Where cooking and bravery meet
So Dulce de leche is the toffee in Banoffee Pie. Its the creamy luscious toffee layer that’s sandwiched between bananas, pie crust and cream that makes you weak in the knees with every bite. If you love Banoffee as much as I do, and figured that this is the real way to make it, you’d be as sad as I was. Becuase the thought of pressure cooking an entire sealed can of condensed milk just gave me the heebie-jeebies. I was plain scared, and that’s pretty much put me off trying to make Banoffee Pie at home.
Not too long ago, however, Anand tried this and succeeded. So much so that he tried it several times after and assured me time and again that it was foolproof and perfectly safe. I was convinced it was just another easy way to make a home grown explosive. But more recently, Praerna tried it too, and that pretty much sealed the deal for me.
So I mustered all the courage I had, dunked the can of Milkmaid into the pressure cooker, ensured there was enough water and pressure cooked it for a whole hour.
Much cooling later, this is what I got:
Go ahead and follow Praerna’s instructions. I did, and the results were fantabulous.
Here’s a few ideas for what you can do with this:
1) Buy a slice of chocolate sponge cake. Cut it right through the centre horizontally. Spread this and replace the layer.
2) Make some coffee and add a spoonful of this into it, Pioneer Woman style.
3) Caramelize some bananas and spoon this over them generously.
4) Eat it all up just as it is, plain and simple and sinfully yummy.
Re re- this looks good… Hmmmm now you got me thinking. yes do go ahead and try the Banoffee pie.
Im linking you the post i made on Anand and his Banoffee http://followmyrecipe.blogspot.com/2011/05/he-promised-it-would-be-better-than-sex.html
Iv seen this one :) and yes, banoffee will happen the moment I get me an oven!
Yaayy… I told you getting over the fear of explosion would be worth it. This is definitely the best (cooking) thing I’ve learned all year!!1
It was yummy re. I sliced up some bananas, caramelized them and scooped this on top and ate it off :P
People like me will ask – how do you caramelise bananas? Do enlighten the fools.
Its really simple..I’ll tell you what I did last night:
Slice up 4 small bananas. In a pan sprinkle 4-5 spoons of sugar and pour 2-3 teasponfuls of water to wet it fully. Place on a medium flame and stir till it melts, cooks, bubbles and then slowly begins to caramelize. At this point you will see the mixture turn from white to golden. Throw in the sliced bananas and toss around. Turn flame down to low at this point because it goes very quickly form golden to burnt and brown, and toss bananas constantly. After about 30-45 seconds when the bananas are nicely coated, turn off flame and serve :)
yep..tried it!!! dulce de-licious!!! :D
congrats!
Hi! thanks for what seems to be a simple and most yummy recipe!
ok, couple of (foolish) questions:
- once its out of the cooker, at what point should the can be opened?
- do you let the can cool naturally or can we hasten it by putting it in a bowl of cold water/ ice? or will this spoil the resultatn texture?
- and finally, does the texture of the result depend on the time in the cooker? i’d like to make it as close as possible as to an ice creamy texture
Well I’ve only done it once, to be honest. And it was slightly thicker than ice creamy texture. It was intense, rich and thick but spreadable. Also, I let it cool natrally, and I think that’s the best way to do it. Not sure if cooling it in a water bath would alter the consistency or finished product, but I would advise you to let it cool in its own time and only then open it.
Hope this helps.
Yes, and thanks for the prompt reply! will do :)
Ah pioneer woman. Thats a good blog. The only thing I dont like is that her blog is scrupulously ‘clean’ – like she projects this perfect life, perfect husband, perfect kids. That makes me distrust her.
Youre right. I started off being a die hard fan, and majorly trawled her blog everyday. But the shine wore off pretty soon, exactly because of what youve mentioned. It all just seemed too good to be true, untarnished and unreal. Her food blog however, is still awesome!
yeah and her photos