Banana Cream Pie

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup cornstarch

3 cups half-and-half

3 large eggs

5 tablespoons butter, but into pieces

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon table salt

3 large ripe bananas

Whipped Cream

54 Vanilla Wafers

2 tablespoons sugar

1/8 teaspoon table salt

1/4 cup butter, melted

Preheat over to 350˚. Process cookies in a food processor 30 seconds to measure 1 ½ cups fine crumbs. Add sugar and salt; pulse 3 times. With processor running, pour butter through food chute; process until blended.

Press crumb mixture into a 9 ½ -inch deep-dish pie plate.

Bake at 350˚ for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from over to a wire rack, and cool completely (about 30 minutes).

Whisk together sugar and cornstarch in a heavy saucepan. Whisk together half-and-half eggs. Gradually whisk egg mixture into sugar mixture. Bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly. Boil 1 minute; remove from heat. Add butter, vanilla, and salt, stirring until butter melts. Place pan in ice water; whisk custard occasionally until cool. Cut bananas into ¼-inch slices; arrange slices over bottom of cooled curst. Spoon custard over bananas. Place heavy-duty plastic wrap directly on warm custard (to prevent a film from forming); chill 4 hours or until set. (Filling with thicken as it chills.) Top with Whipped Cream. Tip”:” Be sure to whip the cream until just stiff before topping the pie so that it will slice beautifully.

Tips on the filling”:” This filling is, essentially, a pastry cream with some differences in how it's mixed, and with pastry cream you need to make sure to cook it hot enough and long enough. If you have never made pastry cream before, I recommend using a thermometer and getting it to 203F—this is the temperature at which cornstarch thickens properly. When I make pastry cream I stir it over heat for anywhere between 5 and 8 minutes before it hits the right consistency. This recipe says 1 minute, which I think is suspiciously short, but you have to go based on looks and temperature rather than relying on time. You want to see a texture that looks like loose pudding, thick and glossy. It will bubble, but the bubbles will move and pop slowly because the mixture is thick. And it will hit 203F, the temperature at which thickening really kicks into action.

When in doubt, do the spoon test”:” If the pastry cream is thick enough, it will coat the back of a spoon and you can draw a line through it with your finger that will hold its shape.

Also, I would whisk the eggs and dairy quite a bit more before cooking the egg, which the gif doesn’t show—you want to make sure the egg is well mixed because that reduces changes of scrambling. It says stir constantly and you really do have to stir constantly or you will have a lumpy scrambled mess. Really, the best way to do it is to not mix the eggs and dairy at all until the dairy is hot, and then temper the eggs and whisk them together. The technique they show in the gif will work, though.

Consider whipping some dark rum into your whipped cream on top to compliment the bananas!