Not my best food pic. This banoffee pie was sliced and devoured so quickly, my photo shoot plans didn’t stand a chance.

I love this pie for two reasons. 1. Banana 2. Caramel. But I always felt that chocolate should also get the place it deserves. So I added a hidden layer of chocolate ganache over the biscuit base and suddenly, OMG! This pie deserved the “ultimate” word in the title.

As for the caramel layer I wanted to make it more like a mousse than a layer of plain caramel spread. Not that there’s something wrong with plain caramel, but mixing it with a some whipped cream will make it lighter and less sweet. I added a tiny amount of gelatine to stabilize so that you can slice it to perfect pieces without having to worry about the caramel becoming runny.

Promise to replace these photos really soon. After all what better excuse to make this again and again.

Ingredients:

• 1 X 400g can sweetened condensed milk
• 250g “digestive” biscuits
• 80g unsalted butter, melted
• 180g semisweet chocolate
• 3 ½ cups whipping cream
• 1 tsp unflavored gelatin
• 3 large bananas
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• ½ cup icing sugar

Method:

Put the can of condensed milk, unopened, in a saucepan and cover completely with water. Bring to boil and simmer for three hours, checking the water every now and then, to make sure the tin is submerged in water otherwise it could explode. The condensed milk will turn into creamy caramel. You can do this a day in advance and keep caramel in the fridge until needed. It’s best to take it out of the tin and into a container with lid. You may need to heat it slightly to loosen the caramel before using.

Base: Preheat oven 175 C. Line the base of a 23cm (9 inch) round spring-form cake tin with greaseproof paper.

Crush the biscuits in a food processor and put in a bowl. Melt the butter and mix with the biscuits until evenly distributed. Press mixture in prepared cake pan coming up 2 cm up the sides (use a flat based glass for ease). Bake base for ten minutes. Remove from oven and let it cool.

Chocolate layer: Chop the chocolate and put in a heatproof bowl. Heat 200 ml of the cream over medium heat just before boiling point. Pour hot cream over chocolate. Let mixture stand a few minutes until chocolate melts. Stir until smooth. Pour ganache over the biscuit base. Transfer in the fridge to set the ganache (yes, I can see my reflection).

Caramel layer: In a small saucepan, sprinkle the gelatine over 2 tablespoons of water and let it stand a couple of minutes. Transfer saucepan over low heat and stir constantly until gelatine dissolves. Add ¼ cup cream to the gelatine mixture and keep stirring over the heat until mixture is smooth. Set aside for a minute.

In a bowl beat ½ cup of cream with a handheld mixer. When cream just begins to thicken, pour in the gelatin mixture, in a steady stream, while beating constantly. Continue beating until cream is fluffy and thick.

Fold cream into caramel mixture. If caramel is too stiff, heat it slightly to loosen before mixing. Stir mixture until smooth. Pour caramel mixture over the ganache. Transfer in the fridge to set.

Banana and cream layer: Slice the bananas and mix with the lemon juice. Place the slices over the caramel in any manner you prefer. I like them to overlap a little bit.

Beat the remaining 2 cups of cream with the icing sugar and vanilla until thickened and fluffy. Spread the whipped cream over the bananas. Decorate with grated chocolate.

You can serve this at once but it’s best eaten after a few hours in the fridge. Divine!