April Pie: Easter Banana Cream

SONY DSCNot everyone can make it home for holidays, particularly holidays like Easter. There’s no school break aligned with it, and the last term of the school year is often the most hectic. Between final projects and papers, school events, preparing for graduation and all that entails–passing your classes, packing up your stuff, plans for the future, getting a job, finding a place to live…–and then, not to mention, trying to make the most of your final weeks of the school year, there really isn’t time to go home. The good news is when you have a kitchen, a few simple ingredients and some benevolent friends it’s easy to find ways to celebrate. We made a wonderful brunch with pancakes, biscuits, fruit, and eggs; and then, of course, pie.

SONY DSCFor April and for Easter we made a tasty tasty Old Fashioned Banana Cream pie with peanut butter and chocolate, because what goes better with bananas than peanut butter and chocolate?

We followed a recipe from: http://www.food.com/recipe/old-fashioned-banana-cream-pie-14979

Ingredients:

1 (9 inch) pie crusts, baked (we used a pre-made Nilla Wafer crust)
3 cups whole milk (as always we used almond milk)
3/4 cup white sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 bananas

SONY DSCTo prep the Nilla Wafer cust we had we first spread whipped peanut butter and then melted semi-sweet chocolate over the bottom of the crust. While that cooled we began making the filling!

 

Directions:

1. Have baked 9-inch pie shell ready.
2. In a large saucepan, scald the milk.
3. In another saucepan, combine the sugar, flour and salt; gradually stir in the scalded milk.SONY DSC
4. Over medium heat, stirring constantly, cook until thickened.
5. Cover and, stirring occasionally, cook for two minutes longer.
6. In a small bowl, have the 3 egg yolks, slightly beaten, ready; stir a small amount of the hot mixture into beaten yolks; when thoroughly combined, stir yolks into hot mixture.
7. Cook for one minute longer, stirring constantly.
SONY DSC8. Remove from heat and blend in the butter and vanilla.
9. Let sit until lukewarm.
10. When ready to pour, slice bananas and scatter in pie shell; pour warm mixture over bananas.
11. If desired, make a meringue (you’ll have 3 leftover egg whites) to top the pie, or just let the pie cool until serving.

 

January Pie: Dirt Pie, AKA Oreo Goop

SONY DSCWell, after the wonderful holiday break it was back to the good ole dorm kitchen to launch my last semester of college with a pie. Sticking with the theme of chocolate that has developed I decided to make a variation on a no-bake Oreo pudding pie. Here’s where I found the recipe to base my pie off of: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/OREO-Triple-Layer-Chocolate-Pie/Detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Thumb&e11=oreo%20pie&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page

SONY DSCIngredients:

  • 1 pack of Oreos (we used double stuff)
  • 2 pkg. instant pudding, chocolate
  • 2 cups cold milk (we used almond milk)
  • 1/4 cup butter/margarine (we used peanut butter)
  • 8 oz. thawed cool whip

SONY DSCFirst take 24 of the cookies and crush them to a fine consistency. Then we chose to mix in some peanut butter to make the cookie crust stick together, instead of butter. SONY DSCIf you’ve ever seen the Parent Trap you know that Oreos and peanut butter are the perfect pairing. Once it was nice and sticky we formed it to the bottom and sides of the pie pan.

Next mix the pudding packets with the milk and stir/whisk until completely blended. Scoop 1 & 1/2 cups of the pudding into your crust for the first layer. SONY DSCThen mix half of your whipped cream with the remaining pudding to create your second layer; pour that over the pudding layer. To create your last layer crumble and mix the remaining cookies with the last of the cool whip and spread that over the top.

Then let your pie refrigerate for about 4 hours before enjoying!SONY DSC