Wednesday 23 November 2011

Banoffee Meringue Pie with Buttery Biscuit Bass

Ah yeah... it's business time.

It's been a while since I made a pudding.  Truth be told I don't make them much and I have quite a limited repertoire as a result.  Today, however, I had some bananas lying around that needed to be used up.  This is easily the most calorific recipe I've ever made and I'm sure Greg Wallace would love it, but you have to do these things now and then!  It will serve about six greedy people.

Ingredients:
  • 3 x ripe bananas
  • 1 x tin condensed milk
  • 200g digestive biscuits
  • 100g butter
  • 3 x large egg whites
  • 100g caster sugar
Method:

1) Put your tin of condensed milk in a deep saucepan, cover it with water and boil it for two hours.  Feel free to make this in advance - you could even make lots of it in one go so you could eat caramel every day (it would make a very nice ice cream sauce, for example).  Go and do something else while you wait, but make sure the tin stays submerged or it will explode like a Murdoch empire hacking scandal.  When it's done, it will have magically turned into caramel.  Turn it out into a bowl and let it cool a bit.










2) Meanwhile, back at the ranch... make your Buttery Biscuit Bass.  Melt the butter in a saucepan on a very low heat.  Put your biscuits in a sandwich bag and wrap again with a tea towel.  Now for the fun bit: stick on Amon Amarth's "With Oden On Our Side" album, grab a rolling pin and go medieval on those biscuits.  When they're battered into oblivion, mix them with the melted butter, spread the mixture in a pie tin and leave it to cool.



3) Pre-heat your oven to 150 degrees.  Pour your caramel onto the base and arrange slices of banana on top.  Make a meringue mix by blitzing the egg whites with an electric whisk until it forms soft peaks, then add the sugar bit by bit, blitzing the whole time, until it forms stiff peaks and it won't fall out of the bowl if you hold it upside down.  Spread this mixture on top of the pie and make little whippy peak things with a fork, then put it in the oven for 45 minutes.