Happy pie faces

These past couple of days I`ve been M.I.A from the blog world. We`ve been busy bee`s, and working hard. There has been school, plenty of car rides, walks, bike rides, park play and arts and craft sessions.There have been major transitions as well; potty training, and a babies first steps!(insert tears here)!!!
Baking also made an appearance which made my oven really happy, since I have recently neglected it due to busy schedule and warm weather!


                                                   A look into our recent activities!

I had ALOT of  bananas(thanks dad!!)going ripe and made a chocolate banana bread. A favorite of ours that is often on our dessert menu. It is simple to make and uses very basic ingredients that i usually always have in my pantry.Afterwards, i still had bananas left, and decided to try something new!looking for a recipe with ingredients i would already have on hand,(tiredness is a bully and held me captive in my home!!)I found a recipe for what looked like a delicious Banoffee pie!Sounds delicious right? The recipe called for 2 cans of condensed milk , 3 cups of heavy whipping cream, and macadamia nuts. No macadamia nuts, only 1 can of condensed milk, and  a carton and a half of cream(one carton turned out to be frozen).Not a good start but we will make this work!I substituted the nuts for walnuts and played around with the ingredients. what goes better with bananas?? That's right people, I added peanut butter!!!about 2 hours later, (prep and bake time plus a load of laundry and a yelling match over a TV show), a little skeptical,i had a piece...and oh man that was some good pie!The kids concurred, and we had some pretty happy pie faces!!


                                                                                               (they were pretty cute too!)

Here is a link for the original recipe:http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Banoffee-Pie-103940

And here is my version:



Crust:      3/4 cups of all purpose flour
                6 tbsps unsalted butter, chilled cut into 1/2 inch cubes
                2 tbsps sugar
                1/4 tsp salt
                1/2 cup walnuts
                1 large egg yolk
                1tsp vanilla extract

Filling:    1 can(300 ml) condensed milk
                1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
                1 tsp instant coffee
                1 tsp vanilla extract
                1/4 cup peanut butter
                1 very ripe banana( peeled and cut into small pieces)

Topping: 3 ripe bananas sliced

In food processor, add flour, butter, sugar and salt, until makes coarse meal mixture.Add nuts, until chopped finely, add egg yolk and vanilla. Dough is like a paste.put in 9 inch glass pie plate, and freeze 30 mins.

Preheat oven 350 F, bake crust 25 to 30 mins, when crust is golden brown.let crust cool .

Simmer condensed milk with with coffee until thick like peanut butter( approx 25 mins)
remove from heat and add cream, vanilla, peanut butter and bananas.transfer filling to cooled crust and bake additional 25 mins.

Let pie cool, and top with banana slices.

Try it out, and Enjoy!!