Quick summer desserts: Banoffee Pie

I seem to be on a recipe kick lately.  (That could explain the ever-shrinking nature of my waistbands, and why I have had to revamp my style to focus exclusively on 1950s-style dresses, a la Mad Men.  I think it's a good look, so I'm not too concerned yet.)

With that aside, here is a recipe that pays homage to my British roots and nicely rounds out a summer barbecue.  It is meant to be made ahead and frozen or refrigerated, and it's quite straightforward.  The name, "banoffee", comes from the combination of "banana" and "toffee", and is something of a misnomer because the ingredients are actually bananas and caramel, but whatever....  (And for those of you epicureans, feel free to bone up on the differences between caramel and toffee.)

Banoffee Pie

Ingredients

Graham cracker crust (either purchased or homemade; more on this below)
4 fresh bananas, not the mushy ones
2 cans of sweetened, condensed milk (light, at your option)
1/2 pint of heavy whipping cream
2 Heath bars

Directions

• First you have to acquire the graham cracker crust.  On the one hand, it's easy to buy one at the store, and then it's done.  This, however, has the disadvantage of making it almost impossible to get slices out of the pan when you are ready to serve.  Also, it clearly lets everyone know you bought the crust.  Alternatively, Honey Maid makes a box of graham cracker crumbs which has the recipe for a crust printed on the back.  I like to do that and put it in my springform pan, which means when the pie is all done it's easy to pry the sides off for serving, AND you can put it on a nicer serving plate, and the overall challenge of making a graham cracker crust is about a level 2 on a 10-point cooking scale.

• Next up:  The caramel.  I am going to give you two options.  Risk-takers: go with option A.  Risk-aversers: go with option B.   
• Option A:  Fill a medium sized saucepan about halfway with water and bring to a boil.  Remove the paper wrapper from the cans of sweetened, condensed milk and place the cans in the boiling water.  Turn the stove down, but keep it hot enough to keep the water at a low boil.  Boil for 1.5 hours (ensuring that there is always water in the pan).  BE FOREWARNED!!!  If you just happen to fall asleep on the couch when you're waiting for the caramel to be done, and the cans boil just a little bit too long, they just might get too hot and explode all over your kitchen cabinets and ceiling and lights and hardwood floors, and then you might have to spend the next three hours trying to scrape gooey semi-hardened caramel off of things, and then your husband might come in and lecture you about PV=nRT and all of that stuff you tried to forget from high school chemistry, leaving you with a lovely graham cracker crust, no caramel, sticky floors and a ruined manicure.  Not that this has ever happened to me.
• Option B:  Get two glass Pyrex dishes of different sizes, so that you can place one dish nested in the other.  Open the cans of sweetened condensed milk and pour the milk in the smaller dish.  Once you've placed the smaller dish in the larger dish, pour water into the larger dish until it comes about halfway up the side of the smaller dish.  Stick in the oven for 1.5 hours at 350F.  If you feel ambitious, open the oven periodically and stir the caramel to reduce the skin forming on the top.  If you don't feel ambitious, that's fine too.

• Once the caramel is done, stir it with a whisk to stir in any skin that formed.  Pour the caramel into the graham cracker crust before it cools.  

• Slice your bananas over the caramel.

• Cover the bananas with whipped cream. 

• Put one Heath bar into a small plastic bag and bash with the end of a rolling pin.  This is good for eliminating stress and getting out aggression.  Eat the other Heath bar.  This is also good for eliminating stress and releasing endorphins.

• Sprinkle the bashed-up Heath bar over the whipped cream.  Freeze or refrigerate until you want to eat it.