Banoffee pie

Banoffee pie
Pie
A slice of banoffee pie
Place of origin:
United Kingdom
Region or state:
Jevington, East Sussex
Creator(s):
The Hungry Monk
Main ingredient(s):
pastry base or crumbled biscuits, butter, bananas, cream, toffee
Recipes at Wikibooks:
Banoffee pie
Media at Wikimedia Commons:
Banoffee pie

Banoffee pie is an English dessert pie made from bananas, cream and toffee from boiled condensed milk (or dulce de leche), either on a pastry base or one made from crumbled biscuits and butter. Some versions of the recipe also include chocolate, coffee or both.

Its name is a portmanteau constructed from the words "banana" and "toffee".^[1]

History

Credit for the pie's invention is claimed by Ian Dowding and Nigel Mackenzie, the chef and owner respectively at The Hungry Monk restaurant in Jevington, East Sussex. They claim to have developed the dessert in 1972, having been inspired by an American dish known as "Blum's Coffee Toffee Pie", which consisted of smooth toffee topped with coffee-flavoured whipped cream. Dowding recalls having adapted the recipe to use instead the type of soft caramel toffee created by boiling a can of condensed milk, and he worked with Mackenzie to add a layer of bananas. They called the dish "Banoffi" and Dowding describes the dish as proving so popular with their customers that they "couldn't take it off" the menu.^[2]

The recipe was adopted by other restaurants, and Dowding had heard reports of its appearance on menus in Australia and America.^[2] In 1994, a number of supermarkets began selling it as an American pie, leading Nigel Mackenzie to offer a £10,000 prize to anyone who could disprove their claim by finding any published pre-1972 recipe for the pie. Mackenzie erected a blue plaque on the front of The Hungry Monk confirming it as the birthplace of the world's favourite pudding.^[3] The Hungry Monk was purchased in 1968 by Nigel Mackenzie and his wife, and was open for 44 years. It closed in January 2012 due to "increased running costs".^[4]

The recipe was published in The Deeper Secrets of the Hungry Monk in 1974, and reprinted in the later cookbook In Heaven with the Hungry Monk (1997). Ian Dowding has since posted his original recipe online because he is "pedantic about the correct version", and stated that his "pet hates are biscuit crumb bases and that horrible cream in aerosols".^[5]

The word "Banoffee" has entered the English language and is used to describe any food or product that tastes or smells of both banana and toffee.^[1] A recipe for the pie, using a biscuit crumb base, is often printed on tins of Nestlé's condensed milk. Outside of the United Kingdom, Banoffee pie is seen in budget and tourist towns around McLeod Ganj in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.^{[citation needed]}

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Banoffee pies.

Wikibooks Cookbook has a recipe/module on Banoffee Pie

• English cuisine

References

v t e British pies Sweet Apple pie Bakewell tart Banoffee pie Bedfordshire clanger Black bun Custard tart Manchester tart Mince pie Rhubarb pie Treacle tart Savoury Bacon and egg pie Bedfordshire clanger Bridie Butter pie Chicken and mushroom pie Corned beef pie Cornish pasty Cottage pie Cumberland pie Curry pie Devizes pie Fish pie Game pie Homity pie Killie pie Meat and potato pie Melton Mowbray pork pie Pork pie Scotch pie Shepherd's Pie Squab pie Stargazy pie Steak pie Steak and kidney pie Steak and oyster pie Woolton pie Manufacturers Clark's Pies Dickinson & Morris Fray Bentos Ginsters Higgidy Holland's Pies Mr Kipling Peter's Poole's Pork Farms Pukka Pies Shire Foods Square Pie Wall's Wrights Pies