This is a rich and creamy custard pie with fresh bananas. The homemade gluten free pie crust is simple to make and easy to work with to make beautiful designs or classic crimping.
Ingredients
Equipment
Instructions
For the pie crust:
- Put the flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor and pulse to combine.
- Sprinkle the cold butter over the flour in the food processor. Pulse until the mixture looks crumbly with large pea-sized chunks of butter.
- Drizzle the apple cider vinegar over top. Turn the machine on and immediately start drizzling cold water through the feed tube. Stop the machine once the mixture starts to come together and looks shaggy. Give the dough the pinch test- if it sticks together, it's ready to go. If not, turn the machine on again and drizzle in a bit more water. You might not need all of the water. You want a shaggy dough, not a cohesive ball.
- Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and shape it into a ball. Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces and form each into a flat disk. Wrap the disks in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least 30 minutes or for up to 2 days. Do Ahead: The wrapped disks can be placed in freezer bags and frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight before using. If the dough has been in the fridge for several hours, let it sit at room temperature until slightly softened, about 10-20 minutes.
- Roll it out on a lightly floured piece of parchment paper. If the edges crack as you roll, simply patch them as needed.
- Transfer the dough to a 9-inch pie plate, making sure to get in the corners. Trim the dough to a ½-inch overhang. Fold the overhang under to form a ring around the pie plate. Crimp the ring, if you'd like. (Crimp the edge gently all the way around the crust by pinching the dough at regular intervals with one hand, and creating a crimped impression with the forefinger of the other hand.) At this point, if the dough feels like it's getting soft, put the pie plate in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes to firm up.
- While the crust is chilling, preheat oven to 400°F.
- Blind bake the crust: Prick holes all over the bottom of the crust with a fork. Line the chilled pie crust with parchment paper. (Crunch up the parchment paper first so that you can easily shape it into the crust.) Fill with pie weights or dried beans. (Note that you will need at least 2 standard sets of pie weights to fit.) Push the weights up against the sides of the pie crust to help ensure the sides don’t shrink down. Bake until the edges of the crust are starting to brown, about 15 minutes. Remove pie from the oven and carefully lift the parchment paper (with the weights) out of the pie. Put the crust back into the oven and bake for 5 more minutes until lightly golden brown. Remove from the oven, and cool on a wire rack completely before filling.
For the banana custard:
- Whisk the egg yolks and cornstarch together. Set aside. Combine the milk, heavy cream, sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Whisk until all the sugar has dissolved, then bring to a gentle simmer, whisking occasionally. Once simmering, remove about 1/2 cup of the milk mixture and, in a slow and steady stream, whisk into the egg yolk and cornstarch mixture. Keep the egg yolks moving so they don’t scramble. In a slow and steady stream, pour and whisk the egg yolk mixture into the pot. The custard will immediately begin to bubble and thicken. Cook for 1 full minute, whisking constantly.
- Remove the pan from heat and whisk in the vanilla and butter. If you notice little chunks of egg yolk, run the warm custard through a fine mesh sieve.
- Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on top of the warm pudding to prevent a skin from forming on top. Allow to cool for 15 minutes. I do not recommend any longer than this, as it will be too thick to spread neatly into the crust.
- Slice 2–3 bananas and arrange slices into the cooled pie shell. Spread custard on top (it’s ok if it is still slightly warm). Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on top to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours and up to 1 day.
For the whipped cream:
- When ready to serve, or up to 1 hour before serving, make the whipped cream. Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip the heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla extract on medium-high speed until medium peaks form, about 3–4 minutes.
- Pipe or spread the whipped cream on top. Slice remaining banana and garnish with banana slices and serve pie immediately, or refrigerate for up to 1 hour and then garnish with banana slices and serve. (Best to garnish with banana slices immediately before serving, but whipped cream can go on the pie up to 1 hour in advance.)
- Slice and serve. Cover leftovers and store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
If you prefer to not use gluten free flour, you can substitute all purpose flour using the same measurement.
If you don’t have a food processor you can make this dough by hand. Whisk the dry ingredients in a large bowl, then add the cold butter cubes. Using your fingers (or a pastry cutter), rub the butter into the flour mixture, toss and smashing it until it’s incorporated but you still see larger pea sized chunks. Drizzle in the apple cider vinegar and cold water, then toss with a fork until the dough comes together. From there you can turn it out onto a floured piece of parchment paper as indicated in the recipe.
This pie crust recipe makes enough for two pie crusts. Either divide the recipe in half to make one pie crust or freeze the spare crust and use at a later time.
