Banana Cream Pie

Is there a better way to get one's daily supply of potassium than through a big helping of banana cream pie? Maybe, but why deprive yourself of the pleasure of this one? My wife's art colleague calls it the banana cream pie diet.

The first recipe I tried was from the Joy of Cooking, circa mid 20th century. It was simple enough but the filling was too thin and the pie ran when at room temperature. Also, a lot of cream pies not only call for cream in the filling but also the topping. My sweetie thought a meringue would be a nice touch. Always nice when someone is looking out for your belt size.

The next recipe I looked at was one by entertainer-disguised-as-chef, Emeril Lagasse. This dude really loves bananas. For a 9" pie he uses 9 bananas cut into ½" pieces. That's more potassium than most people get in a year. I do like the filling, however, which seems to be just about right.

So, it's modification time in the kitchen. We just finished the first pie... It was well received. Now on to the second recipe. This place is quickly becoming a local test kitchen but no one here seems to object.

For the pie dough: Oven @400°F. Chill ¼ cup of water by placing several ice cubes into a measuring cup and fill with water. Next weigh 6 ounces, about 1 cup, of all purpose flour and add it to your food processor. Add pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar. Take 3 ounces of butter, cut into ¼" to ½" slices and then quarter the slices. Place into the processor bowl and pulse 4 times. Do the same with 1 ounce of lard, place into the processor bowl and pulse 3 times. Add a couple of tablespoons of water and pulse 4-5 times. Dough should just start to come together. Add another tablespoon of water and run processor until dough comes together into a ball.

Remove from processor bowl onto a well-floured surface and roll to fit a 9" pie pan. Place into pie pan, cut a piece of parchment paper large enough to fit into the pie pan on top of the dough and come up the sides about 3 inches. Wax paper is a substitute. Spray the bottom of the paper with a food spray, place on top of dough and fill with a weight. I use dry beans... the same beans for the past 10 years. Bake for 35 minutes, remove from oven and remove the weight and paper. Save the weight for the next time. Make an egg wash with 1 egg and 1 tablespoon of water. Mix well and wash the pie dough with a pastry brush. Bake for 7 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

Click here or the title to get the filling. As I mentioned earlier this is adapted from Emeril's recipe from FoodTV. I use only 2 cups of heavy cream. You can use another 2 cups of heavy cream for the topping. Follow the instructions for the meringue in the recipe and sub the cream top. You can use 1 teaspoon of vanilla instead of the bean. Save the egg whites for a meringue top.