Banoffee Pie

This dessert is good to make with kids. Not only will they love it, but because it has a caramel layer, you can make it a really easy dessert and buy ready made caramel, or you can get more involved and make your own caramel.

It should really be made in one of those tins where the side can be taken away. But if you don’t have one, you can make it in a deep 20cm round tin, but make sure you line the bottom with baking paper, so you can easily lift it out to put on a plate.

Bottom Layer:

200g digestives

100g melted butter

Caramel Middle Layer:

100g butter

100g brown sugar

397g can condensed milk

3 bananas

Top Layer:

250ml double cream

Chocolate ice cream sauce

The first job is to make the base. Crush the digestive biscuits as fine as you can. I use the end of a rolling pin to smash them in a large bowl. Then melt the butter in the microwave for about 40 seconds and add this to the crushed up biscuits and mix together thoroughly. Then squish this into the bottom of the baking tin. Leave in the fridge to set for an hour.

Now is the time to make your own caramel, if you have never tried it before. It is much nicer than shop bought. Melt the butter gently in a large pan and then add the brown sugar. If you add them both at the same time, the sugar will burn before the butter has melted. Then add the condensed milk. Keep stirring until all the butter has disappeared from the top and is fully combined and you can see the caramel starting to form. This will take around 3 minutes, so be patient. Then pour this over the biscuits base and put back in the fridge until it has set.

When you are just about to serve it, slice some bananas and arrange them all over the caramel.

Whip the cream for around 4 or 5 minutes until it starts to go thick and then spread this over the bananas. Decorate with chocolate ice cream sauce.

If you need to plan ahead for friends or family coming round, you can make the bottom layer and the caramel in advance and this bit can be frozen. The bananas, cream and chocolate sauce can be added around an hour before you are due to eat it.