TWD: Banana Cream Pie and Deconstruced Ice Cream Sundae !WOOOOOOOOOOOT!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!

Best. Dorie. Recipe. EVER!

I have never had banana cream pie. What was I MISSING?! Up in NY, especially Italian land where I proudly grew up, I never even SAW a banana cream pie. So when Amy of Sing For Your Supper (click for recipe) chose this, I was super excited.

This recipe is amazing.

First, let's start with Dorie's ungodly good-for-everything-but-my-diet pie crust. This is the best pie crust that exists in the entire universe. It is unbelievably flaky and buttery. I have actually been told that the crust is TOO good and sometimes will outshine the filling, like in the case of a pumpkin pie that I made back in October.

I took it as a compliment to the crust rather than an insult to the pumpkin pie filling because I like to look at things positively.

Because I don't need an entire banana cream pie sitting around, I made six mini tarts. I had a half of one, my boyfriend had the rest. He LOVED it. He actually did a little dance when he tasted it. The pastry cream is thick, rich, and wonderfully spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg. I used little red bananas, which actually have a bit of a cinnamon taste as well. If you can find them in your grocer, I suggest you try them. They are wonderful. The whipped cream was delicious and I loved the bit of tang from the sour cream.

Because I wanted to try something a bit different, I also made a deconstructed banana pie... as an ice cream sundae! I made a no-cook vanilla ice cream (seriously, this recipe is dangerous for me and my willpower) base and split it into three flavors - banana, cinnamon and nutmeg to mock the pastry cream, and then I mixed homemade graham crackers into the third flavor (which I topped with a little pie slice of Dorie's awesome crust).

HOLLA!!!!

This tasted EXACTLY like the banana cream pie, but even more dangerous because it is ice cream and I can't resist ice cream. I did a dance when I tasted this. In fact, all I heard was Katrina and the Waves' hit song "I'm Walking on Sunshine" as I danced around my apartment with a spoon in my hand. I looked like I was straight out of a scene of Look Who's Talking in a room full of dancing babies and a once-upon-a-time sexy John Travolta.

Check out TWD for more of this amazing pie!