Banana Cream Pie

Friday night last week my church held a Hymn Sing and Pie Social.  I knew I needed to make one as opposed to buy one --- for many reasons.  The first of which is ... I'm a wannabe baker.  The second ... we're broke.  So I looked around the kitchen and realized that I had extra bananas lying around leftover from last week.  I decided that I was destined to make a banana cream pie.  Never made one before.  Didn't know the first thing about making one.


But I bake ... that's what I do.  So I could figure it out.  Time was short and resources limited.  I didn't want to buy a bunch of extra ingredients (defeats the purpose of making based on what we have on hand).  We found a recipe that needed no special ingredients.  I needed a pie crust, but decided that I could afford to buy that as I haven't really figured out pastry crusts yet.  And again ... time was short.  The recipe I found also didn't need a ton of gelling time or baking time or anything.


After we got home from grocery shopping I got to work.  I baked my pie shell.  Last time I baked a crust by itself the crust bubbled up and burnt and, well, was an epic failure.  so this time I was determined to do it right.  I found a different method for baking the crust alone.  I modified it slightly.  20 minutes later I had a beautiful pre-baked pie crust that did NOT bubble up and did NOT burn.  It was golden brown and flaky.  Perfecto!


Next I had to make the pudding.  I was trying to read the recipe at the same time and plan ahead.  I was multi-tasking too much.  The pudding had to be stirred constantly so it didn't burn.  It did start to stick to the bottom of the pan, but I think I salvaged it before too much stuck and I prevented a full burn.  I sliced up the bananas and laid them in the pie shell.  I was supposed to let the shell cool off first, but I didn't have time.  So they went in while it was still warm.


Then I poured the pudding in the shell on top of the bananas.  It looked a tad lumpy, but overall looked edible.  Then let it set in the fridge for 1-2 hours.


I was VERY nervous about this pie.  I had no idea what a banana cream pie entailed (I thought the bananas were mushed INTO the pudding mixture and a whipped cream was on top of that ... more like a chocolate cream pie).   So I was hoping that I was doing it right.


The woman who sampled the pie first said it was great.  I figured she was being nice because I was sitting next to her and I told her I made it.  Then as I was leaving I got another comment on it.  Oh ... that must mean I did something right!  YAY!!!


We had another crust left, so I made a second one on Saturday for us at home.  It was pretty good.  I monitored my pudding a little more closely and prevented any burning at all.  However, after sitting in the fridge for a day, the pudding has started to kind of get rubbery and almost has a pudding skin on it.  While it tastes OK, it has an awkward texture that I'm just not fond of.  Since it's my project and my bakery, I want to find a way to fix that.


I shall find a different recipe, now that I know what I'm doing.


No photos as time was short.  I might be able to get one photo of the last piece in the pan.