National Banana Cream Pie Day: Chocolate Banana Cream Pie

Another day, another food holiday! Tomorrow (March 2) is National Banana Cream Pie Day, and I thought a Double Chocolate Banana Cream Pie would be a great way of celebrating.

This is a pretty easy recipe and uses natural ingredients. Don't forget to skim down to an easier Rachel Ray recipe. My recipe uses a chocolate wafer crust, so it's doubly chocolate.

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE BANANA CREAM PIE

CHOCOLATE CRUMB CRUST:

2 c. chocolate wafer crumbs (whirl a bunch of chocolate wafer cookies in the blender)
2 tbsp. granulated sugar
2 tbsp. melted sweet butter

BANANA CREAM FILLING:
3/4 cup  dark chocolate broken into small chunks
1 pt. heavy cream
1/4 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla (Madagascar, if you have it)
2 eggs
4 tbsp. butter
2 bananas

For crust:
Combine crumbs, sugar and melted butter. Press into a 9-inch pie pan, evenly coating bottom and sides of pie pan. Chill at least 10 minutes.

For filling:
Whip heavy cream with vanilla and powdered sugar until thick and creamy. Refrigerate.
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
In saucepan, melt 1/2 cup broken chocolate pieces over low heat.
Remove from heat and whip in 1 cup of the whipped topping you previously made and refrigerated.
Beat eggs and add to mixture.
Pour into pie shell and bake for 30 minutes.
Cool 15 minutes.
Slice bananas (cut in 1/4 inch pieces) and layer on pie.
Top with the remaining whipped cream mixture.
You can add the remaining chocolate and banana slices on top for decoration...or not.
Chill

TIP: To prevent a skin forming on the filling as it cools, be sure to cover it with saran wrap.

Want to make something even easier? 

Rachel Ray has a quick and easy Chocolate Banana Cream Pie

Ingredients

1 frozen pie shell, pricked several times with tines of a fork
1 package instant chocolate pudding, prepared to package directions
 2 ripe bananas, sliced thin on an angle
1 can spray whipped cream
1 dark chocolate candy bar

Pre-heat oven to 425ºF.

Bake pie shell 10-12 minutes, until golden. Remove from oven and let cool.

Line the baked and cooled pie shell with a layer of chocolate pudding, about half of the prepared amount. Add a layer of bananas. Top with remaining prepared instant chocolate pudding and remaining bananas. Cover the top with a giant swirl of whip cream from the spray can, starting at the center and working out. Shave a chocolate bar with a vegetable peeler and top pie with shavings. Serve immediately.

Your choice: The first recipe takes a little longer and you'll be sure of the quality of the ingredients, but the other is as Easy as Pie!

Photo: Food Network.