Want to give your dad a bow tie for Father's Day? Would your dad like a bow tie? Would one of these be his style?
Or is your dad more of a raspberry bow tie kind of guy?
Or are you more interested in thinking about the 4th of July? So would a flag pie appeal?
They are simply banana cream pies with some fresh berries for decoration. But ya know what? The berries were so MUCH more than only decoration and fun! They added a wonderful freshness...."summeriness"...to these banana creams. I never want to make a banana cream pie without berries again. I will, of course, for I make banana cream pies in other seasons, but if berries are in season, and I'm making banana cream, I plan to use berries - even if I don't make bow ties or flags. I might go wild and crazy and make a star the next time! (I'm just wild like that!)
Oh - I have to add one more thing before we get to how I made these. You may be worried about my taste testers - that I am ruining their health or making everyone fat by bringing in treats every Thursday. I heard just yesterday that one lady has lost 6 pounds since I started bringing in these treats. And I know of at least one other lady who has lost quite a bit of weight over this same time. And YES! These ARE ladies who indulge most every week! So I hope that means whatever I bring in is worth it...worth their indulgence....that a little of something that tastes really good is way better than a lot of something that just tastes ok. It's why I use real butter and real cream and real bacon and part of why I try to share what I bake with a lot of people. But only part of why I try to share what I bake with a lot of people. The main reason I try to share what I bake with a lot of people is because I love people, and I want them to feel loved. I can't sew like J and A or repair cars like K or do hair like S or edit video like S or...well, you get the point. But I can bake/cook. And hopefully share some love with a pie. Even a pie as simple and homey as banana cream.
Philosophical diversion now over. Soapbox has been put away. Back to making these!
Let's start with the pie crust. I had two separate people tell me that they were sure the pie crusts were from scratch, because they tasted so good. However that would not be the truth. These were pre-packaged pie crusts...the Aldi brand in fact. So there ya have it. I cheated.
And even though the crusts tasted really good, they didn't bake up so pretty...
Two things:
Not a perfect solution, but not an altogether bad one either!
And that now takes us to our pastry cream. This is Helen Fletcher's pastry cream recipe from over 25 years ago with only a couple of modifications. Could I have used a boxed pudding mix? Yes...but what's the fun in that? Especially since making pastry cream isn't hard and chances are good (with the possible exception of the unflavored gelatin) you have everything on hand to make this. Plus it doesn't take more than about 10 minutes to put together, and then it is chilling time. Ready?
It begins with 1 teaspoon of unflavored gelatin softened in 1 tablespoon of cold water.
I let that sit while I cooked the main body of the pastry cream.
Begin with warming 1 - 1/3 cups of milk in the microwave for about 1 minute.
Then measure:
4 egg yolks (see below for what I did with the egg whites or an option for the pastry cream that uses 2 whole eggs)
1/3 cup sugar
I beat these together with an electric mixer until thick and pale. This pic is the two just mixed together...
Getting thicker... and paler - but not yet pale enough.
Now!....thick and pale...almost white...so I added 3 tablespoons of flour...
...and mixed those in, then beat in the warmed milk on low speed.
Then I cooked this over medium high heat until thick and boiling. I boiled it for a full minute before finishing it off with the gelatin, 1 tablespoon of butter and some vanilla.
But wait! This wasn't just any vanilla! I found some of this vanilla bean paste at our local spice shop, so I used it!
Look at this stuff!
Pretty cool, huh? And watch what happened to the pastry cream when I mixed it in. See the flecks of vanilla bean?
Yummy goodness potential right there folks!
I poured up the hot cream into a separate bowl and placed that bowl over ice to cool quickly.
Now remember that note above about the egg whites? Since I had plans for the egg whites, I went ahead and made the pastry cream with just the egg yolks like Helen says. But I have also successfully made this pastry cream using 2 whole eggs instead of the 4 yolks. Is it an identical result? No, but it's still yummy!
But for this time, I wanted to beat the egg whites, turn the cream into more of a mousse and stretch the single recipe of pastry cream to fill 2 pies. So I beat the 4 egg whites on high speed with 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tarter, a splash of vanilla (regular) until soft peaks formed, and then beat in 8 tablespoons of sugar until stiff peaks formed.
I do love me a good stiff peak! Just something so beautiful and whimsical about a peak of meringue!
Now to lighten the pastry cream a bit before folding the two together I mixed a small portion of meringue into the pastry cream.
Mixed together...
...and then added that to the beaten egg whites ready to fold together.
And folded gently until I had a homogeneous, light, airy, fluffy vanilla pastry cream mousse!
So now comes the fun part, told best with pictures!
A layer of pastry cream on the bottom...
...followed by a layer of banana slices. (I used a total of 2 bananas per pie.)
Repeat both layers and then finish off with a layer of pastry cream, sealing in all of the bananas.
I let that sit in the fridge overnight to set everything up and thoroughly chill. G' night!
Good morning! I whipped some sweetened cream and spread a thin layer over each pie and put the rest in a pastry bag with a star tip. And brought out the beautiful raspberries and blueberries! I made the flag first, in part, because I had a seen this idea done before here. First the field of the flag...
..and then the stripes...
...finished off with whipped cream piped between the berries. Sa-lute!!!
Then I turned my attention to the Father's Day version. At first I was simply going to do concentric circles...
And then on a lark I thought, "what about a bow tie?" And so I took a stab at it...
Eh, not bad...
Even better once finished off with piped whipped cream between the circles. Fun!
And then on my way to work, I realized that I should have probably made the bow tie out of the rapsberries, so I made it the opposite way on this version for G (that has a vanilla wafer crust). Happy Father's Day, G!!
Either way, you can see how easy these are to make.
Oh! And you see that donation jar? That was an idea from a couple of my taste testers, so if anyone wants to they can drop a donation into the jar that I will give to Delta Gamma Center for Children with Visual Impairments, the wonderful team of individuals who gave B therapy when she was so little - and gave me a whole lot of hope at a time when I really needed it. All at no cost to our family. Cool idea, huh? And my wonderful taste testers have embraced it generously! I will keep you posted on what is collected!
So that closes out our Father's Day baking. I hope you have a wonderful Father's Day celebrating the dads in your life! And that maybe something from our baking features has inspired you to love on your dad with something special! Thanks for stopping by!
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