is on next weekend. I want to gave a surprise birthday gift and i think this is the best.