Banofee Pie

From: **Tinkerbell**

On Apr 7, 2008

Oh, there's a story for this one. First, I chose this recipe because Banofee Pie is mentioned in a movie that I love ("Love Actually"), & I always wondered what it was. After reading the ingredient list I was delighted! Afterall, how bad can bananas, toffee & whipped cream go?! Well, my family is convinced that this is indeed a fireman's recipe because I nearly ended up with the local department knocking at my door! After boiling the cans of sweetened condensed milk for about 2 hours, I needed to add water. I added water (no problem there, I'm good at that.), then turned up the heat to bring it back to a boil. In the meantime I realized I needed to get ready to start my PAC Hosting shift. An hour & a half later, with my toddler sleeping in my lap while I hosted, I heard 6 very loud "BANG!"s from the kitchen. As we ran to the kitchen I could smell something burning, the pot on the stove was making an evil hissing sound & when I reached it I could see the three cans were puffed out on both ends into big barrel shapes & the pot was bone dry! Ugh. My best dutch oven (Breast Cancer Pink edition - only replaceable by buying the whole set again), has 3 large black circles in the bottom. Hmm, too bad they don't look like the face of Elvis... Well, it wasn't enough to make me give up now, 3-3/4 hours into it. So, I cooled the cans & spent a good 30 minutes trying to get them open. One can was impossible to crack, but I did manage to get the other two open enough to scoop out the non-blackened toffee parts (mostly just the middle areas) & decided that I'd use what I had & just make one pie instead of two. I left the amounts of everything else the same as is written. Luckily, my family & a friend we'd invited for dinner have a whole lot of faith in my cooking & were game to try the finished product. I didn't have much hope & figured I'd be making it again before reviewing it, but everyone loved it. Couldn't taste any burnt taste, loved the bananas & the toffee together, & loved the instant coffee (French Vanilla Cafe) flavored whipped cream. We'll be making this again & will probably double the bananas again too. I'm only posting the whole pie photo, as the cut piece looks like a whip cream pie at a pie throwing contest, with the double cream & all. Thanks for sharing your recipe, Ladderman! Made, learned from, enjoyed & reviewed for Pick-A-Chef Spring 2008.