Chaos Kitchen Creations: Banana Cream Pie

For Tod's birthday, Anna makes and documents his favorite cake: banana cream pie. (It's a birthday cake, so the pie is a cake.) What's your favorite birthday food?

This week has been an up and down ride. I have been getting into the groove at work, but that has resulted in other items sliding and slipping from my mind. Also, we figured out that I have to put down my phone, work, and all electronic items (even reading or listening to audiobooks) at least 1 hour before we go to bed… Otherwise, I don’t sleep. Like at all. Okay, maybe a little, like 4 hours a night.

So, the phone habit is pretty hard to kick and means lots of little changes and being more “out of touch” with people, but it does appear to be heathier. Other than that, we also tried a new exercise class called aerial. I am surprised how much I enjoyed it, but then I guess I always liked heights. Plus, hanging from a rope when I am at rope’s end just makes a lot of sense.

As for the recipe, this week is the “birthday cake” Banana Cream Pie that I made for Tod this weekend.

This week’s blog is brought to you by the color yellow!

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Crust Recipe:

Ingredients

• 2 eggs

• 1/2 cup of rice flour

• 1/2 cup of potato starch

• 1/4 teaspoon of salt

• 2 Tablespoons of maple syrup

• 1/2 cup of ghee

• 2 teaspoons of cold water

• 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar

Prepare the Dry Ingredients

In a large mixing bowl, combine the following ingredients: rice flour, potato starch, and salt.

Mix these dry ingredients thoroughly to ensure even distribution.

Add Wet Ingredients

Next, add the remaining ingredients to the bowl: eggs, maple syrup, ghee, cold water and apple cider vinegar.

Combine Ingredients

Using a fork or your hands, mix the ingredients until they form a cohesive dough. The mixture should be slightly sticky but manageable. If it's too dry, add a tiny bit more cold water.

Press into Pie Dish

Transfer the dough into a pie dish. Using your fingers or a spatula, press the dough evenly across the bottom and up the sides of the dish. Aim for an even thickness throughout… I usually don’t manage but you might!

Pre-Bake the Crust

Preheat your oven to 375°F (190°C). Once preheated, place the pie crust in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes. Keep an eye on it; you want it to turn a nice golden brown color without burning. I tend to set a time and just pull it out at once it goes off, but checking the color is always a nice touch.

Cool and Use

Once baked, remove the crust from the oven and let it cool completely before adding your desired filling. This will help maintain its structure and prevent sogginess. You basically don’t want it to be too warm or it will more easily absorb the filling.

Filling Recipe:

Ingredients

• 4 egg yolks

• 1/3 cup of potato starch

• 2 cups of heavy cream

• 2/3 cup of maple syrup

• 2 teaspoons of butter

• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

• 1 teaspoon of vanilla powder

• 4 large firm bananas, sliced

Prepare Banana Layer

• Slice 4 large firm bananas

• Layer the banana slices evenly on the pre-baked pie crust

Make the Custard Base

1. In a saucepan, combine: heavy cream, maple syrup, ghee, vanilla extract, vanilla powder.

2. Heat the mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly

Temper the Egg Yolks

1. In a separate bowl, whisk egg yolks with potato starch

2. Gradually add hot cream mixture to egg yolks, whisking continuously to prevent scrambling

3. This process is called "tempering" and prevents the eggs from cooking too quickly

Thicken the Custard

1. Return the tempered mixture to the saucepan

2. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly

3. Continue cooking until the mixture thickens (about 3 minutes).

I noticed that this thickens way faster than other types I have worked with before…

Finish the Filling

1. Once the custard is thick, remove from heat

2. Pour the hot custard evenly over the banana-lined crust

3. Let cool and set for about 30 minutes.

4. Refrigerate for about 2 to 4 hours before serving. (I actually like putting it in the freezer, but I am impatient.)

Serve

We like to add whipped cream to the top you can make your own or cheat and buy some. We cheated this weekend because I was going to make a meringue topping and messed it up.

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How does this relate to our writing?

Cooking is a major part some our universes and stories, so learning how quickly things work, what is most likely to go wrong, and what changes when you change between ingredients is really important. I like to understand how to make it work first, before I mess with the recipe too much.

Cooking without gluten can be a challenge and cooking without eggs is usually even harder. So much more difficult, I have struggled to replace the eggs in a lot of our custard-like recipes. Knowing this makes it easier to write a chef, and easier still to write a chef that is going to have learn really odd and restrictive cooking requirements for different “noble” diets.

The rose has nothing to do with the recipe. I just thought it was pretty and matched the rest of the blog...

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Chaos Tip of the Week

Never try to get your cats to carry eggs. They are not a breakfast delivery service. Just ask them.

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Critter’s Weekly Question

What is your favorite birthday food, that you only have for your birthday?