Banoffee Pie

Banoffee Pie. One of the finest puddings known to man... there's caramel and cream involved. What could be better?

I was surprised to find out that banoffee pie is an English creation - I'd always assumed it was American. The Hungry Monk in East Sussex lays claim to inventing the dish in 1972. I'll need to make sure to stop by and try the original sometime...

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You will need:

- 1 tin condensed milk
- 2 bananas
- 12 digestive biscuits
- 80g butter
- 2tbsp golden syrup
- 1 tub whipping cream

Start with making the caramel, as this takes the longest to do. Grab your tin of condensed milk and drop it (carefully) into a pot of boiling water and boil it for around 2 to 3 hours. I boiled mine for 3 hours and the caramel came out a little thick, so maybe 2 and a half hours would be about right.

Just make sure that the tin is completely immersed the whole time or you run the risk of them exploding... lots of cleaning up to do. And dangerous! Simply top up the water every fifteen minutes or so.

While the milk is boiling you can turn your attention to the biscuit base for the pie. Crush up the digestive biscuits very finely. Heat up the butter and golden syrup together until the butter has melted through evenly. Stir in the crushed digestives until all the crumbs are thoroughly coated.

Line a 9 inch cake tin with greaseproof paper and then press the biscuit base into the tin, spreading evenly for a well distributed base. Put your finished base into the fridge for a couple of hours until it sets.

Once the base is set, remove it from the fridge and then slice your bananas and arrange them on the base, covering it completely.

The caramel should be ready by this point. Allow it to cool before opening the can and pouring your caramel over the bananas and biscuit, spreading it to the edges.

Finally whip up the cream until it's very thick and spread this over the top of the caramel, and for a finishing touch, grate some chocolate over the top.

Serve and enjoy!

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Coming up:
- We'll see...