Banoffee Pie

I've posted several healthy recipes lately. Let's take a deep slide into sheer decadence! My friend Mark first introduced me to this dessert years ago and his is (and always will be) much better than mine. Still, I have to try. Trust me, this is one dessert every can agree on. Serve this and your guests will swoon. There are many ways to make the caramel toffee for this dish, including boiling unopened cans of sweetened condensed milk for hours. I’m too afraid of exploding toffee to do that, so I cook it in the oven (bonus: this cuts the time in half).

Ingredients:

Pie:
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
2 bananas

Crust:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup granulated sugar
6 Tablespoons butter, melted

Topping:

2 cups sweetened whipped cream
Chocolate shavings
Toasted almonds (optional)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Pour the sweetened condensed milk into a shallow glass baking dish. Cover it with foil and place it in a larger metal pan (like a 13x9 cake pan). Pour water in the larger pan until it comes about halfway up the sides of the condensed milk pan. Cook for 1 ½ hours, making sure there is always enough water in the larger pan. Remove from oven and let cool.

Raise the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Mix the graham crumbs, sugar and melted butter together. Press into a 9 inch pie plate and bake for 12 minutes. Remove and allow to cool.

Pour the condensed milk caramel into the cooled crust. Slice the bananas on top of the caramel. Place in the fridge until just before serving. Then, top with whipped cream, chocolate shavings and toasted almonds (if using).