My first full on disastrous creation. It was supposed to be a banoffee pie but my buttery biscuit base didn’t hold together so what was left was more of an Eton Mess looking dessert.
I mixed recipes and also improvised along the way, but I intended to use the base for a key lime pie I’ve made before from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook.
500g digestive biscuits
200g unsalted butter, melted
Preheat the oven to 170℃ (Gas 3).
Roughly break up the digestive biscuits and put them in a food processor. Process until finely ground. Slowly pour the melted butter into the food processor while the motor is running. Press this mixture into the base and neatly up the side of the prepared pie dish (I used a loose bottom deep tart tin), using the ball of your hand or tablespoon to flatten and compress it.
Problem one: I didn’t use enough biscuits. Now I’m writing this I’ve seen that the recipe asked for 500g which I misread as 400g. Having not used enough biscuit, the base was too buttery and didn’t quite cover the tin as it usually does.
Problem two: I didn’t use a food processor. My oven hasn’t been working for a few weeks so friends have kindly been offering their kitchens and oven services. This weekend I was at my friend Eamonn’s (@EamonnLC). We didn’t have a food processor and decided a blender would do us just fine… it didn’t.
Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes, or until deep golden and firm.
Problem three: The remainder of my makeshift recipe came from BBC Good Food which told me to purchase Nestle Carnation Caramel, which unfortunately my local shop didn’t have. What it did have was Nestle Carnation Condensed Milk which I knew was an ingredient in making caramel, so I made some.
Using the recipe on the side of the tin of condensed milk, I made some caramel. 
While I made the caramel the biscuit base had cooled. Once the caramel had cooled slightly, I filled the base with the caramel and placed in the fridge to chill fully.
Slice two bananas into even, relatively thin, slices and cover the surface.
Using an electric whisk, whisk 350ml double cream and 1 teaspoon of icing sugar until the cream forms soft peaks and spread over the bananas.
BBC Good Food instructs…
Melt 100g of dark chocolate in a microwave or in a bowl set over, not in, a pan of simmering water. Allow to cool slightly, before drizzling over the cream.
Not being overly keen on chocolate, I decided to do shavings of chocolate on top.
What happened next is when the real disaster struck….
When removing the outside edge of the tin around the loose bottom, my buttery biscuit base failed me with a large amount of it ending up on the floor.
When I got my share home and in the fridge for a bit longer it did hold together a little better than Eamonn’s (which he violently removed from the tin using a fish slice lol).
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| Eamonn’s Banoffe Mess |
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| My slightly better set Banoffee Pie, |
Despite my many problems, it was rather delicious and I’ll try again soon. 🙂
Harleigh Reid
I write about food and eat a lot.
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