Post by Mark on Jul 30, 2017 2:00:36 GMT
Adapted from ourbestbites.com
A chocolate crust smothered in dulce de leche, topped with toffee, banana slices, creamy brown sugar whipped cream cheese and more toffee. A trifle decadent perhaps, but aren't you worth it?*Note: I use the Heath brand of chocolate covered toffee bits. If you can’t find chocolate covered, chop up regular-sized Heath bars. Make sure the cream cheese is at room temperature, otherwise, the topping may be prone to little lumps of cream cheese.
Serves 8
Ingredients
Crust
- 24 chocolate sandwich cookies (like Oreos or Trader Joe’s Joe-Joe’s)
- 5 tablespoons butter, softened
Pie
- 20 ounces dulce de leche (1 1/2 cans) or make your own]* (see below)
- 2 bananas
- 1 cup chocolate covered toffee bits
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 8 ounces light or regular cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
Directions
- Add the cookies and butter to a blender or food processor and process until well combined.
Press the mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch pie plate. Refrigerate or freeze
until set (this makes it easier to spread the dulce de leche over the crust). Spread the dulce
de leche over the bottom and up the sides of the chilled crust. - In a medium bowl, combine the powdered sugar, brown sugar and cream cheese. Whip with a
handheld or electric stand mixer until smooth and fluffy. Add the heavy whipping cream and
starting at the lowest speed (to avoid splatters), mix until combined. Increase the mixer speed
to medium and mix until the mixture is light and creamy and is the consistency of spreadable, thick frosting. - Slice the bananas about 1/4-inch thick and layer the slices over the dulce de leche in the crust.
Sprinkle about 1/2 cup toffee bits over the bananas. Spread the whipped cream filling over the bananas and
toffee, making sure to spread all the way to the edges of the pie, covering the bananas completely so they
don’t brown. Sprinkle the top of the pie with the remaining toffee bits. Chill for 1-2 hours before serving
and up to 8 hours (longer than that and the bananas may get a little brown and mushy).
*Dulce de Leche
*Note: Don’t shorten the slow cooker time by setting the temperature too HIGH. Doing that resuls in a very burnt, disgusting mess. Also, slow cookers vary in temperature so you’ll have to experiment a little with the actual time you cook your dulce de leche. Mine was perfect after exactly 8 1/2 hours but it might take up to 10 or as short as 8 to achieve the perfect dulce de leche.
*Makes 1 1/2 cups
Ingredients
- 2 (14-ounces each) cans sweetened condensed milk
- 1-2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract or vanilla paste, optional
- 3 (1/2 pint each) canning jars with lids and rings
- Water
Directions
- Open the cans of sweetened condensed milk and portion them equally into the three canning jars. Wipe the tops and sides of the canning jars, if needed, in case any of the sweetened condensed milk spilled down the sides.
- Place a lid and ring on the canning jar and screw tightly to seal.
- Put the three canning jars in a slow cooker and cover with water by one inch. It doesn’t matter whether the jars are laying on their side or standing up straight – do what works best for the size of slow cooker you have.
- Place the lid on the slow cooker and set to low for 8-9 hours, until the dulce de leche is deep golden brown.
- Carefully remove the jars from the hot water and let them cool.
- If desired, open the jars and stir in 1/2 – 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract into each jar
- Replace the lids and rings and store in the refrigerator.
Supposedly it keeps in the refrigerator for up to a month – good luck on that one!
The dulce de leche can be warmed up on low heat in the microwave or on the stovetop in a pan of water to be drizzled over ice cream, used as dip for apples, spread over crepes, for the Banoffee Pie above, etc.