Pardon me while I wipe the drool from my chin . . .

DAY - OHH
DAY - AA- AA - OHHH
DAY LIGHT COMING ME WANNA GO HOME . . .

Oops, so sorry . . . I was lost there for a moment in a caribbean paradise! The palm trees were swaying back and forth in the warm breeze and I could hear the field worker's singing the banana song as they made their way home from work . . . but then, reality smacked me in the face and I found myself sitting in an English cottage kitchen, nestled in the English countryside . . . the caribbean only a dream . . . sigh . . .

Welcome to Tuesdays With Dorie, the way cool baking group that gets together every week and bakes one recipe, the same recipe, from that delicious baking book, Baking, from my home to yours, by the delicious Dorie Greenspan! We reveal our results in unison every Tuesday, and each week I am amazed at the beautiful pictures and versions of the chosen recipe that each member manages to come up with!

This week's recipe was "Banana Cream Pie" on pages 342-343 as chosen by Amy of Sing For Your Supper. I was really looking forward to this challenge from the "get-go" Amy because I love Banana Cream pie. Thanks so much for making this choice!



When I was growing up, Banana Cream pie meant only one thing, and a most delicious thing it was too! My mother's flakey pastry filled with Jello Banana Cream pie and pudding mix layered over top of sliced banana and finally topped with my mother's lucious whipped and toasted meringue. We were all pie nuts in my house and banana cream was one of our favourites!!!

I was really excited to be trying out Dorie's version as it sounded equally delicious, if not more so, and let's face it, homemade has to be infinitely better than from a mix, right???



You are right. Your eyes are not deceiving you. That is not a pie.

The pastry cream filling is very easy to make, not much harder than making a cooked pudding really. Mine came out really thick though, and it looked kind of lumpy, even though I knew that I had done everything properly. I beat it with a whisk for about 5 minutes and it seemed to become silkier, which was a good sign. It was still really thick though and upon tasting it, I thought it resembled the flavour of Graham Crackers, which I was not entirely sure I quite liked???



This was a first for me . . . a Dorie recipe that I was not fond of . . . hmmm . . . could this actually be possible???

As the filling cooled I mulled this possibility over in my mind. Todd and I both have high cholesterol, and in fact I am on medication for it. I thought about whether I wanted to waste the treat of a pie crust on a pudding I didn't really like all that much . . . I finally decided that I would opt out of making a crust and make parfaits instead and so that's just what I did.



I layered up the cooled pudding and sliced bananas in the parfait glasses. It kinda didn't look all that good, as it was a very thick pudding, and kinda glopped instead of flowed, but I just tried to compact it with the bananas.



I topped it with the whipped cream and sour cream topping and it kind of looked quite pretty, if I don't say so myself, and I know . . . I just did.

I threw in a shortbread biscuit, because, to be honest, it started to look to me like a bit of crunch might be a good thing.



I thought it looked rather delicious sitting there.



I dug in . . .



OH MY GOODNESS!!! OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!



This was F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S!!!

I nibbled on some of it spread on one of the biscuits . . . making sure I got some banana and some of the pastry cream, and um . . . some of that delicious topping.



It was S-P-L-E-N-D-I-F-E-R-O-U-S!!!

I just had to dip again and I found myself wishing that I had opted to make a pie instead of parfaits.

RUN, don't walk, to your nearest store and pick up some bananas NOW! You MUST make this pie. It's gorgeous, even in parfait form. I can't wait to make it again, only as a pie next time. This one, surprisingly, turned into one of my favourites!



Just goes to show . . . you can't judge a book by it's cover, or a pie by it's filling . . . Trust in the power of Dorie. Hop on over to Amy's page and grab the recipe. You won't be sorry you did.

Next week's recipe is Minute Magic: Chocolate Amaretti Torte, pages 276 and 277, as chosen by Holly of Phe/MOM/enon . hmmm . . . chocolate, my only weakness . . . Todd's only hate . . . we'll just have to wait and see how this goes . . .

Don't forget to check out the Dorie Blog Roll to see how all the other ladies did! I am quite sure there are some drool worthy examples to oggle!