The Key To A Simple Banoffee Cake Is Pre-Made Caramel

Classic banoffee pie pairs banana and toffee inside a graham cracker crust. Mashed Recipe Developer Susan Olayinka contends, however, that caramel makes a better filling for this pie than toffee, and the proof is in her recipe for the best banoffee pie.

Toffee and caramel look similar and have comparable flavor profiles, but that's about all they have in common. Caramel is made from white sugar and is often combined with butter and cream, whereas toffee contains brown sugar and butter. Toffee, once it's cooked, has a crunchy texture.

Even the most practiced chef may feel daunted at the prospect of making caramel, as it requires constant supervision and can quickly go awry. The process involves melting sugar into a syrup, then adding butter and sugar to the pot to create a bubbly, scalding-hot concoction. Caramel may turn out grainy or scorched if you make even the smallest misstep. Luckily, Olayinka doesn't prescribe a homemade caramel sauce for this pie. Store-bought will save you time and provide equally delicious results.

Olayinka strays from the custom of using toffee as the bottom layer in her banoffee pie recipe. She says, " ... caramel, it's just whole milk and sugar, but toffee is sugar and butter. So we want caramel." And, even better, you don't have to make it yourself. Store-bought works just fine, and you'll want to find a brand that contains only whole milk and sugar—Nestle Carnation Caramel is preferred.

The rest of this pie is just as simple as the aforementioned caramel swap. Begin with a graham cracker crust; once that's baked, create a bottom layer of caramel sauce in the crust, then top that layer with banana slices. You can follow that with a big dollop of whipped cream and finish it off with chocolate shavings.

After chilling the pie for at least two hours, you'll have a decadent, caramel banoffee pie. You can even use this same method to make a banoffee cupcake recipe.