Banana Cream Pie

This classic Banana Cream Pie has a sweet pastry crust filled with a silky, smooth, lightened vanilla pastry cream tossed with ripe bananas and topped with a generous amount of whipped cream! It is layered with flavors and perfect for your next barbecue, dinner party or potluck.

Truth be told, I only understood the hype behind banana cream pie once we made it in culinary school. The ones I had tried were made with pudding and were just a miss for me. I suppose it is just like carrot cake. I just needed to try the right one! 

I prefer to use my sweet pie dough recipe (pâte sûcrée) for banana cream pie, but you can use any of our pie crust recipes. Try a flaky all-butter pie crust, crisco pie crust, or a no bake graham cracker crust for another added layer of flavor. And if there are more perfectly ripened bananas that you don’t want to waste, try my banana pudding or, for a healthier snack, peanut butter banana energy bites!

Professional Tips for Making Homemade Custard Filling

• Slice the bananas right before adding them to the filling. No one wants brown bananas, and slicing them right before adding them to the filling will give them less time to oxidize and turn brown. To keep them from turning brown, they can also be tossed in a little bit of lemon juice. 
• Be sure to cook the pastry cream fully. Once the custard starts to boil, set a timer for one minute. This will ensure that not only is the cornstarch flavor and mouthfeel cooked out, but it has been fully activated, and enough of the excess liquid has cooked out to ensure a sturdy filling for the pie. 
• Make a double batch of the pastry cream. This small batch of pastry cream can be challenging to keep smooth. It cooks faster and is harder to get in the corners of the pot. Plus then you don’t have to use half an egg! With the extra pastry cream, you can make a fresh fruit tart, a maple pumpkin trifle, or another pie!

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Ingredients

• Whole Milk: Milk is the liquid for the pastry cream base. The fat adds flavor but isn’t necessary like in other recipes. Feel free to use your favorite alternative milk. 
• Vanilla Bean: Vanilla Beans are one of the most expensive ingredients in pastry, but they have an unmatched flavor. Scrape out the seeds to use now, and save the pods for anglaise or infusing ice creams and other stirred custards. You could also use 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract instead. 
• Granulated Sugar: Sugar is here to add sweetness, help protect the milk when heated, and protect the eggs when tempering with the hot milk.  
• Egg: The egg in the pastry cream is integral to thickening the custard. Whisking it first with the sugar protects it from the heat. I use a combination of whole eggs and egg yolks like in my vanilla crème brûlée for the perfect vanilla flavor. 
• Egg Yolk: Egg yolks in a stirred custard are also thickeners like whole eggs, but they add more fat than entire eggs without the added moisture from the whites. This makes a thick, rich custard. Too many yolks will make the pastry cream taste “eggy.”
• Cornstarch: Cornstarch is a thickener like eggs, and it helps bind all the ingredients together when cooked.
• Heavy Cream: Using unsweetened heavy cream to make the crème légère and for the whipped topping will keep the dessert from being overly sweet. If you prefer a little more sweetness, feel free to lightly sweeten the whipped cream for the topping with a little bit of confectioner’s sugar. 
• Rum: The rum is optional; it won’t bake out since it is added before making the crème légère. The rum compliments the bananas and the vanilla bean to give this pie a flavor that will have everyone asking for the recipe! 
• Bananas: Bananas are the flavor here! If you are a planner, you can buy bananas a few days before making this dessert. Ripe bananas will give the pie the most fresh and bright banana flavor! Choose perfectly yellow bananas for the best texture and flavor and save the overly ripe bananas for Nutella banana bread, vegan chocolate chip banana bread, or peanut butter banana muffins. 
• Pâte Sucrée: Pâte Sucrée is my preferred crust for banana cream pie. It is slightly sweetened and brings the dessert together perfectly. An all-butter pie crust, vodka pie crust, or Crisco pie crust would also work well with it.

See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.

Variations

• Butterscotch, caramel, or chocolate! Elevate the banana cream pie with any of my pudding recipes! To make it extra sliceable, you may want to add a little more cornstarch to the puddings before cooking! Try caramel pudding, chocolate pudding or butterscotch pudding! You could also use my caramel pastry cream recipe for a caramel variation that is thicker than pudding. The choco-banana combo is heavenly, as you know well from my banana brownies!
• Use homemade pudding instead of pastry cream. If you are more comfortable with pudding, you can make my vanilla pudding recipe instead or even the pudding from my banana pudding recipe.
• Add a layer to the pie. Layer caramel sauce, hot fudge sauce, or butterscotch sauce on the bottom of the par-baked pie crust for added flavor and a beautiful-looking slice! If you’re feeling extra, add a thin layer of almond cream to the bottom of the crust before baking! 
• Mini Banana Cream Pie Cups. Layer the creme legere with sliced bananas and whipped cream. Use my chocolate tart as inspiration! Bake the pie crust in strips sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and serve on the side to dip! You can also make some lace cookies or pizzelles for a fun cookie twist.

How to Make Classic Banana Cream Pie

Use these instructions to make a silky smooth banana cream pie every time! Further details and measurements can be found in the recipe card below.

Make the Pastry Cream:

Step 1: Add the milk and sugar to a medium saucepan. Then, split and scrape the seed from half a vanilla bean. Add the seeds to the milk mixture and whisk together. Heat the mixture on medium heat until it boils.

Step 2: While the milk is coming to a boil, whisk together the egg and egg yolks. Then Blanchir the eggs with cornstarch. This means whisking the cornstarch and eggs together to lighten them and gives them more protection from the hot milk. 

Step 3: Once the milk has come to a boil, it’s time to temper it into the blanchired eggs. Slowly pour the hot milk mixture into the eggs while you continue to whisk. I prefer to pour all the milk into the eggs to ensure they are fully tempered. 

Step 4: Pour the mixture back into the pot. Continue to cook on medium-low heat and whisk, ensuring you touch the bottom of the pan at all times and scraping the edges to prevent burning and clumping. 

Step 5: Cook the pastry cream until it has thickened and starts to boil. Once it starts to boil, set a timer or watch the clock for 1 minute and continue to whisk. It needs to boil for one minute to activate the cornstarch properly and to cook out the starch flavor and mouthfeel. 

Step 6: Pour the pastry cream onto a plastic-lined sheet tray or baking dish. Cover with plastic wrap, poke a few holes, and cool completely in the refrigerator. 

Prepare the Crust: 

Step 7: On a lightly floured surface, roll the pie crust out to about a ⅛  inch thick. Allow to chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. And preheat the oven to 350°F. You can also use a store-bought pie crust and blind bake it or purchase a baked graham cracker crust for a super easy option. . 

Step 8: Once cooled, gently place the crust in the pie dish and fit the dough to be flush with the bottom and sides of the dish. There will be an overhang from the dough. 

Step 9: Trim the overhanging dough, leaving about an inch to roll under tightly. This can be done with kitchen scissors or a sharp paring knife. Be sure to roll the dough tightly to avoid the crust from unrolling during the baking process. For extra insurance, crimp or flute the edges with a fork or your fingers. Chill again until firm. 

Step 10: With a fork, dock the dough all around the base of the bottom. Line with parchment paper and fill with pie weights, dried beans or rice. Bake in a preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. Check that the crust has browned on the bottom and is completely matte. Then remove the parchment and weights, continue to bake for another 8-12 minutes until the bottom and edges have turned golden brown. Allow to cool completely before filling. You can see step by step instructions for how to blind bake pie crust in this post and read more about when to dock pie crust in this post. 

Assemble the Pie: 

Step 11: Whip the heavy cream for the filling to medium peaks. When the whisk is removed and held straight up, the cream should fold over itself slightly. I like to whip both the cream for the filling and topping simultaneously, which means you will need a kitchen scale to divide it—160 g for the filling and 238g for the topping.

Step 12: To refresh or condition the pastry cream, place it in a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. This can also be done by hand. Beat the pastry cream on medium-high speed until smooth. Then, turn the mixer down and beat in the rum. 

Step 13: Slice the bananas in ¼ inch slices. They can be cut into smaller pieces if you prefer. Take a small amount of the whipped cream for the filling and fold it into the pastry cream. This small amount of cream will further loosen the pastry cream to make it easier to fold in the remaining cream. This is called “sacrificing” because you sacrifice the air in a small amount of the whipped cream by folding it in aggressively. 

Step 14: Fold in the remaining cream in increments. Once the cream is almost completely folded, fold in the sliced bananas. Then, pour the filling into the cooled pie crust and smooth out. 

Step 15: Top the filling with the remaining whipped cream. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours to overnight. This allows the filling to set, making for a beautiful sliceable pie. 

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Before You Go

I hope you enjoyed this professional chef tested recipe. Check out our other delicious, chef-developed pie recipes, or head straight to our easy key lime pie first! You could also keep going bananas with some banana cake!