My Banana Cream Pie recipe is made with a creamy vanilla pudding, flavored with a thick layer of bananas, served on a crisp vanilla wafer crust and topped off with a fluffy crown of homemade whipped cream!Be sure to check out the how-to VIDEO just below the recipe!
Place wafer cookies in the basin of a food processor and pulse until mixture is nothing but crumbs²
65 vanilla wafer cookies
Add brown sugar and pulse until combined.
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
Add crumbs to melted butter (in a medium/large bowl) and stir until mixture is evenly combined and crumbs are moistened.
7 Tablespoons salted butter
Transfer crumbs to a 9 ½” pie plate and use the clean bottom of a measuring cup to tamp crumbs into the bottom and up the sides of the pie plate to form the crust.
Transfer to 350F (175C) oven and bake for 13 minutes. Prepare your banana cream pie filling while your pie crust cools completely.
Whisk together sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a medium-sized, heavy duty saucepan until combined.
¾ cup granulated sugar, ¼ cup cornstarch, ½ teaspoon salt
Add egg yolks, milk, and heavy cream and whisk until all ingredients are combined.
5 large egg yolks, 1 ½ cups milk, 1 ½ cups heavy cream
Place saucepan over medium heat and use a whisk to stir constantly until the mixture comes to a simmer/begins to bubble (this can take 10 minutes or so, do not crank the heat above medium or you can ruin your filling).
Once simmering, continue to whisk constantly and allow to bubble for 1 minute. Once 1 minute has passed, immediately remove from heat and add butter, 1 Tbsp at a time, whisking until melted and combined after each addition.
3 Tablespoons butter
Whisk in vanilla extract.
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Pour banana cream pie filling through a fine mesh strainer into a large heatproof bowl. Cover surface with plastic wrap (make sure the plastic wrap is covering the surface of the pudding to prevent a skin from forming) and allow to cool for 20 minutes.
Once cooled, pour half of pudding mixture into your prepared pie crust and spread evenly.
Slice 2 bananas and dip each slice in lemon or lime juice³. Gently pat dry and place bananas in an even layer over the first layer of pudding. Top banana slices with remaining pudding and smooth with spatula.
2 bananas, ¼ cup lemon or lime juice
Cover the surface of the pie with plastic wrap and transfer to refrigerator. Chill at least several hours.
Once you are ready to serve (or several hour before serving), prepare whipped cream. Combine heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract in a large bowl (preferably a metal bowl that you’ve chilled in the refrigerator or freezer for 10 minutes) and use an electric mixer to beat until stiff peaks form⁴.
¾ cup heavy cream, ¼ cup powdered sugar, ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Dollop or pipe⁵ whipped cream over chilled pie and slice⁶ and serve. Enjoy!
If desired, serve topped with homemade whipped cream and pipe or dollop whipped cream
Video
Notes
¹I like using this vanilla wafer crust to make banana cream pie, however it also tastes great when made with a graham cracker crust (bake according to instructions in recipe) or in a standard pie crust (blind-bake according to instructions).²If you don’t have a food processor, you can crush the cookies by placing them in a large bag and thoroughly smashing them with a rolling pin or mallet until they’re reduced to crumbs.³Once you slice your bananas, they'll begin to brown almost immediately. Dipping them in acidic lemon or lime juice helps to keep this from happening too quickly.⁴For detailed information and photos on making homemade whipped cream, please see my how to make whipped cream post.⁵You can of course use any tip, but I used an Ateco 848⁶⁵Banana cream pie filling is essentially a pudding, which can make slicing a little messy. For neater slices (like you see in my pictures) you can pop the pie in the freezer for about 30 minutes before slicing. This is not required, though (except for showing off that pretty banana layer in the middle!).