spice Archives - Cakeophilia

Over the summer holidays I took some time to plunder my mother’s personal recipe book. It’s full of spidery handwritten recipes, most of which are all-time family favourites. It’s a bit of a skill to read mum’s writing, but the squinting is always worth it.

One of the recipes I found harks back to my early childhood: Banana Butter. This is a sweet, buttery, bananary spread that I used to have on bread or toast. I probably haven’t eaten it since the 80’s, but when I saw the recipe, I immediately knew that it would make a great filling for a Banana Meringue Pie.

I have a whole suite of different recipes for meringue pies, including lemon, strawberry, blueberry and raspberry, so I’m super happy to introduce the newest kid on the block. It kind of reminds me of a version of banana cream pie I had once at Le Bon Ton in Melbourne, which was creme patisserie, banana and meringue. Only it’s better.

A batch of banana butter, some lemon shortcrust pastry, and a cinnamonny swiss meringue topping makes for a wonderful dessert treat with a comfort-food quality that really has to be tried – more than once. I’m sure Banana Meringue Pie would be equally good in hot or cool weather, and its perfect for the banana fiends in your life.

I would go so far to say that probably even non-banana fiends would come back for more.

Banana Meringue Pie

serves 10

Lemon shortcrust pastry

ingredients

95g butter, cubed

1 cup flour
1 tbsp icing sugar
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp iced water

mixing

In a mixing bowl of a stand mixer or a food processor, mix or process the butter and flour and icing sugar until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the lemon juice and half of the iced water and mix or process until clumps of pastry start to form. If necessary, add the rest of the water. Mix or process only until the mixture starts to clump together. After that, use your hands to press the mixture into a ball, flatten the ball and wrap in cling wrap. Try not to over mix or over handle the pastry because this will lead to it being tough. Let the pastry rest in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

Roll the pastry out on a lightly floured surface to about 3 mm thick in a long rectangle to fit into a 10x35cm flan tin. Line the tin with the pastry, trimming the edges. Prick the base extremely well.

Bake the pastry at 180 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes or until golden. Let cool.

Spread the Banana Butter into the pastry case. Load the meringue into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle. Pipe peaks of meringue onto the tart. Using a blowtorch, carefully toast the meringue.

Banana Butter

ingredients

2 bananas, mashed
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
50g butter
2 tbsp lemon juice

mixing

Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan. Cook over a low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens. Continue cooking until the mixture is sufficiently thick that when a spatula is scraped across the bottom of the saucepan, you can see the track on the bottom of the saucepan and the mixture takes a moment to flow back. Let the Banana Butter cool.

Cinnamon Swiss Meringue

ingredients

100g sugar

80g (2 large) egg white

pinch vanilla powder

pinch salt
1 tsp cinnamon

mixing

Place the egg white and sugar in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Whisk the mixture over the heat using a wire whisk until the mixture reaches 55°C. The mixture will foam slightly during the heating phase but will not take on the appearance of beaten egg whites. When the mixture reaches 55°, transfer the mixture to a bowl, add the vanilla powder salt and cinnamon and beat the mixture on high speed until it has cooled to room temperature. During this time, a marshmallowy meringue will form.

Enjoy!xxx

spice

Banana Meringue Pie