Banana Cream Pie

A while back I posted this raspberry dessert from the Taste of Homes Contest Winning Annual Recipes 2007 Cook book. During church on Sunday our friend invited us over  for dinner. We brought a dessert.  We needed to make something out of what we had on hand, so we pulled out the Taste of Homes book again and searched for something for which we had all of the ingredients. We came across a recipe for Banana Cream Pie, we had all the ingredients and it gave me an opportunity to use up the rest of my bananas.  When we picked the recipe we didn't look close enough to realize that the instructions were for the microwave (the book tested the recipe in an 850-watt microwave).  This was a little weird for me, so I cooked the filling by stove top, but we did do the crust in the microwave. I'll put both the directions for the stove top and the microwave down in the instructions. If you try it out in the microwave, let me know how it turns out.

Banana Cream Pie
Crust:

• 1/3 cup butter, cubed
• 1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar

Place butter in a greased 9 inch microwave safe pie plate ( I don't think my husband greased the pie plated and the crust stuck, so don't forget.) Heat uncovered 30 seconds to 1 minute, until butter is melted. Stir in crumbs and sugar. Mix well. Press mixture onto the bottom and up the sides of pie plate. Cook, uncovered, in microwave on high for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes until crust is firm and holds together. Cool completely.
Filling:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 1/4 cups milk
• 3 egg yolks, lightly beaten
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 medium firm bananas, cut into 1/4 inch slices

Microwave directions: In a 2-qt. microwave safe bowl, combine sugar, flour and cornstarch. Gradually whisk milk in until smooth. Microwave, uncovered, on high for 9-10 minutes or until mixture thickens, stopping the microwave every 2 minutes to stir.  Mix a small amount of the hot mixture into the egg yolks. Gradually mix the egg mixture into the milk mixture, stirring constantly. Cook mixture an additional 1 to 1 1/2 minutes until bubbly, stirring every 30 seconds. Stir in butter, vanilla and salt until butter is melted.

Stove top directions: In a saucepan combine sugar, flour and cornstarch. Gradually whisk milk in until smooth.  Cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens. Remove from heat.  Mix a small amount of the hot mixture into the egg yolks. Gradually mix the egg mixture into the milk mixture, stirring constantly. Return pan to stove top. Bring the mixture to a boil. Cook for another 2 minutes stirring constantly (if your mixture is splattering all over before 2 minutes just remove it from heat, it's definitely cooked enough!) Stir in butter, vanilla and salt until butter is melted.

Cool the filling mixture for 20 minutes, stirring every 2-3 minutes.  Arrange the banana slices in the crust. Pour the filling over the bananas. Cover and chill 8 hours or over night (we didn't have the time so we stuck it in the freezer for an hour until we went to our friends and then stuck it in the fridge at their place for a couple of hours before we ate it and it was just fine.) Top with whipped topping and additional bananas if desired. (I topped mine with whipped topping. Well, I had a couple packets of Dream Whip in my cupboard.)