Banoffee pie

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Banoffee pie
Banoffeepie.jpg
A slice of banoffee pie served with ice cream
Type Pie
Place of originUnited Kingdom
Region or state Jevington, East Sussex, England
Created byNigel Mackenzie and Ian Dowding
Main ingredientsPastry base or crumbled biscuits, butter, bananas, cream, toffee

Banoffee pie is a British dessert pie made from bananas, whipped cream, and a thick caramel sauce (made from boiled condensed milk or milk jam), combined either on a buttery biscuit base or one made from crumbled biscuits and butter. [1] Some versions of the recipe include chocolate, coffee, or both.

Contents

The dessert's name, sometimes spelled "banoffi", is a portmanteau combining the words banana and toffee. [2]

History

Credit for the pie's invention is claimed by Nigel Mackenzie and Ian Dowding, [3] the owner and chef respectively of the former Hungry Monk Restaurant in Jevington, East Sussex, England. [4] They claim to have created the dessert in 1971, [5] basing it on a San Francisco recipe for "Blum's Coffee Toffee Pie", [6] </ref> which used milk jam, a soft toffee made by boiling an unopened can of condensed milk for several hours. Mackenzie and Dowding found they were unable to perfect the recipe consistently, [7] and after trying various changes including the addition of apple or mandarin orange, Mackenzie suggested banana and Dowding later said that "straight away we knew we had got it right". Mackenzie suggested the name "Banoffi Pie", and the dish proved so popular with their customers that they "couldn't take it off" the menu. [8]

The recipe was published in The Deeper Secrets of the Hungry Monk in 1974, and reprinted in the 1997 cookbook In Heaven with The Hungry Monk. Similar recipes were adopted by other restaurants throughout the world. [8] In 1984, several supermarkets began selling it as an American pie, leading Mackenzie to offer a £10,000 prize to anyone who could disprove their claim to be the English inventors. [9] Dowding stated that his "pet hates are biscuit crumb bases and that horrible cream in aerosols". [10] It was Margaret Thatcher's favourite food to cook. [11]

The word banoffee entered the English language, used to describe any food or product that tastes or smells of both banana and toffee. [2] A recipe for the pie, using a biscuit crumb base, is often printed on tins of Nestlé's condensed milk, though that recipe calls for the contents of the tin to be boiled with additional butter and sugar, instead of boiling the unopened tin. This is presumably for safety reasons, as tins of condensed milk bear the warning: "Caution - Do not boil unopened can as bursting may occur." [12]

See also

References

  1. ↑ NewsLifeMedia. "Banoffee Pies Recipe" . Retrieved 7 January 2017.
  2. 1 2 "banoffee" – via The Free Dictionary.
  3. ↑ Dowding, Ian. "The Completely True and Utter Story of Banoffi Pie". Ian Dowding. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
  4. ↑ "The joys of jam roly-poly, a very British pudding". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 February 2018
  5. ↑ Dowding, Ian. "Consultant chef, writer and the inventor of Banoffi Pie". Ian Dowding. Archived from the original on 25 September 2022. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
  6. ↑ Fritsche, Sarah (27 February 2018). "Recipe: Blum's Coffee Crunch Cake". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 7 December 2022.Boutell, Kendra (1 October 2017). "A Brief History of the Coffee Crunch Cake". Nob Hill Gazette . Archived from the original on 7 December 2022. Retrieved 7 December 2022.Braker, Flo (8 October 1997). "THE BAKER -- Blum's Is Gone But Not Forgotten". SFGATE . Retrieved 7 December 2022. "Banoffi Pie : Nigel MacKenzie and Ian Dowding 1972". Made up in Britain. Retrieved 7 December 2022. "Banoffee Pie". Great British Puddings. Retrieved 7 December 2022. "Valerie Gordon celebrates 20 years of the sweet life, and she's just getting started". Los Angeles Times. 2 August 2024. Retrieved 19 February 2025. Her Blum's coffee crunch cake and petit fours are sold nationwide.
  7. ↑ "Everything you need to know about banoffee pie - from its creator". Great British Life. 27 April 2021. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
  8. 1 2 "The Completely True and Utter Story of Banoffi Pie". Ian Dowding. Retrieved 21 June 2009.
  9. ↑ "Daily Telegraph article about Banoffee Pie reward". Banoffee.co.uk. 5 May 1994. Archived from the original on 20 June 2009. Retrieved 21 June 2009.
  10. ↑ Cloake, Felicity (26 June 2013). "How to make the perfect banoffee pie". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 December 2014.
  11. ↑ The Celebrity Cookbook: Kitchen Secrets of the Rich and Famous; Brooks, Marla (1993)
  12. ↑ "Nestlé Carnation Sweetened Condensed Milk". Amazon UK.
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