Banana Love: Earthquake Banana Cream Pie

Earthquake Banana Cream Pie

My love affair with bananas continues in this very excellent banana cream pie.

I found the basis for this recipe online six or seven years ago. The recipe's contributor noted that their father had made this pie from scratch in his restaurant for over forty years and the pie was always a favorite. Unfortunately, I don't know more about the restaurant and can't pass on the credit. I’ve rewritten the recipe here with minor changes and when you taste it, you'll see why it was such a favorite.

To start, you’ll need a baked pie shell. You can make one using my flaky lardy piecrust recipe or whatever piecrust you like as long as it’s already baked and cooled before the filling goes in. By the way, don’t worry if your homemade crust has a few uneven edges as mine does in the photo below. Whipped cream at serving time is the perfect cover up. The pre-formed graham crust you can buy at the grocery store is also delicious in this recipe. If you use a crust that is less than 10 inches in diameter, you will have leftover filling. Put it into ramekins and enjoy a tasty little pudding dessert.

You can use whatever milk you like to make the filling. I use skim and it works just fine. However, this is one place where you will not want to use overripe bananas. Save the mushy bananas for another recipe (like blender banana cake) and use slices of the firm ones here. Because of the custard filling and the bananas, this pie is not a good keeper. Plan to have it eaten within a day or two of making it otherwise the moisture of the custard will soften the crust. 

And what about the earthquake? Occasionally, the custard filling doesn’t set as firmly as you would like. The pie will still look smooth and firm until you cut the first slice - then suddenly cracks form along the top (you can see it in the photo at the top of this post). This happened as I was serving a slice to my friend Harry. He looked at the cracks and dubbed it earthquake pie. If I'd had an extra banana, I might have covered the top of the pie with banana slices to disguise the earthquake effect. Two pieces of pie later, the seismic custard proved the old adage: it's what's inside that counts!

MA’s Earthquake Banana Cream Pie

Ingredients for filling

10” baked pie shell, cooled

4 cups cold milk

8 tbsp cornstarch

1 ¼ cups sugar

1 pinch salt

4 eggs, slightly beaten

2 tbsp butter

2 tsp vanilla

2 bananas, sliced

In a medium-sized saucepan, pour cold milk.

Mix together cornstarch, sugar and salt. Add the mixture to the cold milk, stirring until all the dry ingredients are dissolved in the milk.

Cook mixture over medium heat. Stir constantly until bubbly.

Cooking the custard

Pour ¼ of the hot mixture into beaten eggs and mix thoroughly. Return egg/milk mixture to saucepan.

Continue cooking until the mixture comes back to bubbling and is thick.

MA’s Tip: If you see little brown flecks floating up, the milk and sugar have begun to scorch. Don’t panic. Try not to stir right down to the bottom of the saucepan. Turn down the heat and/or remove the saucepan for a minute or two.

Blend butter and vanilla into mixture.

Banana slices form centre layer

Pour about half the mixture into the pie shell and cover with banana slices.

Pour remaining mixture on top of the banana slices. Any leftover pie filling can be put into custard cups and served as a dessert.

Let the filling cool, then refrigerate until firm.

Top with sweetened whipped cream and serve.

If you won’t be serving the whole pie at one sitting, I recommend adding the whipped cream to each individual slice as it is served.

Printable Recipe for MA's Earthquake Banana Cream Pie

Ready for the whipped cream