Hi Bold Bakers!
Welcome to Ireland and Happy St. Patrick’s Day.
I am here with my mum.
Hi there.
And we’re going to make a dessert that is very popular in Ireland.
It is a Banoffee Pie.
So mum, tell us a little bit about what a Banoffee Pie is.
So really a Banoffee Pie is- generally has a biscuit base, sometimes a pastry base, has
a dulce de leche layer, bananas, topped off with fresh cream.
It can be varied a little bit with chocolate or sometimes even coffee.
And it’s very popular here in Ireland for some reason, though I wouldn’t say it’s
origins are here.
No, it’s not Irish but it is very popular in Ireland.
You get it in a lot of people’s homes, wouldn’t you?
Yes, you would, yeah.
It became a dinner party dessert.
So just like mum said, we’re going to start out with the biscuit base.
Now what we use for a Banoffee Pie is digestive biscuits because they’re kind of oaty, aren’t
they?
No, it’s whole wheat I think.
Yeah yeah yeah.
You’re right, it’s whole wheat I think.
So relatively healthy for a biscuit.
Yeah.
Exactly.
And a biscuit being a cookie.
Yeah.
A biscuit being a cookie, that’s a good point.
So this is what you normally use.
But if you are in another country, you can actually use just a kind of a plain biscuit
or graham crackers.
They work really well too.
So mum, I’m going to give you the biscuits.
Throw them into that little food processor.
Now the thing about this recipe is that you kind of eye ball it, don’t you mum?
Like you throw in a few biscuits, put in a little butter.
But I’m actually going to have the recipe on www.biggerbolderbaking.com so you can follow
that.
So you just want to pop your biscuits into a food processor and blend them up until they’re
nice and fine.
So once it’s nice and fine like this, just like mum said, we’re going to add in some
melted butter to bring it all together.
So when your cookies are blended up it kind of looks like wet sand.
All that butter is going to hold it together when we pat it into the tin.
Okay mum, so go ahead and throw it into our pie tin.
And as they say in Ireland, trun it into your tin, hun.
So that’s it.
It’s beginning to firm up already.
Yup.
So Gemma, will you maybe take it and do what it is that you do with it after that?
Yeah.
I think you wanted to put it up the side of the pan.
Well all you do-
You do this with your fingers.
Yeah, yeah.
I’m going to do it with my clean hands, mum.
Excellent.
Okay.
With your very clean hands Gemma.
Yeah.
What’s your first job when you come into the kitchen?
Wash your hands.
That’s it.
And you know what the other one is?
What?
Put on the kettle.
And put on the kettle.
Yeah.
Fill the kettle.
Yeah.
Because you’re always going to need hot water.
That’s true.
What do you think, mum?
Looks really nice.
Lovely.
So—
It came up really well.
It’s actually beginning to firm up already.
It is because of the butter.
So we’re going to pop this into the fridge for around 15 minutes and just like you said,
let it firm up good and proper.
Yeah.
And then, I think it’s kind of tea time.
Do you think—do you want a cup of tea?
I think yes.
Okay.
Tea time.
So in Ireland, we are big drinkers of tea.
It’s kind of a little bit of a ritual.
You don’t get very far without having a cup of tea.
No.
And you already have people in your house for tea.
And that’s another thing we borrowed from England really.
Yeah.
I mean, we didn’t-- There was no such thing as tea in Ireland, obviously.
It came with the British.
Yeah.
And we’re delighted to have it.
It’s great.
We are a lot of-- We’re tea drinkers and we love our desserts.
We love our food, actually.
Yeah.
In general.
We do.
But when it comes to Irish desserts, we—people always ask to do more Irish desserts and the
thing about it is, they’re kind of—they’re delicious but we don’t have that many.
We’ve got like tarts.
Yeah.
Puddings.
Traditionally in Ireland, you don’t have to go back very far.
Yeah.
You know, to the time where, even when I was growing up what you had available was what
was growing, you know?
You didn’t have things coming in from abroad.
So we were very much restricted by our climate.
We do have delicious ones, though don’t we?
Yes.
I mean, our produce, there’s nothing to beat it really.
I mean, when it comes to our milk, our eggs, our butter.
So those have always formed a really heavy part of.
And so fruitcakes and anything that could be preserved through the winter really.
Yeah.
My mum has, she gave me her recipe for bread and butter pudding and that’s a recipe she
made when I was growing up.
And that’s actually on biggerbolderbaking.com.
And actually, my mum is going to contribute even more recipes to my website, a lot of
traditional stuff that we grew up with and that’s just really popular in Ireland so
make sure you go over to my website and check those out.
Yup.
Let’s go check on our cookie base.
I think it’s time.
So our cookie base is ready and it looks perfect.
It’s a nice shape on it.
So our next step is-
To put in the—which first?
The bananas.
The banana first?
The banana first.
Because if you put the banana on top it can discolor so probably its better to put it
under the dulce de leche, don’t you think?
Yeah, we’re going to put it in the bottom.
I think so, yeah.
So what you want to do is just do a few slices.
And then we’re going to lay them in the bottom of the crust.
Okay.
So for this one, because its just an eight inch pan, about two bananas.
Yeah, around two bananas.
And nice and thick too.
I think the thicker they are, the nicer they are.
Actually, yes.
Yeah, it’s true.
Because then you have a good, like, layer of caramel, cream, and banana.
Yes.
So that is our banana layer.
Next is the dulce de leche.
Now I have a recipe of how you can make this; it’s really easy, isn’t it mum?
Yes, it is.
I have a recipe on my website of how you can make this.
You can also boil a can of condensed milk and those instructions are on my website also.
Okay mum, go ahead and add in the caramel.
You can also use store bought caramel sauce or homemade caramel sauce too.
Whatever you find that’s really caramel-y.
How are we looking there mum?
It looks good now.
It’s just about right.
Yeah.
So now we’re going to top it off with some cream.
So before we put on our cream, we’re actually going to take it out of the tin, just so we
can make sure that it doesn’t get messy after we put on the cream.
Okay.
And then get your serving platter.
And then just place it there gently in the middle.
And then we’re just going to add our whip cream on the top.
You’re not going to pipe it?
No.
Just pile it on.
We’re going to put big dollops.
Because I only really have some small nozzles and the rest.
Yeah, got to make do with what you’ve got.
Not quite as equipped as your kitchen is, Gemma.
So there’s my whipped cream.
And mum, do you want to do the finishing touch?
I sure can.
We’re going to grate some chocolate on top.
Okay.
This Banoffee Pie looks beautiful, almost too good to eat.
But of course, as the bakers, I’m going to serve us up two nice big slices.
We deserve it.
We do.
Okay mum, cheers
Cheers.
This is pretty delicious Gemma.
Oh, it’s yummy.
You really can’t beat caramel and bananas, right?
And cream.
And now we know why some people have been asking for this.
Yeah, because it’s so delicious.
Yeah, I had forgotten how nice it was.
Yeah, me too.
Thank you very much, mum, for being on my episode.
You’re welcome.
I really hope you enjoyed it.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day and I will see you back here every week for more Bigger Bolder
Baking.
(Now we can take big bites.
Yeah.)